Match Mismatch Case Study Flashcards
David Cushing hypothesis
If the most energy expensive part of breeding phenology of consumer happens at same time as peak of resource then recruitment will be high
Therefore match between zooplankton peak and timing of fish larvae spawning time influences growth rates and losses to starvation or predation
Period in which oak leaves emerge
between 90 and 130 days
Peak demand of great tit chicks
about 10 days old
Using growing degree day models, what is the oak’s plastic response?
Temperature is cue and the oak response is 7 days per degree C
Evidence for caterpillar and oak mismatch?
Caterpillars shifting at ~9 days per degree C, which is too responsive to temperature
Evidence for great tit caterpillar mismatch?
Great tits are shifting at around ~3.26 days per degree C which is less responsive so mismatch but to a lesser degree
Aspects of great tit fitness
fledglings, mean no. recruits, mean adult survival
North American Bees and Plants
- Bartomeus et al, 2011
Mean advance of 10.4 days and most of this has occurred in past 40 years, bees are keeping pace with plants
Snowshoe hares in USA
- Zimova et al, 2016
- Mismatch results in negative mortality consequences for hares and high fitness costs cause population decline
- May be evolutionary resuce in action since we see substantial genetic variation in molt phenology
Cuckoo and the meadow pippit in Europe
- Saino et al, 2009
The cuckoo is a migrant species, it is shifting its phenology much less than short distance species like meadow pipits (they have advnaced their arrival more than the cuckoo), whose nest the cuckoo normally lays its eggs in. This is typical of migratory species, that they’re shifting their phonology less. This may result in a shift in the nests that the cuckoo will be most likely to parasitise i.e. cuckoos may keep track of phenological changes of long-distance, but not short-distance migrant hosts, with potential consequences for breeding of both cuckoo and hosts. The mismatch to some of the important hosts may contribute to the decline of cuckoo populations and explain some of the observed local changes in parasitism rates of migratory hosts.
Multiple levels of a North Sea pelagic food web
- Burthe,
“Across 4 trophic levels. Little consistency in phenological trends between adjacent trophic levels = mismatch occurring
Phenology of all species except shags becoming later, insufficient to keep track with changing sandeel date. BUT no evidence for adverse effect on breeding success for any seabird species”
