Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Changes in the apparent survival of a tropical bird in response to the El Niño Southern Oscillation in mature and young forest in Costa Rica

  • Population ecology - Original research
  • Published:
Oecologia Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The effects of habitat alteration and climatic instability have resulted in the loss of bird populations throughout the globe. Tropical birds in particular may be sensitive to climate and habitat change because of their niche specialization, often sedentary nature, and unique life-cycle phenologies. Despite the potential influence of habitat and climatic interactions on tropical birds, we lack comparisons of avian demographics from variably aged forests subject to different climatic phenomena. Here, we measured relationships between forest type and climatic perturbations on White-collared Manakin (Manacus candei), a frugivorous tropical bird, by using 12 years of capture data in young and mature forests in northeastern Costa Rica. We used Cormack–Jolly–Seber models and an analysis of deviance to contrast the influence of the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) on manakin survival. We found that ENSO had little effect on manakin survival in mature forests. Conversely, in young forests, ENSO explained 79 % of the variation where dry El Niño events negatively influenced manikin survival. We believe mature forest mitigated negative effects of dry El Niño periods and can serve as refugia for some species by buffering birds from climatic instability. Our results represent the first published documentation that ENSO influences the survival of a resident Neotropic landbird.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Blake JG, Loiselle BA (2002) Manakins (Pipridae) in second-growth and old-growth forests: patterns of habitat use, movement, and survival. Auk 119:132–148

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brown S, Lugo AE (1990) Tropical secondary forests. J Trop Ecol 6:1–32

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Butler RW, Taylor W (2005) A review of climate change impacts on birds. USDA Forest Service General Technical Report PSW-GTR-191

  • Cooch E, White GC (2011) Program MARK: analysis of data from marked individuals—“a gentle introduction”. http://www.phidot.org/software/mark/docs/book/. Accessed 10 Nov 2012

  • Foley JA, DeFries R, Asner GP, Barford C, Bonan G, Carpenter SR, Chapin IIIFS, Coe MT, Daily GC, Gibbs HK, Helkowski JH, Holloway T, Howard EA, Kucharik CJ, Monfreda C, Patz JA, Prentice IC, Ramankutty N, Snyder PK (2007) Amazonian revealed: forest degradation and loss of ecosystem goods and services in the Amazon Basin. Front Ecol Environ 5:25–32

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gascon C, Lovejoy TE (1998) Ecological impacts of forest fragmentation in central Amazonia. Zoology 101:273–280

    Google Scholar 

  • Gergis JL, Fowler AM (2009) A history of ENSO events since A.D. 1525: implications for future climate change. Clim Change 92:343–387

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gouirand I, Moron V, Hu ZZ, Jha B (2014) Influence of the warm pool and cold tongue El Niños on the following Caribbean rainy season rainfall. Clim Dyn 42:919–929

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Holdridge LR (1987) Ecología basada en zonas de vida, 3ra reimpresión. Editorial del Instituto Interamericano de Cooperación para la Agricultura, San José

    Google Scholar 

  • Holmgren M, Scheffer M, Ezcurra E, Gutiérrez JR, Mohren GM (2001) El Niño effects on the dynamics of terrestrial ecosystems. Trends Ecol Evol 16:89–94

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Jetz W, Wilcove DS, Dobson AP (2007) Projected impacts of climate and land-use change on the global diversity of birds. PLoS Biol 5:e157

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Johnston JP, White SA, Peach WJ, Gregory RD (1997) Survival rates of tropical and temperate passerines: a Trinidadian perspective. Am Nat 150:771–789

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Laurance CWF, Williamson GB (2001) Positive feedbacks among forest fragmentation, drought, and climate change in the Amazon. Conserv Biol 15:1529–1535

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • MacArthur RH, Horn HS (1969) Foliage profile by vertical measurements. Ecology 50:802–804

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Martin TE (1985) Selection of second-growth woodlands by frugivorous migrating birds in Panama: an effect of fruit size and plant density? J Trop Ecol 1:157–170

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nott MP, DeSante DF, Siegel RB, Pyle P (2002) Influences of the El Niño/Southern Oscillation and the North Atlantic Oscillation on avian productivity in forests of the Pacific Northwest of North America. Glob Ecol Biogeogr 11:333–334

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pena-Claros M (2003) Changes in forest structure and species composition during secondary succession in the Bolivian Amazon. Biotropica 35:450–461

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Powell LL, Stouffer PC, Johnson EI (2013) Recovery of understory bird movement across the interface of primary and secondary Amazon rainforest. Auk 130:459–468

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • R Development Core Team (2010) R: a language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria. http://www.R-project.org. Accessed 10 Nov 2012

  • Ralph CJ, Geupel GR, Pyle P, Martin TE, DeSante DF (1993) Handbook of field methods for monitoring landbirds. U.S. Department of agriculture, forest service general technical report PSW-GTR-144

