How many routes lead to migration? Comparison of methods to assess and characterize migratory movements

Cagnacci, Francesca; Focardi, Stefano; Ghisla, Anne; Moorter, Bram Van; Merrill, Evelyn H.; Gurarie, Eliezer; Heurich, Marco; Mysterud, Atle; Linnell, John D. C.; Panzacchi, Manuela; May, Roelof Frans; Nygård, Torgeir; Rolandsen, Christer Moe; Hebblewhite, Mark

doi:10.1111/1365-2656.12449

Cited by 92 publications

(146 citation statements)

References 46 publications

(81 reference statements)

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“…In heterogeneous landscapes, for example, animals are predicted to adjust their residence times and/or return times to a given area in response to variation in resource quality [36–38]; these two properties have been linked to emerging patterns of home range residency [38]. Over longer timescales, measures of home range stability, such as the amount of overlap between seasonal home ranges, can inform theory on how animals respond to temporal predictability of resources [39] and have been used to identify migration patterns [40]. Because movement processes are often scale-dependent and those of a given syndrome may be observable at one or more spatiotemporal scales [41], we considered that our metrics were relevant over a range of timescales — in our case, hour, day, month, and lifetime of trajectory.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Suite of simple metrics reveals common movement syndromes across vertebrate taxa

et al. 2017

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BackgroundBecause empirical studies of animal movement are most-often site- and species-specific, we lack understanding of the level of consistency in movement patterns across diverse taxa, as well as a framework for quantitatively classifying movement patterns. We aim to address this gap by determining the extent to which statistical signatures of animal movement patterns recur across ecological systems. We assessed a suite of movement metrics derived from GPS trajectories of thirteen marine and terrestrial vertebrate species spanning three taxonomic classes, orders of magnitude in body size, and modes of movement (swimming, flying, walking). Using these metrics, we performed a principal components analysis and cluster analysis to determine if individuals organized into statistically distinct clusters. Finally, to identify and interpret commonalities within clusters, we compared them to computer-simulated idealized movement syndromes representing suites of correlated movement traits observed across taxa (migration, nomadism, territoriality, and central place foraging).ResultsTwo principal components explained 70% of the variance among the movement metrics we evaluated across the thirteen species, and were used for the cluster analysis. The resulting analysis revealed four statistically distinct clusters. All simulated individuals of each idealized movement syndrome organized into separate clusters, suggesting that the four clusters are explained by common movement syndrome.ConclusionsOur results offer early indication of widespread recurrent patterns in movement ecology that have consistent statistical signatures, regardless of taxon, body size, mode of movement, or environment. We further show that a simple set of metrics can be used to classify broad-scale movement patterns in disparate vertebrate taxa. Our comparative approach provides a general framework for quantifying and classifying animal movements, and facilitates new inquiries into relationships between movement syndromes and other ecological processes.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40462-017-0104-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Suite of simple metrics reveals common movement syndromes across vertebrate taxa

et al. 2017

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“…Consequently, migration as a general phenomenon can neither be described by its distance nor the characteristics of its routes (Cagnacci et al. ). For example, in large herbivores, seasonal movement distances may vary greatly as a function of local spatiotemporal resource variability (Müller and Fagan , Müller et al.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Migration in geographic and ecological space by a large herbivore

Peters

Hebblewhite

Mysterud

et al. 2017

Ecological Monographs

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Partial migration, when only part of the population migrates seasonally while the other part remains resident on the shared range, is the most common form of migration in ungulates. Migration is often defined by spatial separation of seasonal ranges and consequently, classification of individuals as migrants or residents is usually only based on geographic criteria. However, the underlying mechanism for migration is hypothesized to be movement in response to spatiotemporal resource variability and thus, migrants are assumed to travel an “ecological distance” (ED) or shift their realized ecological niches. While ecological and geographic distances should be related, their relationship may depend on landscape heterogeneity. Here, we tested the utility of ecological niche theory to both classify migratory individuals and to understand the underlying ecological factors for migratory behavior. We developed an integrative approach combining measures in geographic and ecological niche space and used this to classify and explain migratory behavior of 71 annual roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) movement trajectories in five European study areas. First, to assess the utility of the ED concept for classifying migratory behavior, we tested whether roe deer sought the same ecological conditions year‐round or moved to different ecological conditions by measuring the annual ED travelled and the seasonal niche overlap using multivariate statistics. Comparing methods to classify migrants and residents based on geographic and ecological niche space, we found that migratory roe deer switched between seasons both in geographic and in ecological dimensions. Second, we tested which seasonal ecological factors separated resident from migrant niches using discriminant analysis and which broad‐scale determinants (e.g., spatiotemporal forage variation and population density) predicted migration probability using generalized linear models. Our results indicated that factors describing forage and topographic variability discriminated seasonal migrant from resident niches. Determinants for predicting migration probability included the temporal variation (seasonality) and also the spatial variability of forage patches. Last, we also found suggestive evidence for a positive relationship between population density and migration probability. By applying the ecological niche concept to the study of partial migration in ungulates, our work underlines that partial migration is a form of behavioral plasticity.

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“…, Cagnacci et al . ). We calculated NSD using each Crane's capture location as the point of origin except for two Cranes captured in northern Minnesota that summered near Hudson Bay in Ontario, Canada.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 97%

Juvenile Sandhill Cranes exhibit wider ranging and more exploratory movements than adults during the breeding season

Wolfson

Fieberg

Andersen

2019

Ibis

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Sandhill Cranes Antigone canadensis exhibit delayed sexual maturity and breeding, and therefore juvenile Cranes searching for suitable territories to occupy have different ecological constraints on movements than adults, which must defend a territory and raise young. We used fine‐scale GPS telemetry data to characterize and compare movements of adult and juvenile Cranes near the boundary between two populations in Minnesota, USA, from arrival on natal areas in the spring until staging prior to autumn migration. Juvenile and adult Cranes had marked differences in movement patterns throughout the breeding season. Juveniles were more likely than adults to display long‐distance movements: they revisited areas less frequently throughout the breeding season and they had lower average residence times.

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How many routes lead to migration? Comparison of methods to assess and characterize migratory movements

Abstract: to identify the extent of the differences, and c) investigating inconsistently classified cases as these 1 may often be ecologically interesting (i.e., less-stereotyped migratory behaviours).

Cited by 92 publications

References 46 publications

Suite of simple metrics reveals common movement syndromes across vertebrate taxa

Suite of simple metrics reveals common movement syndromes across vertebrate taxa

Migration in geographic and ecological space by a large herbivore

Juvenile Sandhill Cranes exhibit wider ranging and more exploratory movements than adults during the breeding season

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