2012年盛夏多台风发生对褐飞虱迁飞动态的影响

【目的】台风能极大地改变褐飞虱Nilaparvata lugens(Sta1)的迁飞路径和落区分布,阐释连续登陆的台风对褐飞虱种群动态的影响,可为其异地预测提供科学依据。【方法】通过对2012年盛夏的台风"韦森特"、"苏拉"、"海葵"等影响时期的多站点灯诱数据和风场做轨迹分析,解析台风影响下褐飞虱迁飞动态的变化。【结果】2012年盛夏,多个台风在华南江南早稻黄熟收割和褐飞虱羽化迁出高峰期连续登陆我国,高空气流场和雨带分布发生了不利于褐飞虱北迁的变化。华南地区多盛行东北风或偏东风,即使在台风过境后有利北迁的风向影响时,持续强降水、风切变和下沉气流多发而不利北迁。西南季风受台风影响始终无法主导大气流场,北迁通道难以建立,而褐飞虱的第5次北迁进程受阻。【结论】2012年盛夏台风多发严重阻滞了褐飞虱的第5次北迁过程,大大减轻了长江中下游水稻主产区褐飞虱的危害程度。7月中下旬和8月上旬的风场条件和雨带位置是决定我国长江中下游稻区褐飞虱发生程度的重要预警指标。     

Flight duration of the brown planthopper, Nilaparvata lugens (Homoptera: Delphacidae)

ABSTRACT.

• 1 The brown planthopper, Nilaparvata lugens (Stål), is a major pest of rice in Asia. It is known to make wind-assisted migratory flights each year to colonize the summer rice growing areas of China, Japan and Korea.
• 2 Modelling windborne displacements between rice growing areas in Asia requires migratory behaviour and flight duration to be established for this insect.
• 3 Field and laboratory observations suggest that N. lugens take-off at dusk and that some continue flying for up to 24–26 h if the temperature is ≥ 17°C.
• 4 Trajectories for 10 m above ground level and 1.5 km above mean sea level are used to identify possible sources and, hence, to estimate the flight times of N.lugens caught in nets on ships on the East China Sea in 1973 and 1981.
• 5 Estimated flight times between the sources and the ships ranged from about 9 to 30 h.
• 6 Results suggest that long-distance migration can occur in surface winds, when they are strong, but that long-distance migration is more likely at 1.5 km.
• 7 When simulating windborne displacements of N.lugens, it can be assumed that in areas and at heights where the temperature is ≥ 17°C, some migrants will fly downwind for up to 30 h after a dusk take-off. Others will fly for shorter periods, giving the population as a whole the opportunity to colonize all the rice crops flown over.

     

复杂地形下褐飞虱迁飞的数值模拟:个例研究

褐飞虱是影响我国水稻生产的重要迁飞性害虫之一,它的爆发严重影响水稻的生长,并诱发水稻病害,导致水稻减产。研究复杂地形条件下褐飞虱的迁出虫源地、空中迁飞轨迹、降落区,探明复杂地形对褐飞虱迁飞的影响机制,对害虫测报与防治、农业防灾减灾和保障我国粮食安全具有重要的理论意义和实践价值。为了分析覆盖复杂地形的大气动力场、温度场、湿度场对褐飞虱迁入及降落分布的影响,采用WRF-Flexpart耦合轨迹计算模式和GIS空间分析等方法,对2008年9月30日—10月3日发生在广东曲江、肇庆、梅县三站和湖北宜昌、安徽东至、江西吉安三站的褐飞虱迁入和降落过程进行了数值模拟,以揭示复杂地形条件下褐飞虱种群降落和密度分布的时空变化结构。(1)广东曲江、肇庆、梅县三站的后向轨迹模拟结果显示,迁入三站的虫源均来自该站点的西北方向。地形较高且复杂多变时,褐飞虱难以穿越且迁飞距离较短、方向多变。(2)湖北宜昌、安徽东至、江西吉安三站的前向轨迹模拟结果显示,当站点附近的山脉较低且有山谷通道,褐飞虱沿山脉顺风方向迁飞,且迁飞距离较远。当山脉地势较高且没有明显的山谷,则褐飞虱遇到山脉阻挡而转向造成种群滞留。(3)褐飞虱迁飞种群的密度沿山脉走向呈带状分布,山坡较为陡峭、断崖显著时,向远离山体的方向迁飞。若山脉由多个山岭构成,则褐飞虱可从其峡谷穿越,密度分布较为分散。(4)强水平气流有利于褐飞虱的远距离迁飞,下沉气流对褐飞虱降落起着重要的作用,当有强下沉气流且气温较高时,有利于褐飞虱种群的降落,并聚集形成高密度迁入区。(5)垂直方向上,在一定的温度范围内,褐飞虱趋向于在暖层中迁飞。褐飞虱密度沿河谷地带呈带状分布且密度高值区多分布在较温暖的地区。秋季,褐飞虱降落区多分布在相对湿度50%左右的区域。模拟的褐飞虱迁飞轨迹、迁飞方位角和迁飞距离等与实际发生的褐飞虱迁飞路径和降虫区之间偏差较小,该模拟方法较大程度地提高了我国迁飞性害虫的业务预报水平。未来拟提高测报褐飞虱虫情数据的时空分辨率,以为得到较高准度和精度的模拟结果。     

