Chris Tyson

Wageningen University & Research | WUR

Sex‐specific parental care in dimorphic species may be unsurprising, but why this occurs in monomorphic species is more puzzling. To date, however, there have been few examinations of the causes of this phenomenon. Here, we evaluated possible explanations of sex‐specific provisioning in the monomorphic Leach's storm‐petrel Hydrobates leucorhous (un...

Although mechanisms of genetic and social inheritance have been implicated in determining the migratory routes of birds, it is unclear what their relative contributions are in species where outbound and return migration routes differ (‘loop migrants’). Here, we used biologging devices to follow Manx Shearwaters (Puffinus puffinus), a long‐lived sea...

Many species that provide care for their offspring in tandem with a partner coordinate their activities to maximise the efficiency of their investment. However, it is not well known exactly how this coordination is achieved. Manx shearwaters Puffinus puffinus are Procellariiform seabirds that exhibit a dual foraging strategy during chick provisioni...

During fall migration, bird‐eating raptors are thought to rely on flocks of migrant songbirds (Passeriformes) as a critical resource to fuel the energetic demands of long‐distance migration. However, this hypothesis has been challenging to investigate, and the foraging ecology during migration of most migrant raptors remains unexplored. To address...

Behavioural phenotypes can be highly constrained by interdependent behavioural traits. Studies in different taxa showed that these behavioural phenotypic correlations are not universal within a species and can differ between populations exposed to different environmental pressures. Empirical studies are required to better understand the relative co...

In long-lived species, care-giving parents are expected to balance their own condition with that of their offspring. Many species of seabirds display a unique behavioural adaptation for managing these conflicting demands known as dual foraging, in which long trips, largely for self-maintenance, are alternated with short trips, which are primarily f...

Plastic pollution is an anthropogenic stressor in marine ecosystems globally. Many species of marine fish (more than 50) ingest plastic debris. Ingested plastic has a variety of lethal and sublethal impacts and can be a route for bioaccumulation of toxic compounds throughout the food web. Despite its pervasiveness and severity, our mechanistic unde...

While seabird–fishery associations are well documented, this research primarily comes from ship-based surveys and consequently individual level responses to discard availability are largely unknown. As part of a long-term study on lesser black-backed gulls (Larus fuscus) in the Netherlands, the fine-scale movements of adults were tracked with GPS t...

Background/Question/Methods Exotic plant invasions have huge ecological and economic ramifications. Our understanding of exotic plant invasions, however, is mostly based on shade-intolerant species. We studied the invasion patterns of Microstegium vimineum (Trin.) A. Camus (Japanese stiltgrass), a widespread shade-tolerant exotic plant species fo...