Model-generated senescence patterns of known-age black-browed albatrosses (Thalassarche melanophris) breeding at Bird Island and Kerguelen, 1976-2024
GB/NERC/BAS/PDC/02203
Abstract:
This dataset contains model-generated estimated age at the onset of senescence, senescence rate, early-life probability of successful reproduction and probability of successful reproduction at the onset of senescence from known-age black-browed albatrosses (Thalassarche melanophris) fledged since austral summer 1975/76 at Bird Island and Kerguelen. Estimations were made using a generalised linear mixed model. This dataset includes 360 individuals from Bird Island and 874 individuals from Kerguelen. Senescence patterns derive from long-term monitoring of breeding success of known-age black-browed albatrosses in the two colonies (Bird Island and Kerguelen).
This dataset was funded by NERC standard grant NE/X000680/1.
Citation:
Patrick, S., Mohring, B., Phillips, R., Weimerskirch, H., Barbraud, C., Delord, K., Bennison, A., Wood, A., Peroteau, S., Potts, J., Reale, D., Rouby, E., Ventura, F., & Wilson, A. (2026). Model-generated senescence patterns of known-age black-browed albatrosses (Thalassarche melanophris) breeding at Bird Island and Kerguelen, 1976-2024 (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/05270ecd-2c74-4c49-beda-6dedd7b6b56b
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REFERENCE MATERIALS
- https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1618819114
- https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2656.2006.01191.x
- https://doi.org/10.5285/e2d734d6-e632-427e-b302-a206f92ebd63
REFERENCE MATERIALS
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License
| Access: | None |
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| Use: | This data is governed by the NERC data policy (http://www.nerc.ac.uk/research/sites/data/policy/) and supplied under Open Government Licence v.3 (http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/). |
Basic Information
| Creation Date: | 2026-05-13 |
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| Dataset Progress: | Complete |
| Dataset Language: | English |
| ISO Topic Categories: |
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| Parameters: |
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Additional Information
| Reference: | These data are part of this paper, which also contains more information on the methodology: Mohring, B., Potts, J.R., Wilson, A.J., Réale, D., Phillips, R.A., Weimerskirch, H., Barbraud, C., Bennison, A., Delord, K., Wood, A.G., Peroteau, S., Rouby, E., Ventura, F., Patrick, S.C. Environmental variability shapes life-history trade-offs within and between populations of a long-lived seabird. Accepted in Ecology Letters. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.70384 The following papers describe field protocols for breeding success monitoring at Kerguelen and Bird Island, respectively: Nevoux, M., Weimerskirch, H., Barbraud, C., 2007. Environmental variation and experience‐related differences in the demography of the long-lived black-browed albatross. Journal of Animal Ecology 76, 159-167. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2656.2006.01191.x Pardo, D., Forcada, J., Wood, A.G., Tuck, G.N., Ireland, L., Pradel, R., Croxall, J.P., Phillips, R.A., 2017. Additive effects of climate and fisheries drive ongoing declines in multiple albatross species. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 114. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1618819114 Long-term monitoring data of breeding success of known-age black-browed albatrosses used to calculate senescence patterns: Kerguelen: Mohring, Bertille, 2026, "Breeding success of known-age black-browed albatrosses (Thalassarche melanophris), Kerguelen, 1976-2024", https://doi.org/10.48579/PRO/DHHAP0 , data.InDoRES Bird Island: Phillips, R., Bennison, A., & Wood, A. (2026). Breeding success of known-age black-browed albatrosses (Thalassarche melanophris) at Bird Island, South Georgia, 1977 to 2024 (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/e2d734d6-e632-427e-b302-a206f92ebd63 The long term field project at Kerguelen can be found here: https://cat.indores.fr/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/44e56d59-a904-4a7d-91c7-fee29aeb0114 Methodology reference: R Core Team, 2023. R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing. Austria: Vienna. |
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| Quality: | Senescence patterns were calculated for all known-age individuals from the two study colonies except those breeding for the first time after the age of 20 years old, as they likely reflect ring-reading errors or chronic nonbreeders. | |
| Lineage/Methodology: | We relied on long-term monitoring of the reproduction of known-age black-browed albatrosses at Bird Island and at Kerguelen to calculate individual-level senescence patterns. Each year, the breeding success of each (known-age) individual in the study colonies was recorded as part of long-term monitoring and was defined as a binary variable, where 1 indicates that the chick survived to fledging, and 0 indicates failure at the egg or chick stage. We built a generalised linear mixed model with a binomial error distribution with reproductive success as the dependent variable. Population (Kerguelen or Bird Island), age (as a linear and quadratic effect) and the two-way interactions between these two age components (linear or quadratic) and population were used as independent variables. To enable senescence patterns to vary at the individual level, we included a random intercept for individual identity and random slopes for the linear and quadratic age terms. A categorical variable was added to control for primiparity or multiparity of the breeding attempt. Year and cohort were included as random intercepts in the models. For each random effect, we used a separate covariance matrix for each population. Estimated individual-level values of intercept, linear and quadratic age effects were extracted from this model. Using these values, four biologically meaningful life-history parameters were calculated for each individual: age at the onset of senescence, senescence rate, early-life performance and performance at the onset of senescence. Estimated age at the onset of senescence corresponded to the age at the peak of the quadratic curve of reproductive success versus age. Estimated senescence rate was defined as the slope of the tangent at the inflection point of this quadratic curve. Estimated early-life performance was defined as the probability of successful reproduction at 10 years old, and estimated performance at the onset of senescence was defined as the probability of successful reproduction at the age at onset of senescence. Scripts used to obtain these data are available on Zenodo: Mohring, B., Potts, J.R., Wilson, A.J., Réale, D., Phillips, R.A., Weimerskirch, H., Barbraud, C., Bennison, A., Delord, K., Wood, A.G., Peroteau, S., Rouby, E., Ventura, F., Patrick, S.C., 2026. Code for "Environmental variability shapes life-history trade-offs within and between populations of a long-lived seabird." Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/ZENODO.17314406 |
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Extent
| Temporal Coverage: | |
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| Start Date | 1979-01-01 |
| End Date | 2024-12-31 |
| Spatial Coverage: | |
| Latitude | |
| Southernmost | -54.0115 |
| Northernmost | -54.0115 |
| Longitude | |
| Westernmost | -38.05 |
| Easternmost | -38.05 |
| Altitude | |
| Min Altitude | N/A |
| Max Altitude | N/A |
| Depth | |
| Min Depth | N/A |
| Max Depth | N/A |
| Latitude | |
| Southernmost | -49.41 |
| Northernmost | -49.41 |
| Longitude | |
| Westernmost | -70.14 |
| Easternmost | -70.14 |
| Altitude | |
| Min Altitude | N/A |
| Max Altitude | N/A |
| Depth | |
| Min Depth | N/A |
| Max Depth | N/A |
| Location: | |
| Location | South Georgia Island |
| Detailed Location | Bird Island |
| Location | Antarctica |
| Detailed Location | Kerguelen Islands |
Instrumentation
| Data Collection: | Models were run using R 4.3.1. (R Core Team, 2023). |
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Storage
| Data Storage: | The dataset consists of 1 csv file: data_BBAL_senescence_estimates_final.csv |
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