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Effects of blood parasite infections on spatiotemporal migration patterns and activity budgets in a long-distance migratory passerine

Emmenegger, Tamara LU orcid ; Bensch, Staffan LU ; Hahn, Steffen ; Kishkinev, Dmitry ; Procházka, Petr ; Zehtindjiev, Pavel and Bauer, Silke (2021) In Ecology and Evolution 11(2). p.753-762
Abstract

How blood parasite infections influence the migration of hosts remains a lively debated issue as past studies found negative, positive, or no response to infections. This particularly applies to small birds, for which monitoring of detailed migration behavior over a whole annual cycle has been technically unachievable so far. Here, we investigate how bird migration is influenced by parasite infections. To this end, we tracked great reed warblers (Acrocephalus arundinaceus) with multisensor loggers, characterized general migration patterns as well as detailed flight bout durations, resting times and flight heights, and related these to the genus and intensity of their avian haemosporidian infections. We found migration distances to be... (More)

How blood parasite infections influence the migration of hosts remains a lively debated issue as past studies found negative, positive, or no response to infections. This particularly applies to small birds, for which monitoring of detailed migration behavior over a whole annual cycle has been technically unachievable so far. Here, we investigate how bird migration is influenced by parasite infections. To this end, we tracked great reed warblers (Acrocephalus arundinaceus) with multisensor loggers, characterized general migration patterns as well as detailed flight bout durations, resting times and flight heights, and related these to the genus and intensity of their avian haemosporidian infections. We found migration distances to be shorter and the onset of autumn migration to be delayed with increasing intensity of blood parasite infection, in particular for birds with Plasmodium and mixed-genus infections. Additionally, the durations of migratory flight bout were prolonged for infected compared to uninfected birds. But since severely infected birds and particularly birds with mixed-genus infections had shorter resting times, initial delays seemed to be compensated for and the timing in other periods of the annual cycle was not compromised by infection. Overall, our multisensor logger approach revealed that avian blood parasites have mostly subtle effects on migratory performance and that effects can occur in specific periods of the year only.

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author
; ; ; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
activity, biologging, bird migration, flight height, great reed warbler, Haemoproteus, migration timing, parasites, Plasmodium, resting
in
Ecology and Evolution
volume
11
issue
2
pages
753 - 762
publisher
Wiley-Blackwell
external identifiers
  • scopus:85096715241
  • pmid:33520163
ISSN
2045-7758
DOI
10.1002/ece3.7030
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
0ca9c739-1d62-455d-a394-83252fec6816
date added to LUP
2020-12-09 08:27:23
date last changed
2024-06-14 04:19:44
@article{0ca9c739-1d62-455d-a394-83252fec6816,
  abstract     = {{<p>How blood parasite infections influence the migration of hosts remains a lively debated issue as past studies found negative, positive, or no response to infections. This particularly applies to small birds, for which monitoring of detailed migration behavior over a whole annual cycle has been technically unachievable so far. Here, we investigate how bird migration is influenced by parasite infections. To this end, we tracked great reed warblers (Acrocephalus arundinaceus) with multisensor loggers, characterized general migration patterns as well as detailed flight bout durations, resting times and flight heights, and related these to the genus and intensity of their avian haemosporidian infections. We found migration distances to be shorter and the onset of autumn migration to be delayed with increasing intensity of blood parasite infection, in particular for birds with Plasmodium and mixed-genus infections. Additionally, the durations of migratory flight bout were prolonged for infected compared to uninfected birds. But since severely infected birds and particularly birds with mixed-genus infections had shorter resting times, initial delays seemed to be compensated for and the timing in other periods of the annual cycle was not compromised by infection. Overall, our multisensor logger approach revealed that avian blood parasites have mostly subtle effects on migratory performance and that effects can occur in specific periods of the year only.</p>}},
  author       = {{Emmenegger, Tamara and Bensch, Staffan and Hahn, Steffen and Kishkinev, Dmitry and Procházka, Petr and Zehtindjiev, Pavel and Bauer, Silke}},
  issn         = {{2045-7758}},
  keywords     = {{activity; biologging; bird migration; flight height; great reed warbler; Haemoproteus; migration timing; parasites; Plasmodium; resting}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{2}},
  pages        = {{753--762}},
  publisher    = {{Wiley-Blackwell}},
  series       = {{Ecology and Evolution}},
  title        = {{Effects of blood parasite infections on spatiotemporal migration patterns and activity budgets in a long-distance migratory passerine}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.7030}},
  doi          = {{10.1002/ece3.7030}},
  volume       = {{11}},
  year         = {{2021}},
}