Benefit of migration in a female sika deer population in eastern Hokkaido,Japan

The major factors affecting migration in large herbivores have been shown to be access to food resources and the risk of predation. Three migratory types of deer (resident, north migrant and east migrant) occur within a wintering female sika deer (Cervus nippon) population in eastern Hokkaido, Japan. We tested the hypothesis that north and east migrants feed on a higher quality diet than residents during summer, based on analyses of fecal nitrogen content. Fresh fecal pellets were collected in 18 summer ranges in the wintering area, northern area and eastern area between 1–5 August 2000. Fecal nitrogen content for all sampling sites was positively correlated with elevation, but was not correlated with distance from the wintering area. North migrants that inhabited higher (above 300m elevation) summer ranges fed on a higher quality diet than residents. In contrast, the dietary quality of east migrants that migrated over a long distance and inhabited lower (below 300m elevation) summer ranges was similar to that of residents. We conclude that east migrants may have gained significant benefit from the use of agricultural pastures with low population density conditions and without hunting; however, the recent population control program has reduced this benefit by avoiding the use of pasturelands.     

Changing patterns of the East Asian monsoon drive shifts in migration and abundance of a globally important rice pest

Numerous insects including pests and beneficial species undertake windborne migrations over hundreds of kilometers. In East Asia, climate-induced changes in large-scale atmospheric circulation systems are affecting wind-fields and precipitation zones and these, in turn, are changing migration patterns. We examined the consequences in a serious rice pest, the brown planthopper (BPH, Nilaparvata lugens) in East China. BPH cannot overwinter in temperate East Asia, and infestations there are initiated by several waves of windborne spring or summer migrants originating from tropical areas in Indochina. The East Asian summer monsoon, characterized by abundant rainfall and southerly winds, is of critical importance for these northward movements. We analyzed a 42-year dataset of meteorological parameters and catches of BPH from a standardized network of 341 light-traps in South and East China. We show that south of the Yangtze River during summer, southwesterly winds have weakened and rainfall increased, while the summer precipitation has decreased further north on the Jianghuai Plain. Together, these changes have resulted in shorter migratory journeys for BPH leaving South China. As a result, pest outbreaks of BPH in the key rice-growing area of the Lower Yangtze River Valley (LYRV) have declined since 2001. We show that these changes to the East Asian summer monsoon weather parameters are driven by shifts in the position and intensity of the Western Pacific subtropical high (WPSH) system that have occurred during the last 20 years. As a result, the relationship between WPSH intensity and BPH immigration that was previously used to predict the size of the immigration to the LYRV has now broken down. Our results demonstrate that migration patterns of a serious rice pest have shifted in response to the climate-induced changes in precipitation and wind pattern, with significant consequences for the population management of migratory pests.     

