Environmental drivers of population-level variation in the migratory and diving ontogeny of an Arctic top predator

Grecian, W. James; Stenson, Garry B.; Biuw, Martin; Boehme, Lars; Folkow, Lars P.; Goulet, Pierre J.; Jonsen, Ian D.; Malde, Aleksander; Nordøy, Erling S.; Rosing‐Asvid, Aqqalu; Smout, Sophie

doi:10.1098/rsos.211042

Cited by 9 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 62 publications

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“…Adults often outperform juveniles in exploiting resources [15][16][17][18] and in saving energy 19,20 . The necessary skills for efficiently finding and using resources may be obtained early in life [21][22][23] and for migrants these skills may be vital for selecting low-cost migratory routes.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Animals can learn their migratory routes if they travel in the same time and place as informed conspecifics [31][32][33][34][35] . The age of an individual may also affect how it moves through its environment [36][37][38] and experienced individuals may be able to move more efficiently 17,20 . But, it remains unclear how route choice is influenced by the social environment and whether this influence changes as individuals age.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Experience reduces route selection on conspecifics by the collectively migrating white stork

Brønnvik,

Nourani,

Fiedler

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Migration can be an energetically costly behavior with strong fitness consequences in terms of mortality and reproduction. The fact that costs and benefits may change with age and experience raises the question of whether experience changes the criteria that individuals use to select their migratory routes. Here we investigate the effect of age on route selection criteria in a collectively migrating soaring bird, the white stork (Ciconia ciconia). We perform step selection analysis on a longitudinal data set tracking 158 white storks over up to nine years to quantify how they select their routes on the basis of the social and atmospheric environments, and to examine how this selection changes with age. We find clear ontogenetic shifts in route selection criteria. Juveniles choose routes that have good atmospheric conditions and high conspecific densities. Yet, as they gain experience storks’ selection on the availability of social information reduces—after their fifth migration experienced birds also choose routes with low conspecific densities. Thus, our results suggest that as individuals age, they gradually replace information gleaned from other individuals with information gained from experience, allowing them to shift their migration timing and increasing the time scale at which they select their routes.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experience reduces route selection on conspecifics by the collectively migrating white stork

Brønnvik,

Nourani,

Fiedler

et al. 2023

Preprint

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“…To identify areas where and when individuals were likely to be resident in coastal South America, we used the continuous behavioural index of persistence (𝛾 𝑡 ) in movement trajectories. The 𝛾 𝑡 parameter is traditionally used to quantify behavioural states at-sea, with low 𝛾 𝑡 assumed to represent area-restricted search (ARS) foraging behaviours (Jonsen et al 2019, Grecian et al 2022, Shuert et al 2022). However, areas of low 𝛾 𝑡 may also represent resting or haul-out (i.e.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Connectivity of marine predators over the Patagonian Shelf during the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) outbreak

Riaz,

Orben,

Gamble

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Animal movement and population connectivity are key areas of uncertainty in efforts to understand and predict the spread of infectious disease. The emergence of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in South America poses a significant threat to globally significant populations of colonial breeding marine predators in the South Atlantic. Yet, there is a poor understanding of which species or migratory pathways may facilitate disease spread. Compiling one of the largest available animal tracking datasets in the South Atlantic, we examine connectivity and inter-population mixing for colonial breeding marine predators tagged at the Falkland Islands. We reveal extensive connectivity for three regionally dominant and gregarious species over the Patagonian Shelf. Black browed albatrosses (BBA), South American fur seals (SAFS) and Magellanic penguins (MAG) used coastal waters along the Atlantic coast of South America (Argentina and Uruguay). These behaviours were recorded at or in close proximity to breeding colonies and haul-out areas with dense aggregations of marine predators. Transit times to and from the Falkland Islands to the continental coast ranged from 0.2 – 70 days, with 84% of animals making this transit within 4 days - a conservative estimate for HPAI infectious period. Our findings show the incursion of HPAI to the Falkland Islands marine predator community is a highly credible threat, which may be facilitated by BBA, SAFS and MAG connectivity with South America. This information is vital in supporting HPAI disease surveillance, risk assessment and marine management efforts across the region.SignificanceThe recent emergence of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in South America poses a major threat to globally significant marine predator populations in the South Atlantic. There is extensive connectivity over the southern Patagonian Shelf between regionally dominant seal and seabird populations, with potential for large-scale pathogen spread. Despite this connectivity, outbreaks of HPAI are unevenly distributed across the region. Connectivity information is integral for regional disease surveillance, predictive modelling and population viability assessments.

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“…To illustrate how to simulate tracks from aniMotum model fits, we use a juvenile harp seal Pagophilus groenlandicus tracked from the Gulf of St Lawrence, Canada (described in Grecian et al, 2022). The data are temporally irregular Argos locations including error ellipse information.…”

Section: Applicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

aniMotum, an R package for animal movement data: Rapid quality control, behavioural estimation and simulation

et al. 2023

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Animal tracking data are indispensable for understanding the ecology, behaviour and physiology of mobile or cryptic species. Meaningful signals in these data can be obscured by noise due to imperfect measurement technologies, requiring rigorous quality control as part of any comprehensive analysis. State–space models are powerful tools that separate signal from noise. These tools are ideal for quality control of error‐prone location data and for inferring where animals are and what they are doing when they record or transmit other information. However, these statistical models can be challenging and time‐consuming to fit to diverse animal tracking data sets. The R package aniMotum eases the tasks of conducting quality control on and inference of changes in movement from animal tracking data. This is achieved via: (1) a simple but extensible workflow that accommodates both novice and experienced users; (2) automated processes that alleviate complexity from data processing and model specification/fitting steps; (3) simple movement models coupled with a powerful numerical optimization approach for rapid and reliable model fitting. We highlight aniMotum's capabilities through three applications to real animal tracking data. Full R code for these and additional applications is included as Supporting Information, so users can gain a deeper understanding of how to use aniMotum for their own analyses.

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Environmental drivers of population-level variation in the migratory and diving ontogeny of an Arctic top predator

Cited by 9 publications

References 62 publications

Experience reduces route selection on conspecifics by the collectively migrating white stork

Experience reduces route selection on conspecifics by the collectively migrating white stork

Connectivity of marine predators over the Patagonian Shelf during the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) outbreak

aniMotum, an R package for animal movement data: Rapid quality control, behavioural estimation and simulation

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