  • Ropelewski CF, Halpert MS (1987) Global and regional scale precipitation patterns associated with the El Niño/Southern Oscillation. Mon Weather Rev 115:1606–1626

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ruiz-Gutiérrez V, Gavin TA, Dhondt AA (2008) Habitat fragmentation lowers survival of a tropical forest bird. Ecol Appl 18:838–846

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Salat E, Vose PB (1984) Amazon Basin: a system in equilibrium. Science 225:129–138

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sekercioglu CH, Ehrlich PR, Daily GC, Aygen D, Goehring D, Sandi RF (2002) Disappearance of insectivorous birds from tropical forest fragments. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 99:263–267

    Article  CAS  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sillett TS, Holmes RT, Sherry TW (2000) Impacts of a global climate cycle on population dynamics of a migratory songbird. Science 288:2040–2042

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Stiles FG, Skutch AS (1989) A guide to the birds of Costa Rica. Cornell University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Styrsky JN, Brawn JD (2011) Annual fecundity of a neotropical bird during years of high and low rainfall. Condor 113:194–199

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Timmermann A, Oberhuber J, Bacher A, Esch M, Latif M, Roeckner E (1999) Increased El Niño frequency in a climate model forced by future greenhouse warming. Nature 398:694–697

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Travis JMJ (2003) Climate change and habitat destruction: a deadly anthropogenic cocktail. Proc R Soc Lond B 270:467–473

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • White GC, Burnham KP (1999) Program MARK: survival estimation from populations of marked animals. Bird Study 46:120–138

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wolfe JD, Ralph CJ (2009) Correlations between El Niño Southern Oscillation and changes in nearctic-neotropic migrant condition in Central America. Auk 126:809–814

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wolfe JD, Pyle P, Ralph CJ (2009) Breeding seasons, molt patterns, and gender and age criteria for selected northeastern Costa Rican resident landbirds. Wilson J Ornithol 121:556–567

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wolfe JD, Ryder TB, Pyle P (2010) Using molt cycles to categorize the age of tropical birds: an integrative new system. J Field Ornithol 81:186–194

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wolfe JD, Johnson MD, Ralph CJ (2014a) Do birds select habitat or food resources? nearctic-neotropic migrants in Northeastern Costa Rica. PLoS ONE 9:e86221

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wolfe JD, Stouffer PC, Seeholzer GF (2014b) Variation in tropical bird survival across longitude and guilds: a case study from the Amazon. Oikos 123:964–970

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wright SJ, Carrasco C, Calderón O, Paton S (1999) The El Niño Southern Oscillation, variable fruit production, and famine in a tropical forest. Ecology 80:1632–1647

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

Our sincere thanks are extended to all the volunteer banders at the Costa Rica Bird Observatories, to Gary White, Paul Flint and Liana Zanette for an insightful review of the analysis and to the following colleagues who provided edits and comments which greatly improved the manuscript: John Alexander, Peter L. Ralph, Phil Stouffer, Sabrina Taylor, Kristin Brzeski, T. Brandt Ryder, Karl Mokross and Luke Powell. The research station of the Sea Turtle Conservancy (formerly known as Caribbean Conservation Corporation) at Tortuguero has provided wonderful support and facilities to our long-term monitoring effort. We are especially grateful to Roxana Silman and Dr. Emma Harrison at the Sea Turtle Conservancy for their continued support. J.D.W. and C.J.R. conceived and designed the project design. P.E. facilitated data collection and provided editorial advice.

Author information

Author notes

    Authors and Affiliations

    1. USDA Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Research Station, Arcata, USA

      Jared D. Wolfe & C. John Ralph

    2. Klamath Bird Observatory, Ashland, OR, USA

      Jared D. Wolfe & C. John Ralph

    3. Costa Rica Bird Observatories, Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad (INBio), Santo Domingo de Heredia, Costa Rica

      Pablo Elizondo

    Authors
    1. Jared D. Wolfe
      View author publications

      You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

    2. C. John Ralph
      View author publications

      You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

    3. Pablo Elizondo
      View author publications

      You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

    Corresponding author

    Correspondence to Jared D. Wolfe.

    Additional information

    Communicated by Hannu Pöysä.

    Electronic supplementary material

    Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

    Supplementary material 1 (DOCX 2891 kb)

    Rights and permissions

    Reprints and permissions

    About this article

    Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

    Cite this article

    Wolfe, J.D., Ralph, C.J. & Elizondo, P. Changes in the apparent survival of a tropical bird in response to the El Niño Southern Oscillation in mature and young forest in Costa Rica. Oecologia 178, 715–721 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-015-3256-z

    Download citation

    • Received:

    • Accepted:

    • Published:

    • Issue Date:

    • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-015-3256-z

    Keywords

    Search

    Navigation