Resource tracking within and across continents in long-distance bird migrants
(2017) In Science Advances 3(1).- Abstract
Migratory birds track seasonal resources across and between continents. We propose a general strategy of tracking the broad seasonal abundance of resources throughout the annual cycle in the longest-distance migrating land birds as an alternative to tracking a certain climatic niche or shorter-term resource surplus occurring, for example, during spring foliation. Whether and how this is possible for complex annual spatiotemporal schedules is not known. New tracking technology enables unprecedented spatial and temporal mapping of long-distance movement of birds. We show that three Palearctic-African species track vegetation greenness throughout their annual cycle, adjusting the timing and direction of migratory movements with seasonal... (More)
Migratory birds track seasonal resources across and between continents. We propose a general strategy of tracking the broad seasonal abundance of resources throughout the annual cycle in the longest-distance migrating land birds as an alternative to tracking a certain climatic niche or shorter-term resource surplus occurring, for example, during spring foliation. Whether and how this is possible for complex annual spatiotemporal schedules is not known. New tracking technology enables unprecedented spatial and temporal mapping of long-distance movement of birds. We show that three Palearctic-African species track vegetation greenness throughout their annual cycle, adjusting the timing and direction of migratory movements with seasonal changes in resource availability over Europe and Africa. Common cuckoos maximize the vegetation greenness, whereas red-backed shrikes and thrush nightingales track seasonal surplus in greenness. Our results demonstrate that the longest-distance migrants move between consecutive staging areas even within the wintering region in Africa to match seasonal variation in regional climate. End-of-century climate projections indicate that optimizing greenness would be possible but that vegetation surplus might be more difficult to track in the future.
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- author
- Thorup, Kasper ; Tøttrup, Anders P ; Willemoes, Mikkel LU ; Klaassen, Raymond H G LU ; Strandberg, Roine LU ; Vega, Marta Lomas LU ; Dasari, Hari P ; Araújo, Miguel B ; Wikelski, Martin and Rahbek, Carsten
- organization
- publishing date
- 2017-01
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- in
- Science Advances
- volume
- 3
- issue
- 1
- article number
- e1601360
- pages
- 11 pages
- publisher
- American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
- external identifiers
-
- wos:000393789900013
- scopus:85028470379
- pmid:28070557
- ISSN
- 2375-2548
- DOI
- 10.1126/sciadv.1601360
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 219a5a4a-83fe-489b-8789-347a320b664b
- date added to LUP
- 2017-03-09 11:26:42
- date last changed
- 2024-11-26 06:35:16
@article{219a5a4a-83fe-489b-8789-347a320b664b, abstract = {{<p>Migratory birds track seasonal resources across and between continents. We propose a general strategy of tracking the broad seasonal abundance of resources throughout the annual cycle in the longest-distance migrating land birds as an alternative to tracking a certain climatic niche or shorter-term resource surplus occurring, for example, during spring foliation. Whether and how this is possible for complex annual spatiotemporal schedules is not known. New tracking technology enables unprecedented spatial and temporal mapping of long-distance movement of birds. We show that three Palearctic-African species track vegetation greenness throughout their annual cycle, adjusting the timing and direction of migratory movements with seasonal changes in resource availability over Europe and Africa. Common cuckoos maximize the vegetation greenness, whereas red-backed shrikes and thrush nightingales track seasonal surplus in greenness. Our results demonstrate that the longest-distance migrants move between consecutive staging areas even within the wintering region in Africa to match seasonal variation in regional climate. End-of-century climate projections indicate that optimizing greenness would be possible but that vegetation surplus might be more difficult to track in the future.</p>}}, author = {{Thorup, Kasper and Tøttrup, Anders P and Willemoes, Mikkel and Klaassen, Raymond H G and Strandberg, Roine and Vega, Marta Lomas and Dasari, Hari P and Araújo, Miguel B and Wikelski, Martin and Rahbek, Carsten}}, issn = {{2375-2548}}, language = {{eng}}, number = {{1}}, publisher = {{American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)}}, series = {{Science Advances}}, title = {{Resource tracking within and across continents in long-distance bird migrants}}, url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1601360}}, doi = {{10.1126/sciadv.1601360}}, volume = {{3}}, year = {{2017}}, }