Role of protected areas for a colonial-breeding waterbird in a fragmented landscape throughout its annual cycle.

Context: Throughout their annual cycle and life stages, animals depend on a variety of habitats to meet their vital needs. However, habitat loss, degradation, and fragmentation are making it increasingly difficult for mobile species such as birds to find suitable habitats. Wetlands are highly productive systems of great importance to many animals, but their continued degradation threatens their capacity to support different species, including waterbirds.

Presence and potential impact of anthropogenic nesting materials on a colonial breeding waterbird.

Despite the vital importance of wetlands globally, these habitats have increasingly received anthropogenic materials, such as plastics, which can impact the wildlife these habitats support. Despite commonly found in the nests of Eurasian spoonbill (Platalea leucorodia), the presence of such materials has never been quantified. Here, we monitored the occurrence of anthropogenic nesting materials (ANM) in spoonbill nests in the Camargue wetland in Southern France during two breeding seasons (2021-2022).

Movement of juvenile migratory birds from settlement to adulthood across the non-breeding range.

Among migratory vertebrates, high levels of fidelity to non-breeding sites during adulthood are common. If occupied sites vary in quality, strong site fidelity can have profound consequences for individual fitness and population demography. Given the prevalence of adult site fidelity, the regions of the non-breeding range to which juveniles first migrate, and the scale of any subsequent movements, are likely to be pivotal in shaping distributions and demographic processes across population ranges.

Relationship between wintering site and survival in a migratory waterbird using different migration routes.

When wintering at different sites, individuals from the same breeding population can experience different conditions, with costs and benefits that may have implications throughout their lifetime. Using a dataset from a longitudinal study on Eurasian Spoonbills from southern France, we explored whether survival rate varied among individuals using different wintering sites. In the last 13 years, more than 3000 spoonbills have been ringed as chicks in Camargue.

Global temperature homogenization can obliterate temporal isolation in migratory animals with potential loss of population structure.

Climate change is expected to increase the spatial autocorrelation of temperature, resulting in greater synchronization of climate variables worldwide. Possibly such 'homogenization of the world' leads to elevated risks of extinction and loss of biodiversity. In this study, we develop an empirical example on how increasing synchrony of global temperatures can affect population structure in migratory animals.

Annual Schedule Adjustment by a Long-Distance Migratory Bird.

AbstractMatching the timing of annual cycle events with the required resources can have crucial consequences for individual fitness. But as the annual cycle is composed of sequential events, a delay at any point may be carried over to the subsequent stage (or more, in a domino effect) and negatively influence individual performance. To investigate how migratory animals navigate their annual schedule and where and when it may be adjusted, we used full annual cycle data on 38 Icelandic whimbrels () tracked over 7 years-a subspecies that typically performs long-distance migrations to West Africa.

Spatial and seasonal variation in macrozoobenthic density, biomass and community composition in a major tropical intertidal area, the Bijagós Archipelago, West-Africa.

The coastal intertidal ecosystem of the Bijagós Archipelago, Guinea-Bissau, one of the largest and most important in West Africa, sustains a considerable proportion of the migratory shorebird populations of the East Atlantic Flyway and operates as a nursery area for benthic fish in the region. The macrozoobenthos in these mudflats constitute the main food source for both groups so that spatial and temporal variation in their abundance and community composition is likely to influence the abundance and distribution of fish and birds. In this study we described the spatial and temporal dynamics in the density, biomass, and community composition of macrozoobenthos across six intertidal flats in three islands of the Bijagós Archipelago.

Effects of pair migratory behavior on breeding phenology and success in a partially migratory shorebird population.

In migratory systems, variation in individual phenology can arise through differences in individual migratory behaviors, and this may be particularly apparent in partial migrant systems, where migrant and resident individuals are present within the same population. Links between breeding phenology and migratory behavior or success are generally investigated at the individual level. However, for breeding phenology in particular, the migratory behaviors of each member of the pair may need to be considered simultaneously, as breeding phenology will likely be constrained by timing of the pair member that arrives last, and carryover effects on breeding success may vary depending on whether pair members share the same migratory behavior or not.

Linking migratory performance to breeding phenology and productivity in an Afro-Palearctic long-distance migrant.

Understanding the relationship between migratory performance and fitness is crucial for predicting population dynamics of migratory species. In this study, we used geolocators to explore migration performance (speed and duration of migratory movements, migratory timings) and its association with breeding phenology and productivity in an Afro-Palearctic insectivore, the European bee-eater (Merops apiaster), breeding in Iberian Peninsula. Bee-eaters migrated at higher travel speeds and had shorter travel duration in spring compared to autumn.

Population- and age-specific patterns of haemosporidian assemblages and infection levels in European bee-eaters (Merops apiaster).