Isotopic characteristics of typhonic rainwater: typhoons no. 13 (1993) and no. 6 (1996)

The stable isotope ratios of hydrogen and oxygen were measured for rainwater samples from Typhoon No. 13, which struck Japan on September 1993, and Typhoon No. 6, which passed in July 1996. Rainwater was collected every hour over 2- to 3-day periods at Beppu, Japan (33°16′N, 131°29′E), which lies on or close to the typhoon routes. The deuterium excess parameters (δD – 8 ·δ¹⁸O) of the rainwaters vary over wide ranges from 19.22 to 1.52 for Typhoon No. 13, 1993, and from 6.02 to −8.10 for Typhoon No. 6, 1996, respectively. Rainwaters with higher d-values precipitated in the forward parts of the typhoons. This is ascribed to the possibility that the water vapors supplied by the bottom air currents from the front (rear) of the typhoons may be originally formed by rapid (gentle) evaporation of seawater. Symmetrical patterns of spatial δD and δ¹⁸O distributions within the typhoon precipitations, as estimated from the variations in the isotope ratios of the typhoon rainwaters, should appear from a continuous isotopic fractionation of water vapors with the bottom air currents converging toward the typhoon center. The weighted means of δD and δ¹⁸O of the typhoon precipitations are more negative than those of ordinary rainfall, suggesting that an isotopic influence of typhoon precipitation on surface waters, e.g., river, stream, lake, and spring waters, may be important. Received: January 22, 2000 / Accepted: March 24, 2000     

A migration analysis of the rice planthopper Nilaparvata lugens from the Philippines to East Asia with three-dimensional computer simulations

Migrations of the rice planthopper Nilaparvata lugens (Stål) (Delphacidae) from the Philippines to Taiwan, southern China, and southern Japan were analyzed using three-dimensional migration simulations. The results strongly suggested that the Southeast Asian population of N. lugens mixes with the East Asian population. This highlighted the possibility that planthoppers from the Southeast Asian population, which have properties different from those in the East Asian population such as feeding of resistant rice varieties and wing polymorphism, could migrate to Japan via southern China and Taiwan. This study, therefore, emphasizes the special care that should be taken to monitor the properties of immigrants to Japan.     

Across a migratory divide: divergent migration directions and non‐breeding grounds of Eurasian reed warblers revealed by geolocators and stable isotopes

Migratory divides represent narrow zones of overlap between parapatric populations with distinct migration directions and, consequently, expected divergent non‐breeding distributions. The composition of the mixed population at a migratory divide and the corresponding non‐breeding ranges remain, however, unknown for many Palaearctic‐African migrants. Here, we used light‐level geolocation to track migration direction and non‐breeding grounds of Eurasian reed warblers Acrocephalus scirpaceus from three breeding populations across the species’ migratory divide. Moreover, by using feathers grown at non‐breeding grounds, we quantified stable isotope composition for individuals with known southwestern (SW) and southeastern (SE) migration directions. On a larger sample per population, we then assessed the proportions of SW‐ and SE‐migrating phenotypes in each of the three populations. All tracked reed warblers from Germany and two thirds of the birds tagged from the Czech population headed initially SW. Nevertheless, about one third of the birds from the Czech site migrated towards SE. No tracking data have been obtained for the Bulgarian population. The initial migration direction determined by geolocators was a strong predictor of the non‐breeding region, with SW migrants staying in west Africa and SE migrants in central Africa. Feather δ³⁴S and δ¹⁵N values confirmed the predominance of SW migrants in the German population, the co‐occurrence of SW and SE migrants in the Czech population, and indicated a high (72%) proportion of SE migrants in the Bulgarian population. Thus, the combined approach of geolocator tracking and stable isotopic assignments provided clear evidence for the existence of a migratory divide in the southeast of central Europe and predicted non‐breeding range in central and central‐eastern Africa for the eastern population.     

