The effects of four decades of climate change on the breeding ecology of an avian sentinel species across a 1,500‐km latitudinal gradient are stronger at high latitudes

Vega, Marta Lomas; Fransson, Thord; Kullberg, Cecilia

doi:10.1002/ece3.7459

Cited by 6 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 68 publications

(148 reference statements)

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“…They also reported that the median first egg date correlated significantly with increasing mean May to July temperatures. Vega et al (2021) similarly described an advancement of 8.3 days in start of breeding, as measured by hatching time, in the northernmost populations of European Pied Flycatchers compared to 3.6 days advancement in the southernmost flycatchers over a 36‐year span. As in the previous study, increasing temperature as well as vegetation greenness were important factors in advancing breeding season.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using culturally significant birds to guide the timing of prescribed fires in the Klamath Siskiyou Bioregion

et al. 2023

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using culturally significant birds to guide the timing of prescribed fires in the Klamath Siskiyou Bioregion

et al. 2023

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“…In diurnal migrants, longer photoperiods allow for longer duration of activity while migrating (Alerstam, 2009;Pokrovsky et al, 2021), which is predicted to lead to greater foraging ability during migration and fewer stopovers (or migration slowdowns) in a fly-and-forage migration strategy (Berthold et al, 2001;Alerstam, 2003;Alerstam, 2009). Numerous studies have examined migration timing at a specific point during migration, such as at arrival, departure, or specific stopovers (McKellar et al, 2013;Van Doren and Horton, 2018;Schmaljohann, 2019;Conklin et al, 2021;Lomas Vega et al, 2021;Tomotani et al, 2021). However, few studies have examined the entire migration process (Schmaljohann and Both, 2017;McKinnon and Love, 2018) and studies examining the interaction between timing, rate, and en route conditions in birds are also exceptionally rare (Haest et al, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spring departure date, not en route conditions, drive migration rate and arrival timing in a long-distance migratory songbird

Turcotte-van de Rydt,

Muthukumarana,

Fraser

2023

Front. Bird Sci.

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Long-distance avian migrants are threatened by a rapidly changing environment, which can induce a mismatch between favorable environmental conditions and the timing of breeding. Therefore, migratory birds must rely on phenotypic plasticity within migration timing to remain synchronized with earlier occurring resources over the shorter term. However, how this plasticity responds to en route environmental factors and whether or not it may allow migratory birds to remain synchronized with advancing springs is largely unknown. The objective of this study was to investigate how extrinsic factors, such as those related to the weather (e.g., temperature, precipitation, and wind speed) and daylength experienced along spring migration routes, and intrinsic factors, such as sex and age, migration departure date from wintering grounds, and migration destination (i.e., breeding site), influence the migration rate and spring arrival date at breeding grounds in purple martins (Progne subis). We investigated arrival timing and rate using 307 individual migration tracks sampled across the birds’ eastern breeding range. We found that the departure date and total stopover time explained most of the variation in migration rate, with birds departing later traveling faster but taking more stopover days, leading to a slower overall migration rate. To a lesser extent, facilitating southern winds and lower precipitation also induced a faster migration rate. We found that birds with a faster migration rate arrived earlier at their breeding sites. We also found that female birds traveling to more northern breeding sites arrived earlier than male birds, and that they migrated at a faster rate. Overall, our results suggest that the migration rate may be most impacted by intrinsic factors tied to spring departure dates that are aligned with the phenology of breeding sites rather than by conditions experienced en route. These findings support growing evidence that selection for spring departure date may be needed for the advancement of spring arrival date to match advancing springs with climate change. Future research investigating how environmental conditions at stopovers contribute to the overall migration rate would provide further insight into the factors influencing migration timing.

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Black‐throated blue warblers (Setophaga caerulescens) exhibit diet flexibility and track seasonal changes in insect availability

Kaiser,

Forg,

Stillman

et al. 2024

Ecology and Evolution

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Changes in leaf phenology from warming spring and autumn temperatures have lengthened the temperate zone growing “green” season and breeding window for migratory birds in North America. However, the fitness benefits of an extended breeding season will depend, in part, on whether species have sufficient dietary flexibility to accommodate seasonal changes in prey availability. We used fecal DNA metabarcoding to test the hypothesis that seasonal changes in the diets of the insectivorous, migratory black‐throated blue warbler (Setophaga caerulescens) track changes in the availability of arthropod prey at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest, New Hampshire, USA. We examined changes across the breeding season and along an elevation gradient encompassing a 2‐week difference in green season length. From 98 fecal samples, we identified 395 taxa from 17 arthropod orders; 242 were identified to species, with Cecrita guttivitta (saddled prominent moth), Theridion frondeum (eastern long‐legged cobweaver), and Philodromus rufus (white‐striped running crab spider) occurring at the highest frequency. We found significant differences in diet composition between survey periods and weak differences among elevation zones. Variance in diet composition was highest late in the season, and diet richness and diversity were highest early in the season. Diet composition was associated with changes in prey availability surveyed over the green season. However, several taxa occurred in diets more or less than expected relative to their frequency of occurrence from survey data, suggesting that prey selection or avoidance sometimes accompanies opportunistic foraging. This study demonstrates that black‐throated blue warblers exhibit diet flexibility and track seasonal changes in prey availability, which has implications for migratory bird responses to climate‐induced changes in insect communities with longer green seasons.

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The effects of four decades of climate change on the breeding ecology of an avian sentinel species across a 1,500‐km latitudinal gradient are stronger at high latitudes

Abstract: This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Cited by 6 publications

References 68 publications

Using culturally significant birds to guide the timing of prescribed fires in the Klamath Siskiyou Bioregion

Using culturally significant birds to guide the timing of prescribed fires in the Klamath Siskiyou Bioregion

Spring departure date, not en route conditions, drive migration rate and arrival timing in a long-distance migratory songbird

Black‐throated blue warblers (Setophaga caerulescens) exhibit diet flexibility and track seasonal changes in insect availability

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