The partitioning of temporal movement patterns of breeding red-crowned crane(Grusjaponensis) induced by temperature

Abstract

Patterns of movement through time are important components of animal behavior and key to understanding animal ecology. Due to methodological challenges, including tracing and analyzing movements and their changes, they are seldom studied to identify both seasonal patterns and their driving forces. Using seven GPS-collared red-crowned cranes (Grus japonensis, RCCs), we recorded their moving distances and concurrent climatic data to analyze the relative importance of these factors in RCC movements. Temperature was identified as the most important of these climatic variables in RCC movements. Based on temperature dependence and researcher expertise, we determined RCC temporal movement patterns as mating, brooding, wading, and growing with specific temporal periods partitioning. With the distance quantile of movement, we also identified the preferred temperature ranges in each temporal pattern. The four specific temporal partitionings of breeding movement and their preferred temperature ranges can effectively help wildlife managers devise conservation budgets and allocate resources. Our study provides a robust methodology in the partitioning of avian temporal movement patterns and further the understanding of animal behavior ecology, which is applicable to the study and conservation of other species, as well as for RCCs.

Climate alters the movement ecology of a non‐migratory bird

“…Our study aligns with a growing body of research that indicates that specific climate variables that comprise climate influence animal movement (Alston et al, 2020 ; Bourgoin et al, 2011 ; Gong et al, 2020 ; Rakowski et al, 2019 ). Thus, increased climate variability associated with climate change has the potential to alter the movement of many species (IPCC, 2021 ; Thornton et al, 2014 ).…”

“…As global climate change continues, increasing the intensity and frequency of extreme heat and precipitation (IPCC, 2021 ), there is a growing need to understand how specific climate variables alter animal movement to better determine how to conserve species impacted by climate change. Our results add to the growing body of literature on this topic (Alston et al, 2020 ; Aublet et al, 2009 ; Bourgoin et al, 2011 ; Gong et al, 2020 ). Our findings show that the interaction between air temperature and solar radiation or simply solar radiation influence the fine‐scale movement of a non‐migratory animal.…”

“…Because climate consists of many different variables (e.g., air temperature, solar radiation, and relative humidity; Ahrens & Henson, 2016 ) we utilized the Oklahoma Mesonet, an extensive environmental monitoring network that collects meteorological data at fine temporal across each county in Oklahoma (Brock et al, 1995 ; McPherson et al, 2007 ). Previous studies show that animal movement can be influenced by different climate variables (e.g., air temperature; Alston et al, 2020 ; Gong et al, 2020 ; Rakowski et al, 2019 ). From January 2019 to December 2020 (bobwhite monitoring period), we acquired hourly weather data (air temperature, average wind speed, average vector wind direction, relative humidity, solar radiation, barometric pressure, and calibrated delta‐T; Table 1 ) from the following Mesonet stations: Beaver (Beaver WMA), Arnett (Packsaddle WMA), Erick and Elk City (Sandy Sanders WMA), and Burneyville (Cross Timbers WMA).…”

“…Furthermore, recent advances in global positioning system (GPS) technology now allow bobwhite to be fitted with GPS tags (Cagnacci et al, 2010 ), allowing us to study their local movement at fine temporal and spatial scales (e.g., hourly timescales). Previous studies investigating the role of climate on animal movement have typically only analyzed movement at a broad temporal scale (i.e., daily movement; Garstang et al, 2014 ; Gong et al, 2020 ), but analyzing movement at a finer temporal scale allows us to better perceive more immediate changes in an animal's movement patterns across the day. In addition, many studies have only investigated how a specific climate variable (i.e., temperature) influences animal movement (Alston et al, 2020 ; Mason et al, 2017 ; Rakowski et al, 2019 ).…”

“…Model output from each top model modeling probability of movement, hourly movement, and sinuosity (3-h path) of Northern Bobwhite in western Oklahoma during 2019-2020 animal movement(Alston et al, 2020;Bourgoin et al, 2011;Gong et al, 2020;Rakowski et al, 2019). Thus, increased climate variability associated with climate change has the potential to alter the movement of many species(IPCC, 2021;Thornton et al, 2014).…”