Kitaysky Alexander S, Kitaiskaia Evgenia V, Piatt John F, Wingfield John C
Department of Biology and Wildlife, Institute of Arctic Biology, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Irving 311, Fairbanks, AK 99775, USA.
Proc Biol Sci. 2006 Feb 22;273(1585):445-50. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2005.3351.
A climatic regime shift during the mid-1970s in the North Pacific resulted in decreased availability of lipid-rich fish to seabirds and was followed by a dramatic decline in number of kittiwakes breeding on the Pribilof Islands. Although production of chicks in the mid-1970s was adequate to sustain kittiwake populations in the early 1980s, the disappearance of birds from breeding colonies apparently exceeded recruitment. No mechanism has been proposed to explain why recruitment would differ among fledglings fed lipid-rich or lipid-poor fish during development. Here we show that diets low in lipids induce nutritional stress and impair cognitive abilities in young red-legged kittiwakes, Rissa brevirostris. Specifically, growth retardation, increased secretion of stress hormones and inferior ability to associate food distribution with visual cues were observed in individuals fed lipid-poor diets. We conclude that lipid-poor diets during development affect the quality of young seabirds, which is likely to result in their increased mortality and low recruitment.
20世纪70年代中期北太平洋的气候 regime shift导致海鸟可获得的富含脂质的鱼类减少，随后普里比洛夫群岛上繁殖的三趾鸥数量急剧下降。尽管20世纪70年代中期雏鸟的数量足以维持20世纪80年代初的三趾鸥种群，但繁殖群体中鸟类的消失显然超过了补充数量。尚未提出任何机制来解释为什么在发育过程中喂食富含脂质或脂质含量低的鱼类的雏鸟补充数量会有所不同。在这里，我们表明，脂质含量低的饮食会导致营养压力，并损害幼年红脚三趾鸥（Rissa brevirostris）的认知能力。具体而言，在喂食脂质含量低的饮食的个体中观察到生长迟缓、应激激素分泌增加以及将食物分布与视觉线索联系起来的能力较差。我们得出结论，发育过程中脂质含量低的饮食会影响幼年海鸟的质量，这可能导致它们的死亡率增加和补充数量减少。
