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Seabirds as agents of spatial heterogeneity on New Zealand’s offshore islands

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Abstract

Aims

This study investigates how burrow-nesting, colonial seabirds structure the spatial patterns of soil and plant properties (including soil and leaf N) and tests whether burrow density drives these spatial patterns within each of six individual islands that vary greatly in burrow density.

Methods

Within individual islands, we compared semivariograms (SVs) with and without burrows as a spatial trend. We also used SVs to describe and compare the spatial patterns among islands for each of 16 soil and plant variables.

Results

Burrow density within a single island was only important in determining spatial structuring in one-fifth of the island-variable combinations tested. Among islands, some variables (i.e., soil pH, δ15N, and compaction; microbial biomass and activity) achieved peak spatial variance on intermediate-density islands, while others (i.e., net ammonification, net nitrification, NH4 +, NO3 -) became increasingly variable on densely burrowed islands.

Conclusions

Burrow density at the within-island scale was far less important than expected. Seabirds and other ecosystem engineers whose activities (e.g., nutrient subsidies, soil disturbance) influence multiple spatial scales can increase spatial heterogeneity even at high densities, inconsistent with a “hump-shaped” relationship between resource availability and heterogeneity.

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Acknowledgements

For permission to work on the islands they own or for which they are kaitiaki (guardians), we thank Ngāti Hako and Ngāti Hei, as well as the Ruamahua (Aldermen) Islands Trust and the Neureuter family. We thank the New Zealand Department of Conservation for facilitating our visits to the islands they administer. We also thank Nicholas Aitken, Peter Bellingham, Karen Bonner, Larry Burrows, Ewen Cameron, Tad Fukami, Jessica Garron, Nikki Grant-Hoffman, Aaron Hoffman, Holly Jones, Brian Karl, Rau Kirikiri, Jamie MacKay, Richard Parrish, Gaye Rattray, James Russell, Dave Towns, and Dan Uliassi for lab and field assistance. Reviews by Roger Ruess and Mat Wooller improved the original manuscript. This study was financially supported by the Marsden Fund of the Royal Society of New Zealand, the U.S. National Science Foundation (DEB-0317196), the New Zealand Foundation for Research, Science, and Technology (Te Hiringa Tangata kit e Tai Timu ki te Tai Pari Programme), the New Zealand Department of Conservation, a summer research fellowship to M. Durrett from the Institute of Arctic Biology, a dissertation completion fellowship to M. Durrett from the University of Alaska Fairbanks Graduate School, and the Dean Wilson Scholarship to M. Durrett from the Alaska Trappers Association.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Arctic Biology and Department of Biology and Wildlife, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK, 99775, USA

    Melody S. Durrett & Christa P. H. Mulder

  2. Department of Forest Ecology and Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Umeå, SE901 83, Sweden

    David A. Wardle

  3. Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK, 99775, USA

    Ronald P. Barry

Authors
  1. Melody S. Durrett
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  2. David A. Wardle
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  3. Christa P. H. Mulder
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  4. Ronald P. Barry
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Melody S. Durrett.

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Responsible Editor: Eric Paterson.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Online Resource 1

Seabird burrow density calculations and modeling (PDF 561 kb)

Online Resource 2

Anisotropic modeling (PDF 117 kb)

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Durrett, M.S., Wardle, D.A., Mulder, C.P.H. et al. Seabirds as agents of spatial heterogeneity on New Zealand’s offshore islands. Plant Soil 383, 139–153 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-014-2172-z

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