English (United Kingdom)

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/featured_content/oa?rat=en

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/highlighted_journal/

Zendy Plus

Presents the access of premium content as premium feature

Premium Content

Presents the keyphrase highlighting as premium feature

Keyphrase Highlighting

Presents the summarisation as premium feature

Summarisation

Insights

Presents the pdf analysis as premium feature

PDF Analysis

Presents the zaia usage as premium feature

ZAIA

Zendy Tools

Zendy Open

-Black Skimmers (Rynchops niger) have undergone an extended population decline over much of their range, including the coast of Virginia, USA, where the population has decreased by 80% in the last two decades. A combination of starvation, flooding, predation and human disturbance has been cited as the cause of low reproductive success. This study tested the hypothesis that, at a colony on an artificial island in the James River, Hampton County, VA, a shortage of food was responsible for the chronically low success of breeding skimmers at a site protected from flooding, predation or human disturbance. Parents that fed more fledged a higher proportion of nestlings, suggesting a relationship between food and chick survival. Abundance of one of the two primary prey species underwent a regional decline during the skimmer breeding season, and both primary prey species began seasonal declines before most skimmer chicks had fledged. Both of these fish species have also undergone long-term declines in the region and their annual abundance has been closely correlated with regional skimmer numbers. Mortality of eggs was low (30%) while mortality of chicks was high (70%), and nestling growth rate and size at fledging appeared to be lower at this site than published data would indicate was the case at other sites, all consistent with the hypothesis that starvation was occurring. Finally, first-hatched chicks were more likely to survive than were their siblings, consistent with starvation as a primary cause of death. Received 13 September 1999, resubmitted 21January 2000, accepted 21 January 2000

Low Reproductive Success of Black Skimmers Associated with Low Food Availability