1
|
Georgopoulou E, Alexandrou O, Manolopoulos A, Xirouchakis S, Catsadorakis G. Home range of the Dalmatian pelican in south-east Europe. EUR J WILDLIFE RES 2023. [DOI: 10.1007/s10344-023-01667-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 04/05/2023]
|
2
|
Migratory Movements and Home Ranges of Geographically Distinct Wintering Populations of a Soaring Bird. DIVERSITY 2022. [DOI: 10.3390/d14121109] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/23/2022]
Abstract
Migratory soaring birds exhibit spatiotemporal variation in their circannual movements. Nevertheless, it remains uncertain how different winter environments affect the circannual movement patterns of migratory soaring birds. Here, we investigated annual movement strategies of American white pelicans Pelecanus erythrorhynchos (hereafter, pelican) from two geographically distinct wintering grounds in the Southern and Northern Gulf of Mexico (GOM). We hypothesized that hourly movement distance and home range size of a soaring bird would differ between different geographic regions because of different thermals and wind conditions and resource availability. We calculated average and maximum hourly movement distances and seasonal home ranges of GPS-tracking pelicans. We then evaluated the effects of hour of the day, seasons, two wintering regions in the Southern and Northern GOM, human footprint index, and relative pelican abundance from Christmas Bird Count data on pelican hourly movement distances and seasonal home ranges using linear mixed models and generalized linear mixed models. American white pelicans moved at greatest hourly distance near 1200 h at breeding grounds and during spring and autumn migrations. Both wintering populations in the Northern and Southern GOM exhibited similar hourly movement distances and seasonal home ranges at the shared breeding grounds and during spring and autumn migrations. However, pelicans wintering in the Southern GOM showed shorter hourly movement distances and smaller seasonal home ranges than those in the Northern GOM. Hourly movement distances and home ranges of pelicans increased with increasing human footprint index. Winter hourly movements and home ranges of pelicans differed between the Northern and Southern GOM; however, the winter difference in pelican movements did not carry over to the shared breeding grounds during summers. Therefore, exogenous factors may be the primary drivers to shape the flying patterns of migratory soaring birds.
Collapse
|
3
|
King DT, Wang G, Cunningham FL. Seasonal climatic niche and migration movements of Double-crested Cormorants. Ecol Evol 2022; 12:e9153. [PMID: 36016816 PMCID: PMC9396706 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.9153] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/05/2022] [Revised: 07/05/2022] [Accepted: 07/08/2022] [Indexed: 11/08/2022] Open
Abstract
Avian migrants are challenged by seasonal adverse climatic conditions and energetic costs of long-distance flying. Migratory birds may track or switch seasonal climatic niche between the breeding and non-breeding grounds. Satellite tracking enables avian ecologists to investigate seasonal climatic niche and circannual movement patterns of migratory birds. The Double-crested Cormorant (Nannopterum auritum, hereafter cormorant) wintering in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) migrates to the Northern Great Plains and Great Lakes and is of economic importance because of its impacts on aquaculture. We tested the climatic niche switching hypothesis that cormorants would switch climatic niche between summer and winter because of substantial differences in climate between the non-breeding grounds in the subtropical region and breeding grounds in the northern temperate region. The ordination analysis of climatic niche overlap indicated that cormorants had separate seasonal climatic niche consisting of seasonal mean monthly minimum and maximum temperature, seasonal mean monthly precipitation, and seasonal mean wind speed. Despite non-overlapping summer and winter climatic niches, cormorants appeared to be subjected to similar wind speed between winter and summer habitats and were consistent with similar hourly flying speed between winter and summer. Therefore, substantial differences in temperature and precipitation may lead to the climatic niche switching of fish-eating cormorants, a dietary specialist, between the breeding and non-breeding grounds.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- D Tommy King
- U. S. Department of Agriculture, Wildlife Services National Wildlife Research Center Mississippi State Mississippi USA
| | - Guiming Wang
- Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Aquaculture Mississippi State University Mississippi State Mississippi USA
| | - Fred L Cunningham
- U. S. Department of Agriculture, Wildlife Services National Wildlife Research Center Mississippi State Mississippi USA
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
|
5
|
Franklin KA, Nicoll MAC, Butler SJ, Norris K, Ratcliffe N, Nakagawa S, Gill JA. Individual repeatability of avian migration phenology: a systematic review and meta-analysis. J Anim Ecol 2022; 91:1416-1430. [PMID: 35385132 PMCID: PMC9546039 DOI: 10.1111/1365-2656.13697] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/02/2021] [Accepted: 03/17/2022] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Changes in phenology and distribution are being widely reported for many migratory species in response to shifting environmental conditions. Understanding these changes and the situations in which they occur can be aided by understanding consistent individual differences in phenology and distribution and the situations in which consistency varies in strength or detectability. Studies tracking the same individuals over consecutive years are increasingly reporting migratory timings to be a repeatable trait, suggesting that flexible individual responses to environmental conditions may contribute little to population-level changes in phenology and distribution. However, how this varies across species and sexes, across the annual cycle and in relation to study (tracking method, study design) and/or ecosystem characteristics is not yet clear. Here, we take advantage of the growing number of publications in movement ecology to perform a phylogenetic multilevel meta-analysis of repeatability estimates for avian migratory timings to investigate these questions. Of 2,433 reviewed studies, 54 contained suitable information for meta-analysis, resulting in 177 effect sizes from 47 species. Individual repeatability of avian migratory timings averaged 0.414 (95% confidence interval: 0.3-0.5) across landbirds, waterbirds and seabirds, suggesting consistent individual differences in migratory timings is a common feature of migratory systems. Timing of departure from the non-breeding grounds was more repeatable than timings of arrival at or departure from breeding grounds, suggesting that conditions encountered on migratory journeys and outcome of breeding attempts can influence individual variation. Population-level shifts in phenology could arise through individual timings changing with environmental conditions and/or through shifts in the numbers of individuals with different timings. Our findings suggest that, in addition to identifying the conditions associated with individual variation in phenology, exploring the causes of between-individual variation will be key in predicting future rates and directions of changes in migratory timings. We therefore encourage researchers to report the within- and between- individual variance components underpinning the reported repeatability estimates to aid interpretation of migration behaviour. In addition, the lack of studies in the tropics means that levels of repeatability in less strongly seasonal environments are not yet clear.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Kirsty A Franklin
