干旱区生态环境知识资源中心(Arid): The Large Communal Nests of Sociable Weavers Provide Year-Round Insulated Refuge for Weavers and Pygmy Falcons

Arid

DOI	10.3389/fevo.2020.570006
	The Large Communal Nests of Sociable Weavers Provide Year-Round Insulated Refuge for Weavers and Pygmy Falcons
	Lowney, Anthony M.; Bolopo, Diana; Krochuk, Billi A.; Thomson, Robert L.
通讯作者	Lowney, AM
来源期刊	FRONTIERS IN ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
ISSN	2296-701X
出版年	2020
卷号	8
英文摘要	The primary role of nests as structural support for eggs, nestlings, and incubating parents is well established, but our understanding of their secondary roles and their adaptive features is still limited. Nests can serve a particularly important role in protecting or buffering birds from weather. In hot, arid environments, maximum daily temperatures can exceed a species' upper critical temperature threshold and during the non-breeding season temperatures may also drop below freezing. Nest structures that help buffer against extreme temperatures may play a crucial role in managing the costs of thermoregulation, especially those nests that are used and maintained year-round. We use extensive year-round data to investigate the thermal benefits of massive colonial structures built by sociable weavers in the arid savannahs of the Kalahari, South Africa. These colonies consist of multiple nesting chambers and are used as roosts when birds are not breeding. We explored whether these structures provide thermal buffering throughout the year and how individual chamber placement within the colony and features of the chambers influenced their thermal buffering capacity. We also investigated whether nest chambers occupied and modified by an obligate nest parasite, the African pygmy falcon provided additional thermal buffering. Our results show that sociable weaver colonies provide thermal benefits throughout the year, buffering both hot and cold ambient extremes. Chambers with longer entrance tunnels provided better insulation than chambers with shorter entrance tunnels, and chambers located toward the center of a colony provided greater insulation than chambers at the edge. Chambers occupied by falcons did not display additional thermal benefits, which may be due to falcons choosing chambers with shorter entrance tunnels. Because falcons are larger than weavers, they may find it harder to enter chambers with longer entrance tunnels, and/or because weavers cease maintenance of those chambers. In conclusion, the communal nests of sociable weaver provide thermal benefits to weavers and heterospecifics alike, creating a more optimal environment for breeding, roosting and reducing thermal stress. In a landscape that is becoming increasingly harsh under climate change, the importance of these structures to the local animal communities may also increase.
英文关键词	ecosystem engineers community ecology positive interactions thermal refuge environmental adjustment shelter Harsh climate Environmental adaptations
类型	Article
语种	英语
开放获取类型	gold
收录类别	SCI-E
WOS记录号	WOS:000590603600001
WOS关键词	EGG TEMPERATURE ; THERMOREGULATORY BENEFITS ; AVIAN THERMOREGULATION ; GEOGRAPHIC-VARIATION ; PHILETAIRUS-SOCIUS ; HEAT TOLERANCE ; CLIMATE-CHANGE ; TRADE-OFF ; DESERT ; BIRDS
WOS类目	Ecology
WOS研究方向	Environmental Sciences & Ecology
资源类型	期刊论文
条目标识符	http://119.78.100.177/qdio/handle/2XILL650/327558
作者单位	[Lowney, Anthony M.; Bolopo, Diana; Thomson, Robert L.] Univ Cape Town, FitzPatrick Inst African Ornithol, DST NRF Ctr Excellence, Cape Town, South Africa; [Krochuk, Billi A.] Univ British Columbia, Dept Zool, Biodivers Res Ctr, Vancouver, BC, Canada; [Thomson, Robert L.] Univ Turku, Dept Biol, Sect Ecol, Turku, Finland
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714	Lowney, Anthony M.,Bolopo, Diana,Krochuk, Billi A.,et al. The Large Communal Nests of Sociable Weavers Provide Year-Round Insulated Refuge for Weavers and Pygmy Falcons[J],2020,8.
APA	Lowney, Anthony M.,Bolopo, Diana,Krochuk, Billi A.,&Thomson, Robert L..(2020).The Large Communal Nests of Sociable Weavers Provide Year-Round Insulated Refuge for Weavers and Pygmy Falcons.FRONTIERS IN ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION,8.
MLA	Lowney, Anthony M.,et al."The Large Communal Nests of Sociable Weavers Provide Year-Round Insulated Refuge for Weavers and Pygmy Falcons".FRONTIERS IN ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION 8(2020).