Integrating concepts and technologies to advance the study of bird migration

Robinson, W. Douglas; Bowlin, Melissa S.; Bisson, Isabelle-Anne; Shamoun‐Baranes, Judy; Thorup, Kasper; Diehl, Robert H.; Kunz, Thomas; Mabey, Sarah E.; Winkler, David W.

doi:10.1890/080179

Cited by 182 publications

(154 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…Their small size has long prevented the study of the largest part of their lives, outside the breeding grounds [3,4]. Traditional ring-recovery data, stable isotope analyses and the use of genetic markers have generated much progress in recent years [5,6].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The annual cycle of a trans-equatorial Eurasian–African passerine migrant: different spatio-temporal strategies for autumn and spring migration

et al. 2011

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The small size of the billions of migrating songbirds commuting between temperate breeding sites and the tropics has long prevented the study of the largest part of their annual cycle outside the breeding grounds. Using light-level loggers (geolocators), we recorded the entire annual migratory cycle of the red-backed shrike Lanius collurio, a trans-equatorial Eurasian-African passerine migrant. We tested differences between autumn and spring migration for nine individuals. Duration of migration between breeding and winter sites was significantly longer in autumn (average 96 days) when compared with spring (63 days). This difference was explained by much longer staging periods during autumn (71 days) than spring (9 days). Between staging periods, the birds travelled faster during autumn (356 km d ). All birds made a protracted stop (53 days) in Sahelian sub-Sahara on southbound migration. The birds performed a distinct loop migration (22 000 km) where spring distance, including a detour across the Arabian Peninsula, exceeded the autumn distance by 22 per cent. Geographical scatter between routes was particularly narrow in spring, with navigational convergence towards the crossing point from Africa to the Arabian Peninsula. Temporal variation between individuals was relatively constant, while different individuals tended to be consistently early or late at different departure/arrival occasions during the annual cycle. These results demonstrate the existence of fundamentally different spatio-temporal migration strategies used by the birds during autumn and spring migration, and that songbirds may rely on distinct staging areas for completion of their annual cycle, suggesting more sophisticated endogenous control mechanisms than merely clockand-compass guidance among terrestrial solitary migrants. After a century with metal-ringing, year-round tracking of long-distance migratory songbirds promises further insights into bird migration.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The annual cycle of a trans-equatorial Eurasian–African passerine migrant: different spatio-temporal strategies for autumn and spring migration

et al. 2011

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“…Recent advances in biologging and transmitter technology (reviewed in references [8,9]) have enabled unprecedented long and detailed tracking of increasingly smaller species of animals, and also, in some cases, the simultaneous recording of key behaviours. These developments have provided important insights for different movement phenomena, including long-distance migration, foraging and homing behaviour [10,11].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Commuting fruit bats beneficially modulate their flight in relation to wind

et al. 2014

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When animals move, their tracks may be strongly influenced by the motion of air or water, and this may affect the speed, energetics and prospects of the journey. Flying organisms, such as bats, may thus benefit from modifying their flight in response to the wind vector. Yet, practical difficulties have so far limited the understanding of this response for free-ranging bats. We tracked nine straw-coloured fruit bats (Eidolon helvum) that flew 42.5 + 17.5 km (mean + s.d.) to and from their roost near Accra, Ghana. Following detailed atmospheric simulations, we found that bats compensated for wind drift, as predicted under constant winds, and decreased their airspeed in response to tailwind assistance such that their groundspeed remained nearly constant. In addition, bats increased their airspeed with increasing crosswind speed. Overall, bats modulated their airspeed in relation to wind speed at different wind directions in a manner predicted by a two-dimensional optimal movement model. We conclude that sophisticated behavioural mechanisms to minimize the cost of transport under various wind conditions have evolved in bats. The bats' response to the wind is similar to that reported for migratory birds and insects, suggesting convergent evolution of flight behaviours in volant organisms.

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“…Of the five possible inheritance pathways of information transfer between generations, two (developmental inheritance and behavioural inheritance) would be especially relevant for the fast evolutionary change of flyways and annual schedules. Developed from Lamb (2005, 2007) ), and by the possibility to examine survival and dispersal using an amazing array of remote sensing and tracking tools (Robinson et al 2010). Even for small organisms that travel the world, such as Red Knots, the tools are now available to track their survival and movements across the globe with considerable spatial and temporal precision.…”

Section: Research Opportunities In the Anthropocenementioning

confidence: 99%

Flyway evolution is too fast to be explained by the modern synthesis: proposals for an ‘extended’ evolutionary research agenda

Piersma

2011

J Ornithol

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In this paper, I argue that to fully grasp the generation and maintenance of variation in the migratory phenotypes of (shore-)birds we need to expand our scientific search image and include developmental processes and non-genetic pathways of inheritance in the explanatory frameworks. Traditionally, studies of micro-evolution of migratory phenotypes were restricted to comparative studies on migratory versus non-migratory taxa, and artificial selection and heritability experiments on quantitative behavioural traits related to migration. Such studies had a focus on the genetic axis of inheritance and were restricted to songbirds. In avian groups such as the shorebird families Scolopacidae and Charadriidae, all but a few island species are migrants, which precludes comparative studies at the species level. Like other taxa, shorebirds have geographically separate breeding populations (either or not recognized as subspecies on the basis of morphological differences) which differentiate with respect to the length, general direction and timing of migration, including the use of fuelling at staging sites and the timing of moult. However, their breeding systems preclude artificial selection and heritability experiments on quantitative traits. This would seem to limit the prospects of evolutionary analysis until one realizes that the speed of evolutionary innovation in shorebird migratory life-histories may be so fast as to necessitate other avenues of explanation and investigation. According to our best current estimates based on mitochondrial gene sequence variation, in Red Knots Calidris canutus considerable phenotypic variation has evolved since the Last Glacial Maximum ca. 20,000 years ago, to the extent that six subspecies are currently recognized. This would be too short a time for the origin of the qualitatively and quantitatively distinct and non-overlapping traits to be explained by random point mutations followed by natural selection, although we cannot dismiss the possibility of previously unexpressed (standing) genetic variation followed by selection. I argue that, to understand the flyway evolution of such shorebirds in the 'extended' evolutionary framework, we need to give due attention to developmental versatility and broad-sense epigenetic evolutionary mechanisms. This means that experimental studies at the phenotypic level are now necessary. This could involve a combination of observational studies in our rapidly changing world, common garden experiments, and even experiments involving global-scale displacements of particular migratory phenotypes at different phases of development. I provide suggestions on how such experiments could be carried out.

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Integrating concepts and technologies to advance the study of bird migration

Cited by 182 publications

References 51 publications

The annual cycle of a trans-equatorial Eurasian–African passerine migrant: different spatio-temporal strategies for autumn and spring migration

The annual cycle of a trans-equatorial Eurasian–African passerine migrant: different spatio-temporal strategies for autumn and spring migration

Commuting fruit bats beneficially modulate their flight in relation to wind

Flyway evolution is too fast to be explained by the modern synthesis: proposals for an ‘extended’ evolutionary research agenda

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