High Mountain Lakes Provide a Seasonal Niche for Migrant American Dippers

Garwood, Justin M.; Pope, Karen L.; Bourque, Ryan M.; Larson, Monty D.

doi:10.1676/08-117.1

Cited by 3 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…6 km (range 2–21 km) to breeding territories on creeks and streams at higher elevations. Migrants and their offspring leave these territories at the end of the breeding season [ 39 ], perhaps moving to even higher elevations [ 40 ], but are back on their wintering territories by the fall [ 36 ]. Residents in contrast occupy a multi-purpose territory year round.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Do American Dippers Obtain a Survival Benefit from Altitudinal Migration?

et al. 2015

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Studies of partial migrants provide an opportunity to assess the cost and benefits of migration. Previous work has demonstrated that sedentary American dippers (residents) have higher annual productivity than altitudinal migrants that move to higher elevations to breed. Here we use a ten-year (30 period) mark-recapture dataset to evaluate whether migrants offset their lower productivity with higher survival during the migration-breeding period when they occupy different habitat, or early and late-winter periods when they coexist with residents. Mark-recapture models provide no evidence that apparent monthly survival of migrants is higher than that of residents at any time of the year. The best-supported model suggests that monthly survival is higher in the migration-breeding period than winter periods. Another well-supported model suggested that residency conferred a survival benefit, and annual apparent survival (calculated from model weighted monthly apparent survival estimates using the Delta method) of residents (0.511 ± 0.038SE) was slightly higher than that of migrants (0.487 ± 0.032). Winter survival of American dippers was influenced by environmental conditions; monthly apparent survival increased as maximum daily flow rates increased and declined as winter temperatures became colder. However, we found no evidence that environmental conditions altered differences in winter survival of residents and migrants. Since migratory American dippers have lower productivity and slightly lower survival than residents our data suggests that partial migration is likely an outcome of competition for limited nest sites at low elevations, with less competitive individuals being forced to migrate to higher elevations in order to breed.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Do American Dippers Obtain a Survival Benefit from Altitudinal Migration?

et al. 2015

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“…The drivers for uphill migration often differ from those of downhill migration, and they also differ among taxa because of differences in seasonal requirements. For ungulates and birds in temperate regions, uphill migration is often driven by the availability and quality of food resources and reduced predation risk at higher elevations during the spring and summer (Festa‐Bianchet, ; Albon & Langvatn, ; Garwood et al ., ), while downhill migration is often driven by cold temperature and precipitation, especially snow (O'Neill & Parker, ; Parrini et al ., ). By contrast, several bat species in temperate regions migrate uphill during the autumn and winter because conditions at higher elevations are more suitable for hibernation and migrate downhill for breeding and rearing young (Esbérard et al ., ; Voigt et al ., ).…”

Section: Emergent Patterns and Knowledge Gapsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Altitudinal migration: ecological drivers, knowledge gaps, and conservation implications

et al. 2018

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Animal migration has been the subject of intensive research for more than a century, but most research has focused on long-distance rather than short-distance migration. Altitudinal migration is a form of short-distance migration in which individuals perform seasonal elevational movements. Despite its geographic and taxonomic ubiquity, there is relatively little information about the intrinsic and extrinsic factors that influence altitudinal migratory behaviour. Without this information, it is difficult to predict how rapid environmental changes will affect population viability of altitudinal migrants. To synthesize current knowledge, we compiled literature on altitudinal migration for all studied taxa, and identified the leading hypotheses explaining this behaviour. Studies of animal altitudinal migration cover many taxonomic lineages, with birds being the most commonly studied group. Altitudinal migration occurs in all continents except for Antarctica, but about a third of the literature focused on altitudinal migration in North America. Most research suggests that food and weather are the primary extrinsic drivers of altitudinal migration. In addition, substantial individual-level variation in migratory propensity exists. Individual characteristics that are associated with sex, dominance rank, and body size explain much of the variation in migratory propensity in partially migratory populations, but individual-level correlates are poorly known for most taxa. More research is needed to quantify the effects of habitat loss, habitat fragmentation, and climate change on altitudinal migrants. Demographic studies of individually marked populations would be particularly valuable for advancing knowledge of the cascading effects of environmental change on migratory propensity, movement patterns, and population viability. We conclude our review with recommendations for study designs and modelling approaches that could be used to narrow existing knowledge gaps, which currently hinder effective conservation of altitudinal migratory species.

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“…Birds may shift upslope in the summer to exploit nesting opportunities (Boyle, 2008a; Green et al, 2015) or track pulses in arthropods and other food (Boyle, 2008b; Paxton et al, 2020; Supriya et al, 2019). The large temperature variation in temperate mountains may bring about patterns in elevational shifts similar to latitudinal migration, with montane species generally breeding at high elevations and spending the winter at lower elevations (Borras et al, 2010; Garwood et al, 2009; Ishtiaq & Barve, 2018). However, it is important to note that both latitudinal and elevational migration are not independent of each other and is often a matter of the degree to which a species may move along either axis.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Himalayan birds that show the greatest elevational shifts remain within the narrowest thermal regimes

Menon,

Ramesh,

Barve

2023

Global Ecol Biogeogr

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AimElevational migration is a globally ubiquitous animal behaviour. Understanding the mechanisms that drive variation in elevational movement can help explain the evolution of this widespread animal behaviour and its role in shaping montane life history. We examine the role of thermal regime (the intra‐annual variation in temperature experienced by a species), dispersal ability and diet in explaining the extent of elevational movements.LocationEastern and Western Himalayas.Time Period2011–2022.Major Taxa StudiedBirds.MethodsWe used community science data from eBird to acquire checklist‐based observations of birds and used comprehensive data cleaning procedures and randomization tests to produce estimates of seasonal elevational shifts for 302 species of Himalayan birds. Using these data, we ran phylogenetic least squares regressions (PGLS) to test if the extent of elevational shift is driven by thermal regime, dispersal ability and diet.ResultsMost Himalayan birds (up to 65%) showed downslope shifts in the winter, although some (5%‐10%) low elevation species shifted upslope. Elevational shift was negatively associated with a species' thermal regime. Species that showed the greatest elevational shifts in both eastern and western Himalayas moved within the narrowest intra‐annual temperature regimes, but did not match their breeding range temperatures as closely as possible. Diet influenced elevational shift in both eastern and western Himalayas, while dispersal ability did not drive elevational shifts.Main ConclusionsSpecies that show the biggest elevational shifts track thermal regimes most closely. However, in addition to tracking thermal regimes, diet and potentially habitat availability/preferences may drive seasonal elevational shifts. Our results show convergent evolution of elevational shifts across clades. Low elevation habitats are important not only for conserving low elevation birds but also for conserving wintering sites of most high elevation breeders.

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High Mountain Lakes Provide a Seasonal Niche for Migrant American Dippers

Cited by 3 publications

References 36 publications

Do American Dippers Obtain a Survival Benefit from Altitudinal Migration?

Do American Dippers Obtain a Survival Benefit from Altitudinal Migration?

Altitudinal migration: ecological drivers, knowledge gaps, and conservation implications

Himalayan birds that show the greatest elevational shifts remain within the narrowest thermal regimes

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