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, UK.,Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London, Regent's Park, London, UK
| | - Malcolm A C Nicoll
- Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London, Regent's Park, London, UK
| | - Simon J Butler
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, UK
| | - Ken Norris
- Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London, UK
| | - Norman Ratcliffe
- British Antarctic Survey, High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge, UK
| | - Shinichi Nakagawa
- Ecology & Evolution Research Centre, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia
| | - Jennifer A Gill
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, UK
| |
Collapse
|
6
|
Haest B, Hüppop O, Bairlein F. The influence of weather on avian spring migration phenology: What, where and when? GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY 2018; 24:5769-5788. [PMID: 30238551 DOI: 10.1111/gcb.14450] [Citation(s) in RCA: 32] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/12/2018] [Accepted: 08/20/2018] [Indexed: 06/08/2023]
Abstract
Over the past decades, spring arrival and passage of most short- and medium-distance migrating birds in the Northern Hemisphere have advanced. Changes in spring temperature at the passage or arrival area have been most frequently shown to be related to these changes in spring migration phenology. In most studies, preliminary assumptions are made on both the spatial location and the specific time frame of the weather influencing spring migration phenology. We performed a spatially explicit time-window analysis of the effect of weather on mean spring passage dates of nine short- and medium-distance passerines. We analysed data from standardized daily captures at the Helgoland (Germany) constant-effort site, in combination with gridded daily temperature, precipitation and wind data from the NCEP data set over a 55-year period (1960-2014), across the whole of West Europe and North Africa. Although we allowed for a time window of any length at any location, nevertheless incorporating various measures to avoid spurious correlations, time windows at the likely wintering or spring stopover grounds were almost exclusively selected as the best predicting variables (96%-100% of identified variables). The weather variables at the wintering and stopover grounds explain up to 77% of the interannual variability in spring passage. Yet, the response of spring migration phenology to weather at the winter or stopover areas does not fully explain the observed trends. Spring migration phenology is, hence, strongly driven by weather at the wintering and stopover grounds, but additional mechanisms are needed to fully explain the advancement of spring migration. Our results also clearly show that previously illustrated correlations, or the lack thereof, between spring migration phenology and weather at the passage or arrival location are due to spatio-temporal correlations in the weather data. This spatial mismatch might have led to false conclusions, especially the further away the wintering or stopover sites are.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Birgen Haest
- Institute of Avian Research "Vogelwarte Helgoland", Wilhelmshaven, Germany
| | - Ommo Hüppop
- Institute of Avian Research "Vogelwarte Helgoland", Wilhelmshaven, Germany
| | - Franz Bairlein
- Institute of Avian Research "Vogelwarte Helgoland", Wilhelmshaven, Germany
| |
Collapse
|
7
|
Gutierrez Illan J, Wang G, Cunningham FL, King DT. Seasonal effects of wind conditions on migration patterns of soaring American white pelican. PLoS One 2017; 12:e0186948. [PMID: 29065188 PMCID: PMC5655449 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0186948] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/20/2017] [Accepted: 10/10/2017] [Indexed: 12/05/2022] Open
Abstract
Energy and time expenditures are determinants of bird migration strategies. Soaring birds have developed migration strategies to minimize these costs, optimizing the use of all the available resources to facilitate their displacement. We analysed the effects of different wind factors (tailwind, turbulence, vertical updrafts) on the migratory flying strategies adopted by 24 satellite-tracked American white pelicans (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos) throughout spring and autumn in North America. We hypothesize that different wind conditions encountered along migration routes between spring and autumn induce pelicans to adopt different flying strategies and use of these wind resources. Using quantile regression and fine-scale atmospheric data, we found that the pelicans optimized the use of available wind resources, flying faster and more direct routes in spring than in autumn. They actively selected tailwinds in both spring and autumn displacements but relied on available updrafts predominantly in their spring migration, when they needed to arrive at the breeding regions. These effects varied depending on the flying speed of the pelicans. We found significant directional correlations between the pelican migration flights and wind direction. In light of our results, we suggest plasticity of migratory flight strategies by pelicans is likely to enhance their ability to cope with the effects of ongoing climate change and the alteration of wind regimes. Here, we also demonstrate the usefulness and applicability of quantile regression techniques to investigate complex ecological processes such as variable effects of atmospheric conditions on soaring migration.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Javier Gutierrez Illan
- Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Aquaculture, Mississippi State University, Starkville, United States of America
| | - Guiming Wang
- Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Aquaculture, Mississippi State University, Starkville, United States of America
| | - Fred L. Cunningham
- Wildlife Services-National Wildlife Research Center, Mississippi Field Station, Mississippi State University, Starkville, United States of America
| | - D. Tommy King
- Wildlife Services-National Wildlife Research Center, Mississippi Field Station, Mississippi State University, Starkville, United States of America
| |
Collapse
|