Mercier Guillaume, Yoccoz Nigel G, Descamps Sébastien
Norwegian Polar Institute Fram Centre Tromsø Norway.
Department of Arctic and Marine Biology UiT The Arctic University of Norway Tromsø Norway.
Ecol Evol. 2021 Sep 12;11(19):12989-13000. doi: 10.1002/ece3.7775. eCollection 2021 Oct.
The high occurrence of social monogamy in birds has led to questions about partner fidelity, or the perennial nature of monogamy from one breeding season to another. Despite the evolutionary advantages of partner fidelity, divorce occurs among 95% of bird species. We aimed to describe patterns of divorce and partner fidelity in five seabird species breeding in Arctic and Antarctic regions and investigated the influence of breeding status on pair bond maintenance. For four out of the five species considered, we observed low divorce rates (respectively 1.9%, 3.3%, 2.5%, and 0.0% for Brünnich's guillemot, glaucous gull, Antarctic petrel, and south polar skua), while the divorce rate was much higher (19.1%) for the black-legged kittiwake. For kittiwakes, the divorce rate was lower for pairs that managed to raise their chick to 15 days of age, while the effect of breeding success on divorce in the four other species could not be tested due to the rareness of divorce events. Our results emphasize the potentially large temporal (interannual) variations that should be taken into account in understanding divorce and partner fidelity in seabirds.
鸟类中社会一夫一妻制的高发生率引发了关于伴侣忠诚度的问题，即一夫一妻制从一个繁殖季节到下一个繁殖季节的持续性。尽管伴侣忠诚度具有进化优势，但95%的鸟类物种中都会出现“离婚”现象。我们旨在描述在北极和南极地区繁殖的五种海鸟的“离婚”模式和伴侣忠诚度，并研究繁殖状态对配偶关系维持的影响。在所研究的五个物种中，有四个物种的“离婚”率较低（厚嘴海鸠、北极鸥、南极海燕和南极贼鸥的“离婚”率分别为1.9%、3.3%、2.5%和0.0%），而黑脚三趾鸥的“离婚”率则高得多（19.1%）。对于三趾鸥来说，成功将雏鸟养育到15日龄的配偶“离婚”率较低，而由于“离婚”事件较少，无法测试其他四个物种的繁殖成功率对“离婚”的影响。我们的研究结果强调，在理解海鸟的“离婚”和伴侣忠诚度时，应考虑到潜在的较大时间（年际）变化。
