Effects of Diet on Growth and Development of Nestling Seabirds. Exxon Valdez OilSpill Restoration Project Final Report. (Restoration Project 98163N)

摘要

Recent declines in nesting success of some fish-eating seabirds in Alaska haveattributes to declines in the availability of certain schooling forage fishes (i.e., capelin Mallotus villosus, Pacific sand lance Ammodytes hexapterus, and Pacific herring Clupea pallasi). These fishes tend to have a high lipid content compared with other species and, consequently, are assumed to have high nutritional value as food for young seabirds. The authors tested the hypotheses that type of forage fish consumed and the lipid:protein ratio of the diet constrain the growth and development of piscivorou seabird nestlings. The authors raised seabird nestlings of two species (black-legged kittiwake Rissa tridactyla, tufted puffin Fractercula cirrhata) on controlled diets of either capelin, sand lance, or herring (high-lipid fishes), or juvenile walleye pollock (Theragra chalcogrma; low-lipid fish). Seabird nestlings fed capelin, sand lance, and herring had higher growth rates (Body mass and wing length) than nestlings fed equal biomass rations of pollock.