Mothers' Movements: Shifts in Calving Area Selection by Partially Migratory Elk

Loss of migratory behavior or shifts in migratory ranges are growing concerns to wildlife managers. How ungulates prioritize safety from predators at the expense of high-quality foraging opportunities during calving may be key to understanding these shifts and long-term reproductive success. We compared trade-offs in selection for forage and predation risk by elk (Cervus canadensis) following 3 migratory tactics (western and eastern migration and resident) during 2 time periods in a declining (by almost 70% from 2002–2016), partially migratory elk population adjacent to Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada. We hypothesized that regardless of migratory tactic, maternal elk would show stronger trade-offs between high-quality foraging associated with higher predation risk and forage resources of lower-quality yet lower risk on calving ranges than on ranges used during summer because of vulnerability of their offspring. Additionally, we hypothesized these trade-offs would occur at high (2002–2006) and low (2013–2016) elk population sizes. We used a machine-learning algorithm to predict dates of parturition based on global positioning system (GPS) movements of elk equipped with vaginal implants (n = 60) and predictions were within 1.43 ± 0.85 (SE) days of the known date. We applied the model to an additional 58 GPS-collared elk without vaginal implants. Based on changes in localized movements, we defined calving areas as the 26 days post-parturition and compared habitat characteristics of calving areas to 10 similar-sized areas centered on random locations during summer for the same individual in a latent selection framework. Across the 2 time periods, parturition occurred from 8 May–11 July with median parturition dates differing among migratory tactics and residents shifting towards an earlier parturition date in the later period. All elk, regardless of migratory tactic and time period, selected calving areas with greater forage resources than were available on areas used during summer, with no evidence for greater selection of areas that reduced predation risk at the expense of higher-quality foraging. Calving season selection for areas with abundant forage exposed western migrants to high risk of bear (Ursus spp.) predation, residents to high risk of wolf (Canis lupus) predation, and eastern migrants to low risk of bear and wolf predation. Patterns in exposure to predation risk during calving between migratory tactics were consistent with the recent decline in western migrants and increase in eastern migrants, implying that conditions on calving areas contributed to observed changes in the number of elk following these tactics. © 2021 The Wildlife Society.     

Ovarian development status and population characteristics of Sogatella furcifera (Horváth) and Nilaparvata lugens (Stål): implications for pest forecasting

Migratory behaviour in insects correlates with reproductive development in females, and migration often occurs during the pre‐reproductive stage of adults. The relationship between ovarian development and population status of the white‐backed planthopper Sogatella furcifera (Horváth) and the brown planthopper Nilaparvata lugens (Stål) was evaluated. Females of both species were captured in rice fields and light traps and then dissected in double‐season rice‐farming regions of southern China. The ovarian development of S. furcifera and N. lugens was divided into five levels, following previous studies. The population statuses of both species were examined based on the ovarian development of female adults caught in rice paddies. The ovarian development in N. lugens females caught in light traps mostly ranged from level I to level II, whereas that in S. furcifera females caught in light traps mostly ranged from level I to level III. During peak immigration, ovarian development in N. lugens females was mainly at level II, whereas that in S. furcifera females was mainly at level II and sporadically at level III. During peak emigration, both S. furcifera and N. lugens showed level I ovarian development. The temporal dynamics of ovarian development in light trap catches revealed that (i) significant emigration and partial immigration periods occur in S. furcifera, with ovarian development mainly at level I and sporadically from level II to level III and (ii) numerous immigrants of N. lugens were detected during sedentary and local breeding periods. The temporal dynamics of ovarian development provides more information than does the paddy population. Thus, this study proposes another method for pest forecasting, which is more precise and efficient than conventional forecasting methods such as light trap catching and monitoring population dynamics in rice fields.     

Enhancement of the geomagnetic field reduces the phototaxis of rice brown planthopper Nilaparvata lugens associated with frataxin down‐regulation

The geomagnetic field (GMF) is an environmental cue that provides directional information for animals. The intensity of GMF is varied over space and time. Variations in the GMF intensity affect the navigation of animals and their physiology. In this study, the phototaxis of the migratory insect rice planthopper Nilaparvata lugens (N. lugens) and frataxin in N. lugens (Nl‐fh), which is a mitochondrial protein required for cellular iron homeostasis and iron‐sulfur cluster assembly, were investigated by using different intensities of magnetic field. From the results, individuals of N. lugens showed decreased phototaxis when reared and tested in a behavioral arena under a strong magnetic field. Besides the reduction in performance, an accompanying effect of the strong magnetic field condition was a reduced level of Nl‐fh‐messenger RNA, and a Nl‐fh knockdown indeed impaired the phototactic behavior in a tested sample of insects. This leads to the conclusion that the expression of frataxin is dependent on the strength of the surrounding magnetic field and that functional frataxin facilitates phototactic behavior in N. lugens.     

The long-distance migration of Nilaparvata lugens (Stål) (Delphacidae) in China: radar observations of mass return flight in the autumn

Abstract.

