During migratory journeys, birds may become displaced from their normal migratory route. Experimental evidence has shown that adult birds can correct for such displacements and return to their goal. However, the nature of the cues used by migratory birds to perform long distance navigation is still debated. In this experiment we subjected adult lesser black-backed gulls migrating from their Finnish/Russian breeding grounds (from >60°N) to Africa (to < 5°N) to sensory manipulation, to determine the sensory systems required for navigation. We translocated birds westward (1080 km) or eastward (885 km) to simulate natural navigational challenges. When translocated westwards and outside their migratory corridor birds with olfactory nerve section kept a clear directional preference (southerly) but were unable to compensate for the displacement, while intact birds and gulls with the ophthalmic branch of the trigeminal nerve sectioned oriented towards their population-specific migratory corridor. Thus, air-borne olfactory information seems to be important for migrating gulls to navigate successfully in some circumstances.

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.

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Abstract1. The natural environment of the Arctic is changing rapidly owing to climate change. At the same time in many countries including Russia the region is attracting growing attention of decisionmakers and business communities. In light of the above it is necessary to protect the biodiversity of the regional marine ecosystems in the most effective way possible, namely by establishing a network of marine protected areas.2. Identifying conservation priority areas is a key step towards this goal. To achieve it, a study based on a systematic conservation planning approach was conducted. An expanded group of experts used the MARXAN algorithm to produce initial results, then discussed and refined them to select 47 conservation priority areas in the Russian Arctic seas.3. The resulting network covers nearly 25% of the Russian Arctic seas, which guarantees proportional representation of their biodiversity as well as achieving connectivity, sustainability and naturalness. This was largely made possible by the selected methodology, based on the MARXAN decision support tool supplemented by extensive post-analysis that helped fill any gaps inevitable in the formal approach.4. Although available data were sparse, and of varying quality and a single regionalization scheme could not be used (as is often the case for such areas), the selected approach has proven successful for such a large area that covers both the coastal zone and parts of the High Seas. Such an approach could be used further to identify marine protected areas throughout the Arctic Ocean. Kudersky, 2004;Pavlov & Sundet, 2011;Spiridonov & Zalota, 2017) and sea ice habitat loss (Amstrup, Marcot, & Douglas, 2008;Moore & Huntington, 2008). Perhaps equally important, these changes lead to greater human presence in the region (Huettmann, 2012;Jørgensen et al., 2016;Wenzel et al., 2016). This could take many forms from increased oil and gas exploration and production, intensified shipping, fishing, aquaculture and tourism as well as greater military presence.In recent years serious efforts to protect marine biodiversity have been undertaken worldwide and the Russian Arctic seas are no exception. The Arctic is receiving growing attention in Russia as politicians, investors, media and the general public are pushing for a comeback after the country's withdrawal from the region in the 1990s. There are two approaches to conservation that prevail in the world today. One is based on industries regulations that are introduced alongside measures to protect or manage particular species or stocks (Roff & Zacharias, 2011). The other centres on areabased conservation measures and is widely regarded as effective (Roff & Zacharias, 2011;Spiridonov et al., 2012). In the Russian Arctic the latter remains less common. The region has seven Strictly Protected Natural Reserves, or zapovedniks (IUCN Ia), three National Parks (IUCN II), four Preserves (IUCN IV/VI), one Natural Monument (IUCN III) and 41 Regional Protected Areas (IUCN Ib), but their primary purpose is to protect terr...

Migrating birds affected by climate change in the Arctic may have lower survival chances in their tropical habitats