The Arctic is entering a new ecological state, with alarming consequences for humanity. Animal-borne sensors offer a window into these changes. Although substantial animal tracking data from the Arctic and subarctic exist, most are difficult to discover and access. Here, we present the new Arctic Animal Movement Archive (AAMA), a growing collection of more than 200 standardized terrestrial and marine animal tracking studies from 1991 to the present. The AAMA supports public data discovery, preserves fundamental baseline data for the future, and facilitates efficient, collaborative data analysis. With AAMA-based case studies, we document climatic influences on the migration phenology of eagles, geographic differences in the adaptive response of caribou reproductive phenology to climate change, and species-specific changes in terrestrial mammal movement rates in response to increasing temperature.

Coexistence and population genetic structure of the whooper swan Cygnus cygnus and mute swan Cygnus olor in Lithuania and Latvia IntroductionCoexistence between closely related species in a given habitat or region has been of interest to researchers for decades [1][2][3][4]. Species with diverse population structures are generally better adapted to changing environmental conditions and can more successfully utilize new types of habitats [5]. As a result of global environmental change, closely related species that were historically separated by geographic barriers are sometimes found to coexist, which can result in an increase in interactions such as competition and hybridization. Two closely related swan species, the mute swan Cygnus olor and the whooper swan Cygnus cygnus were formerly allopatric throughout their breeding ranges, but during the last decades their breeding ranges have overlapped in the Baltic Sea Region [6][7][8]. This range overlap was caused by a rapid expansion in the breeding range of both species in Europe. In Lithuania and Latvia both species presently occur in the same type of habitats.The whooper swan is a characteristic species of the boreal zone in Europe. It was pushed close to extinction in the Baltic region during the 19 th and the early 20 th century due to intense human persecution [6]. A rapid range expansion of the species has been recorded since the 1970s (mainly due to improved conservation measures) and during the past decades it has established as a breeding species in all countries of the Baltic region. In Sweden, the number of whooper swans has increased from 20 pairs in the early 20 th century to about 5.400 pairs estimated during the last few years [9]. Similarly in Finland, a recorded 15 pairs from the 1940s have increased to 5.000-7.000 pairs during the last decade [10]. An increase in the number of the breeding birds was also recorded in other countries of Central and Western Europe [11][12][13][14][15][16]. The species continues to spread southwards, re-occupying former nesting grounds. During the same period, since the Keywords: Cygnus cygnus • Cygnus olor • D-loop • population genetic structure • CoexistenceAbstract: Two closely related swan species, the mute swan Cygnus olor and the whooper swan Cygnus cygnus, were formerly allopatric throughout their breeding ranges, but during the last decades a sympatric distribution has become characteristic of these species in the Baltic Sea region. The whooper swan has gradually replaced the mute swan in many suitable habitats in Lithuania and Latvia. Marked differences in the genetic population structure of both species may partially explain the dominance of the whooper swan, as genetic population divergence can be a major factor affecting inter-specific competition. A homogenous genetic population structure was defined for mute swans breeding in Lithuania, Latvia, Poland and Belarus. Breeding mute swans in this region are mostly of naturalised origin. A diverse population genetic structure characterizes whooper swans bree...

Spectacular increases in range and numbers of some swan and goose species around the Baltic Sea have resulted in more contacts between species and facilitated mixed breeding. Records of mixed breeding and observations during the non-breeding season of mixed families, mixed pairs and hybrids in which at least one of the parent species was a swan were compiled for Sweden, Finland, Leningrad and Kaliningrad Regions of Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Germany and Denmark. There were twelve records of mixed breeding, nine of Mute Swan × Whooper Swan and one each of Mute Swan × Greylag Goose, Mute Swan × Greater Canada Goose and Whooper Swan × Bewick’s Swan. Excluding the two cases involving a goose and two cases involving swans with captive background, there were eight breeding records in the wild. Seven of these can be explained by range expansions. The exception was a case where the identification of the male was unsure.

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