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Climate Driven Life Histories: The Case of the
Mediterranean Storm Petrel

Cecilia Soldatini1*, Yuri Vladimir Albores-Barajas1, Bruno Massa2, Olivier Gimenez3

1 Grupo de Ecolog´ıa y Conservacio´ n de Islas, A.C., Ensenada, Baja California, Me´xico, 2 Department of Agricultural and Forest Sciences, University of Palermo, Palermo,
Italy, 3 CEFE, UMR5175, Campus CNRS, Montpellier, France

Abstract

Seabirds are affected by changes in the marine ecosystem. The influence of climatic factors on marine food webs can be
reflected in long-term seabird population changes. We modelled the survival and recruitment of the Mediterranean storm
petrel (Hydrobates pelagicus melitensis) using a 21-year mark-recapture dataset involving almost 5000 birds. We
demonstrated a strong influence of prebreeding climatic conditions on recruitment age and of rainfall and breeding period
conditions on juvenile survival. The results suggest that the juvenile survival rate of the Mediterranean subspecies may not
be negatively affected by the predicted features of climate change, i.e., warmer summers and lower rainfall. Based on
considerations of winter conditions in different parts of the Mediterranean, we were able to draw inferences about the
wintering areas of the species for the first time.

Citation: Soldatini C, Albores-Barajas YV, Massa B, Gimenez O (2014) Climate Driven Life Histories: The Case of the Mediterranean Storm Petrel. PLoS ONE 9(4):
e94526. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0094526
Editor: Se´bastien Descamps, Norwegian Polar Institute, Norway
Received June 6, 2013; Accepted March 18, 2014; Published April 11, 2014
Copyright: ß 2014 Soldatini et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits
unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Funding: This project was funded by the Assessorato Regionale Agricoltura e Foreste to the Bird Ringing Unit of the University of Palermo. The funders had no
role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
* E-mail: cecilsol@gmail.com

Introduction may affect reproduction and chick survival [15,16]. Chick survival
may be indirectly affected by the same factors, influencing growth
In the face of the overwhelming data on the effects of climate rate and body condition at fledging, but also by colony conditions
change, it is crucial to understand how wildlife will react to such in terms of humidity influencing thermo-regulation.
changes. Seabirds are considered sentinels of environmental
change [1], as they range over large areas of the ocean and are Long chick-rearing periods involving both parents are a
therefore directly affected by any changes that may occur characteristic of seabirds [17]. Reproductive output may therefore
[1,2,3,4]. Climate change affects oceanographic conditions and be strongly impacted by adverse conditions that force the birds to
the availability of seabirds’ prey, ultimately influencing population fast for longer periods or to make excessive metabolic effort [18],
dynamics [5,6,7,8]. Changes in fluid circulation may also induce as a consequence juvenile survival and the overall population
positive consequences as it has been evidenced in the foraging trend are at risk.
efficiency and breeding success of albatrosses due to changes in
wind regimes [9]. Cyclic and extreme climatic events are inherent to oceanic
systems and have occurred long before human-induced global
In view of the effects of environmental variability on the prey of warming. Seabirds have evolved in this fluctuating environment
seabirds, the climate-induced warming of oceanic surface waters to and are negatively affected by the rapid increase of environmental
levels that exceed the boundaries of a fish species’ thermal niche stochasticity as a consequence of global warming [19].
can have a direct effect on the distribution of the species. Even
within this thermal niche, subtle (,0.5uC) temperature changes In the Mediterranean, models have predicted an increase in
can have profound effects on growth, survival and reproduction temperature and a decrease in rainfall [20], which could produce
[1,10]. As a consequence, climate change can have an indirect the effects mentioned above, affecting the whole food web. In this
impact on seabirds [11] influencing prey quality in marine food context, we aimed at linking the effect of climatic conditions to the
webs [12,13] and complex bottom-up and top-down processes in demography of seabirds with particular reference to the Mediter-
ecosystems [14]. Climate factors may affect breeders directly ranean storm petrel (Hydrobates pelagicus melitensis). Our aims were:
through changing the distribution of important prey species or 1. to determine age of recruitment in Mediterranean storm petrel,
indirectly through affecting spawning and recruitment of impor- 2. to investigate effects of environmental conditions in different
tant fish prey species giving lagged effects on seabird’s demo- time of the year on important demographic traits and 3. to reveal
graphic traits. Changes in prey abundance and quality during pre- important wintering-area for this population. The last point is
breeding and chick rearing period may result in variation in adult particularly challenging in species whose distribution is unknown
body condition affecting their quality as breeders and or their and where technology is not yet available to track small animals at
survival. In that case changes that result in reduced caloric value of sea beyond the breeding period.
prey, compared to those occurring under ‘‘normal’’ conditions,
The Mediterranean storm petrel is a taxon distinguished both
morphologically and genetically from the Atlantic populations
[21,22]. On the IUCN Red List the storm petrel is not considered

PLOS ONE | www.plosone.org 1 April 2014 | Volume 9 | Issue 4 | e94526