DEMOGRAPHIC PARAMETER ESTIMATES AND THEIR BIOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS FOR A SEABIRD METAPOPULATION
André R. Breton, Ph.D.
Ph. D. Candidate in Biology
from September 2000-June 2005
University of New Brunswick,
Fredericton Campus (UNBF)
Collaborators
Atlantic
Cooperative Wildlife Ecology Research Network (ACWERN)
Canadian Wildlife Service
Maine Department of Inland Fisheries
and Wildlife
National Audubon Society
and Seabird Restoration Program
United States Fish and Wildlife Service
Committee
Dr. Antony W.
Diamond (Thesis Advisor): ACWERN and UNBF
Dr. Richard Elliot: Canadian Wildlife Service, Sackville, New Brunswick
Dr. Stephen W. Kress: Seabird Restoration Program
Dr. Greg Robertson: Canadian Wildlife Service, St. Johns, Newfoundland
Brief Thesis Abstract
Opportunities to study population processes at the metapopulation scale are rare in studies of birds and other wildlife. Within the Gulf of Maine and Bay of Fundy, USA and Canada, eight active Atlantic puffin (Fratercula arctica) colonies are known; five of these are managed. For over two decades, managers on these islands have been monitoring puffins through capture-mark-resight/recapture (CMR). Two subsets of these data were used to investigate detection, survival and movement processes occurring among the five managed colonies or local populations (Chapters 2 and 3). Prior to analyzing these data, rates of band wear, due to abrasion against island bedrock, were identified as a potential source of bias. This led to two analyses to investigate the process of surface wear experienced by engraved darvic (rigid polyvinylchloride) and incoloy (nickel-chromium steel alloy) bands and its effect on our ability to resight marked birds (Chapters 2 and 4). In addition to these investigations, an extension of the assumption that 'data were drawn randomly from the population of interest' is proposed to make explicit a source of bias that may be prevalent in studies of migratory animals (Chapter 5).
Chapter 2: The Auk, July 2005, 122:773-782
Adult survival estimates from two Atlantic puffin (Fratercula arctica) colonies in the Gulf of Maine (pdf)
Chapter 3: Ecological Monographs, February 2006, 76:133-149
Encounter, survival, and movement probabilities from an Atlantic puffin (Fratercula arctica) metapopulation (pdf)
Chapter 4: Journal of Field Ornithology, May 2006, 77:111-119
Surface wear on incoloy and darvic bands applied to Atlantic puffin (Fratercula arctica) adults and chicks (pdf)
Chapter 5: The overlap assumption: an important source of bias in studies of migratory animals
Chapter 1 and 6: General Introduction and Discussion - available upon request
Collaborators
