A long winter for the Red Queen: rethinking the evolution of seasonal migration

Abstract

This paper advances an hypothesis that the primary adaptive driver of seasonal migration is maintenance of site fidelity to familiar breeding locations. We argue that seasonal migration is therefore principally an adaptation for geographic persistence when confronted with seasonality -analogous to hibernation, freeze tolerance, or other organismal adaptations to cyclically fluctuating environments. These ideas stand in contrast to traditional views that bird migration evolved as an adaptive dispersal strategy for exploiting new breeding areas and avoiding competitors. Our synthesis is supported by a large body of research on avian breeding biology that demonstrates the reproductive benefits of breeding-site fidelity. Conceptualizing migration as an adaptation for persistence places new emphasis on understanding the evolutionary trade-offs between migratory behaviour and other adaptations to fluctuating environments both within and across species. Seasonality-induced departures from breeding areas, coupled with the reproductive benefits of maintaining breeding-site fidelity, also provide a mechanism for explaining the evolution of migration that is agnostic to the geographic origin of migratory lineages (i.e. temperate or tropical). Thus, our framework reconciles much of the conflict in previous research on the historical biogeography of migratory species. Although migratory behaviour and geographic range change fluidly and rapidly in many populations, we argue that the loss of plasticity for migration via canalization is an overlooked aspect of the evolutionary dynamics of migration and helps explain the idiosyncratic distributions and migratory routes of long-distance migrants. Our synthesis, which revolves around the insight that migratory organisms travel long distances simply to stay in the same place, provides a necessary evolutionary context for understanding historical biogeographic patterns in migratory lineages as well as the ecological dynamics of migratory connectivity between breeding and non-breeding locations.

Reconstructing the geographic and climatic origins of long‐distance bird migrations

“…In fact, despite the mostly temperate and Arctic latitudes of the breeding ranges of migratory species, this link between bird migration distances and the local climate of their breeding ranges is not trivial at all. These results support the idea that strong climatic seasonality has been an important factor in the evolution of long-distance bird migration (see Winger et al, 2019;Zink & Gardner, 2017). In addition, many species breeding in highly seasonal mountain environments could escape climatic seasonality by travelling much shorter distances that they actually do (but see Laube et al, 2015).…”

“…The latter scenario assumes greater fitness benefits when migrating towards lower latitudes (as shown in Alves et al, 2013), but it does not necessarily imply tracking of the same climatic niche year-round. Thus far, no consensus has emerged to explain the biogeographic origins of seasonal bird migrations (see also Louchart, 2008;Salewski & Bruderer, 2007;Winger et al, 2019).…”

“…A largely documented biogeographic pattern is the tendency of most migratory birds to breed in regions characterized by strongly seasonal environments (Somveille, Rodrigues, et al, 2015. A recent paper (Winger, Auteri, Pegan, & Weeks, 2019) reviewed the studies that attempted to integrate theories about the evolution of bird migration with the biogeographic history of migratory clades (Louchart, 2008;Salewski & Bruderer, 2007;Winger, Barker, & Ree, 2014;Zink, 2002) and stressed that the biogeographic origins of bird migration have rarely been considered in relation to the onset of climatic seasonality. They further called for a change of perspective towards viewing the evolution of bird seasonal migrations as an adaptation for long-term persistence in seasonal environments.…”

Patterns and mechanisms of heterogeneous breeding distribution shifts of North American migratory birds

“…Maximizing the benefits of reproducing in a seasonal environment and minimizing the costs of annual long‐distance movement is a key determinant of distributions for migratory birds (Cox , Alerstam et al , Winger et al ), and current climate change may cause migratory tendency to decrease in some species (Austin and Rehfisch , Pulido and Berthold ). Selection for shortening migration distances as a result of warmer temperatures has been documented in fall migrations as many species are short‐stopping to winter closer to the breeding grounds (Visser et al , Heath et al , Paprocki et al ).…”

“…Selection for shortening migration distances as a result of warmer temperatures has been documented in fall migrations as many species are short-stopping to winter closer to the breeding grounds (Visser et al 2009, Heath et al 2012, Paprocki et al 2014. Shortening of migration has not been expected to impact breeding distributions because philopatry is an important factor in breeding distributions (Winger et al 2018). However, anecdotal evidence of migratory birds establishing breeding populations outside of their historical breeding ranges by shortening spring migration (Yeh and Price 2004, Van der Jeugd et al 2009, Macias-Duarte 2011, Garcia-Perez et al 2013, Winkler et al 2017 indicates that migratory birds may respond to environmental change in a way that decreases philopatry.…”