Amongst other factors, host behaviour critically determines the patterns with which blood parasites occur in wild host populations. In particular, migratory hosts that sequentially occupy distant sites within and across years are expected to show distinct patterns of blood parasitism depending on their population-specific schedules and whereabouts. Here, we monitored haemosporidian parasitism in two populations of European bee-eaters (Merops apiaster), breeding in Portugal and Germany, with fundamentally different spatiotemporal migration patterns and colonisation histories.

Low fitness at low latitudes: Wintering in the tropics increases migratory delays and mortality rates in an Arctic breeding shorebird.

Evolutionary theories of seasonal migration generally assume that the costs of longer migrations are balanced by benefits at the non-breeding destinations. We tested, and rejected, the null hypothesis of equal survival and timing of spring migration for High Arctic breeding sanderling Calidris alba using six and eight winter destinations between 55°N and 25°S, respectively. Annual apparent survival was considerably lower for adult birds wintering in tropical West Africa (Mauritania: 0.

Why do earlier-arriving migratory birds have better breeding success?

In migratory birds, early arrival on breeding sites is typically associated with greater breeding success, but the mechanisms driving these benefits are rarely known. One mechanism through which greater breeding success among early arrivers can potentially be achieved is the increased time available for replacement clutches following nest loss. However, the contribution of replacement clutches to breeding success will depend on seasonal variation in nest survival rates, and the consequences for juvenile recruitment of hatching at different times in the season.

Mechanisms driving phenological and range change in migratory species.

Many migratory systems are changing rapidly in space and time, and these changes present challenges for conservation. Changes in local abundance and site occupancy across species' ranges have raised concerns over the efficacy of the existing protected area networks, while changes in phenology can potentially create mismatches in the timing of annual events with the availability of key resources. These changes could arise either through individuals shifting in space and time or through generational shifts in the frequency of individuals using different locations or on differing migratory schedules.

Understanding how birds rebuild fat stores during migration: insights from an experimental study.

Mechanisms underlying fat accumulation for long-distance migration are not fully understood. This is especially relevant in the context of global change, as many migrants are dealing with changes in natural habitats and associated food sources and energy stores. The continental Black-tailed godwit Limosa limosa limosa is a long-distance migratory bird that has undergone a considerable dietary shift over the past few decades.

Comment on "Global pattern of nest predation is disrupted by climate change in shorebirds".

Kubelka (Reports, 9 November 2018, p. 680) claim that climate change has disrupted patterns of nest predation in shorebirds. They report that predation rates have increased since the 1950s, especially in the Arctic.

A full annual perspective on sex-biased migration timing in long-distance migratory birds.

In many taxa, the most common form of sex-biased migration timing is protandry-the earlier arrival of males at breeding areas. Here we test this concept across the annual cycle of long-distance migratory birds. Using more than 350 migration tracks of small-bodied trans-Saharan migrants, we quantify differences in male and female migration schedules and test for proximate determinants of sex-specific timing.

Linking warming effects on phenology, demography, and range expansion in a migratory bird population.

Phenological changes in response to climate change have been recorded in many taxa, but the population-level consequences of these changes are largely unknown. If phenological change influences demography, it may underpin the changes in range size and distribution that have been associated with climate change in many species. Over the last century, Icelandic black-tailed godwits () have increased 10-fold in numbers, and their breeding range has expanded throughout lowland Iceland, but the environmental and demographic drivers of this expansion remain unknown.

From Agricultural Benefits to Aviation Safety: Realizing the Potential of Continent-Wide Radar Networks.

Migratory animals provide a multitude of services and disservices-with benefits or costs in the order of billions of dollars annually. Monitoring, quantifying, and forecasting migrations across continents could assist diverse stakeholders in utilizing migrant services, reducing disservices, or mitigating human-wildlife conflicts. Radars are powerful tools for such monitoring as they can assess directional intensities, such as migration traffic rates, and biomass transported.

Flexible parental care: Uniparental incubation in biparentally incubating shorebirds.

The relative investment of females and males into parental care might depend on the population's adult sex-ratio. For example, all else being equal, males should be the more caring sex if the sex-ratio is male biased. Whether such outcomes are evolutionary fixed (i.

Characterization of MHC class I in a long distance migratory wader, the Icelandic black-tailed godwit.

The major histocompatibility complex (MHC) encodes proteins that are central for antigen presentation and pathogen elimination. MHC class I (MHC-I) genes have attracted a great deal of interest among researchers in ecology and evolution and have been partly characterized in a wide range of bird species. So far, the main focus has been on species within the bird orders Galliformes and Passeriformes, while Charadriiformes remain vastly underrepresented with only two species studied to date.