Dataset Information

Very rapid long-distance sea crossing by a migratory bird.

ABSTRACT: Landbirds undertaking within-continent migrations have the possibility to stop en route, but most long-distance migrants must also undertake large non-stop sea crossings, the length of which can vary greatly. For shorebirds migrating from Iceland to West Africa, the shortest route would involve one of the longest continuous sea crossings while alternative, mostly overland, routes are available. Using geolocators to track the migration of Icelandic whimbrels (Numenius phaeopus), we show that they can complete a round-trip of 11,000?km making two non-stop sea crossings and flying at speeds of up to 24?m s-1; the fastest recorded for shorebirds flying over the ocean. Although wind support could reduce flight energetic costs, whimbrels faced headwinds up to twice their ground speed, indicating that unfavourable and potentially fatal weather conditions are not uncommon. Such apparently high risk migrations might be more common than previously thought, with potential fitness gains outweighing the costs.

SUBMITTER: Alves JA

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5128861 | biostudies-other | 2016 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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Publications

Very rapid long-distance sea crossing by a migratory bird.

Alves José A JA Dias Maria P MP Méndez Verónica V Katrínardóttir Borgný B Gunnarsson Tómas G TG

Scientific reports 20161130

Landbirds undertaking within-continent migrations have the possibility to stop en route, but most long-distance migrants must also undertake large non-stop sea crossings, the length of which can vary greatly. For shorebirds migrating from Iceland to West Africa, the shortest route would involve one of the longest continuous sea crossings while alternative, mostly overland, routes are available. Using geolocators to track the migration of Icelandic whimbrels (Numenius phaeopus), we show that they ...[more]

PMID: 27901077

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Project description:Longitudinal tracking studies have revealed consistent differences in the migration patterns of individuals from the same populations. The sources or processes causing this individual variation are largely unresolved. As a result, it is mostly unknown how much, how fast and when animals can adjust their migrations to changing environments. We studied the ontogeny of migration in a long-distance migratory shorebird, the black-tailed godwit Limosa limosa limosa, a species known to exhibit marked individuality in the migratory routines of adults. By observing how and when these individual differences arise, we aimed to elucidate whether individual differences in migratory behaviour are inherited or emerge as a result of developmental plasticity. We simultaneously tracked juvenile and adult godwits from the same breeding area on their south- and northward migrations. To determine how and when individual differences begin to arise, we related juvenile migration routes, timing and mortality rates to hatch date and hatch year. Then, we compared adult and juvenile migration patterns to identify potential age-dependent differences. In juveniles, the timing of their first southward departure was related to hatch date. However, their subsequent migration routes, orientation, destination, migratory duration and likelihood of mortality were unrelated to the year or timing of migration, or their sex. Juveniles left the Netherlands after all tracked adults. They then flew non-stop to West Africa more often and incurred higher mortality rates than adults. Some juveniles also took routes and visited stopover sites far outside the well-documented adult migratory corridor. Such juveniles, however, were not more likely to die. We found that juveniles exhibited different migratory patterns than adults, but no evidence that these behaviours are under natural selection. We thus eliminate the possibility that the individual differences observed among adult godwits are present at hatch or during their first migration. This adds to the mounting evidence that animals possess the developmental plasticity to change their migration later in life in response to environmental conditions as those conditions are experienced.

Project description:Long-distance dispersal (LDD) outside a species' breeding range contributes to genetic divergence. Previous phylogeographic studies of migratory bird species have not discriminated LDD from vicariant speciation in their diversification process. We conducted an integrative phylogeographic approach to test the LDD hypothesis, which predicts that a Japanese migratory bird subspecies diverged from a population in the coastal region of the East China Sea (CRECS) via LDD over the East China Sea (ECS). Haplotype networks of both mitochondrial and nuclear genes of its three subspecies were reconstructed to examine whether the Japanese subspecies of the Brown Shrike (Lanius cristatus superciliosus) diverged from an ancestral CRECS population. A species distribution model (SDM) for the Japanese subspecies was constructed using bioclimatic variables under the maximum entropy algorithm. It was projected backwards to the climate of the last glacial maximum (LGM) to infer the candidate source area of colonization. A migratory route of L. c. superciliosus, which possibly reflects a candidate past colonization route, was tracked by light-level geolocators. Molecular phylogenetic networks suggest that the Japanese subspecies diverged from a population in the CRECS and maintained anciently diverged haplotypes. The SDM inferred that the emerged continental shelf of the ECS and the present CRECS were suitable breeding areas for the Japanese subspecies during the LGM. A major migratory route for L. c. superciliosus was inferred between the CRECS and the Japanese archipelago across the ECS. Our integrative approach supported the LDD hypothesis for divergence of the Japanese subspecies of the Brown Shrike. Shrinkage of the ECS may have been responsible for successful population establishment, due to a sufficient number of migrants overshooting to the Japanese archipelago from the CRECS. Our framework provides a new phylogeographic scenario for this region. Discriminating LDD and vicariance models helps improve our understanding of the phylogeographic histories of migratory species.

Dataset Information

Very rapid long-distance sea crossing by a migratory bird.

Publications

Very rapid long-distance sea crossing by a migratory bird.

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