ABSTRACT
Muscle ultrastructure is closely linked with athletic performance in humans and lab animals, and presumably plays an important role in the movement ecology of wild animals. Movement is critical for wild animals to forage, escape predators and reproduce. However, little evidence directly links muscle condition to locomotion in the wild. We used GPS-accelerometers to examine flight behaviour and muscle biopsies to assess muscle ultrastructure in breeding black-legged kittiwakes (Rissa tridactyla). Biopsied kittiwakes showed similar reproductive success and subsequent over-winter survival to non-biopsied kittiwakes, suggesting that our study method did not greatly impact foraging ability. Muscle fibre diameter was negatively associated with wing beat frequency, likely because larger muscle fibres facilitate powered flight. The number of nuclei per fibre was positively associated with average air speed, likely because higher power output needed by faster-flying birds required plasticity for muscle fibre recruitment. These results suggest the potential for flight behaviour to predict muscle ultrastructure.
Footnotes
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing or financial interests.
Author contributions
Conceptualization: K.M.L., S.W., A.G.J., K.H.E.; Methodology: K.M.L., S.W., K.B., A.P., A.G.J., K.H.E.; Software: K.M.L., S.W., A.P.; Validation: K.M.L., S.W., A.P.; Formal analysis: K.M.L., S.W., K.B., A.P., A.G.J., K.H.E.; Investigation: K.H.E.; Resources: K.H.E.; Data curation: K.M.L.; Writing - original draft: K.M.L.; Writing - review & editing: K.M.L., S.W., K.B., A.P., A.G.J., S.A.H., K.H.E.; Visualization: K.M.L., S.W.; Supervision: S.W., A.G.J., K.H.E.; Project administration: S.A.H., K.H.E.; Funding acquisition: A.G.J., S.A.H., K.H.E.
Funding
This project was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (Discovery Grant) and by Canada Research Chairs in Arctic Ecology (to K.H.E.), Institute for Seabird Research and Conservation (SAH), and the Northern Scientific Training Program (Polar Knowledge Canada, K.H.E., K.M.L.).
Data availability
GPS-accelerometer data are available from Movebank: Black-legged kittiwake Rissa tridactyla Middleton Island Movebank ID: 1326534946: https://www.movebank.org/cms/webapp?gwt_fragment=page=studies,path=study1326534946.
Supplementary information
Supplementary information available online at https://jeb.biologists.org/lookup/doi/10.1242/jeb.234104.supplemental
- Received July 31, 2020.
- Accepted October 11, 2020.
- © 2020. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd
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