A detailed time series assessment of the diet of Lesser Flamingos: further explanation for their itinerant behaviour

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Date
2013-04-27Author
Kaggwa, Mary N.
Gruber, Martin
Oduor, Steve Omondi
Schagerl, Michael
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Show full item recordAbstract
We hypothesised that changes in nutritional composition and quality of the pelagic phytoplankton community influence the occurrence of
Lesser Flamingo populations in two Kenyan saline–
alkaline lakes, Nakuru and Bogoria. This was
achieved by carrying out a detailed time series
assessment of the phytoplankton community composition and nutritional components (carbohydrates,
crude protein and lipids) from July 2008 to October
2009 on a weekly basis for each lake. Lesser
Flamingos were estimated visually from the lake
shore of the sampling sites. In Lake Nakuru, Lesser
Flamingos had a significant positive relationship with
lipids and Arthrospira biomass but a negative relationship with small cyanoprokaryotes. For Lake
Bogoria, no significant differences were observed as
the Arthrospira was available throughout the sampling
period though the flamingo numbers still fluctuated.
We concluded that the nutritional composition and
quality of the phytoplankton community influence the
temporal and spatial abundance of Lesser Flamingos
although other factors such as the prevailing environmental conditions may take precedence.
URI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-012-1105-1https://kyuspace.kyu.ac.ug/xmlui/handle/20.500.12504/349