Thermal stress during incubation in an arctic breeding seabird.

Arctic breeding seabirds have experienced dramatic population declines in recent decades. The population of Arctic skuas (Stercorarius parasiticus) nesting on the Faroe Islands, North Atlantic, breed near the southern extent of their breeding range and are experiencing some of the largest declines. This is thought to be caused in part by increased warming due to climate change and thus, it is becoming critical to investigate the proximate and ultimate effects of the thermal environment on parental physiology, behaviour and breeding success.