• 1 A case study is presented of the autumn migration of the brown planthopper, Nilaparvata lugens (Stål), in the area of Nanjing in the People's Republic of China. The study was made using a high frequency (8 mm wavelength) radar and a net suspended from a kytoon.
• 2 The observations confirmed that long-distance return migrations occur in China in mid and late September, with N.lugens being carried on the prevailing north-easterly wind towards the autumn infestation and overwintering areas of the species.
• 3 After mass take-off in the late afternoon or at dusk, the migrants flew for several hours during the evening, often in a dense layer which formed at heights between about 400 and 1000m above ground. These layers often had well-defined ceilings corresponding to an air temperature of about 16°C. The migration height was above the top of the surface temperature inversion, i.e. the migrants did not fly at the height of the warmest air.
• 4 The dense layer concentrations overflying the radar were backtracked to source areas up to 240 km away in the north-east of Jiangsu Province. Planthoppers observed emigrating from the Nanjing area would reach areas in south Anhui Province or north Jiangxi Province if they flew for 12 h.
• 5 There was a second period of mass take-off at dawn. Insect layers sometimes formed but did not last longer than 1–2h.
• 6 The present results were strikingly different from those previously observed in the dry season in the Philippines, where migratory flight durations were largely confined to periods of about 30min at dusk and dawn.
• 7 Our observations are discussed in relation to the equator-wards return migrations undertaken in autumn by other insect species, and the importance of these migrations for the maintenance of long-flying genotypes in the overwintering populations is considered.

     

Chromosomal‐level genomes of three rice planthoppers provide new insights into sex chromosome evolution

The brown planthopper Nilaparvata lugens, white‐backed planthopper Sogatella furcifera, and small brown planthopper Laodelphax striatellus are three major insect pests of rice. They are genetically close; however, they differ in several ecological traits such as host range, migration capacity, and in their sex chromosomes. Though the draft genome of these three planthoppers have been previously released, the quality of genome assemblies need to be improved. The absence of chromosome‐level genome resources has hindered in‐depth research of these three species. Here, we performed a de novo genome assembly for N. lugens to increase its genome assembly quality with PacBio and Illumina platforms, increasing the contig N50 to 589.46 Kb. Then, with the new N. lugens genome and previously reported S. furcifera and L. striatellus genome assemblies, we generated chromosome‐level scaffold assemblies of these three planthopper species using HiC scaffolding technique. The scaffold N50s significantly increased to 77.63 Mb, 43.36 Mb and 29.24 Mb for N. lugens, S. furcifera and L. striatellus, respectively. To identify sex chromosomes of these three planthopper species, we carried out genome re‐sequencing of males and females and successfully determined the X and Y chromosomes for N. lugens, and X chromosome for S. furcifera and L. striatellus. The gene content of the sex chromosomes showed high diversity among these three planthoppers suggesting the rapid evolution of sex‐linked genes, and all chromosomes showed high synteny. The chromosome‐level genome assemblies of three planthoppers would provide a valuable resource for a broad range of future research in molecular ecology, and subsequently benefits development of modern pest control strategies.     

Migration analysis of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Nilaparvata lugens</Emphasis> (Hemiptera: Delphacidae) from the Philippines to Taiwan under typhoon-induced windy conditions

The population of Nilaparvata lugens (Stål) in Taiwan is believed to belong to the East Asian population of the species, which has low susceptibility to the insecticide imidacloprid. The population in the Philippines belongs to the Southeast Asian population, which has high susceptibility to imidacloprid. In this study, long-winged adults of N. lugens collected in paddy fields in Taitung, southeastern Taiwan, just after a typhoon, were tested for imidacloprid susceptibility after rearing for 4–17 generations. The migration source was also estimated by backward trajectory analysis. Our findings were, first, that its curved dosage–mortality plots for imidacloprid suggested that the Taitung population is heterogeneous in its susceptibility to the insecticide. Source estimation found areas on Luzon Island of the Philippines, mainly, and southern China, partially, as possible sources. Before the typhoon approached, however, light trap monitoring data indicated some local populations might have occurred in the survey area. Therefore, with other pieces of circumstantial evidence, this study suggested that migration of N. lugens to Taiwan from the Philippines, and, simultaneously, possibly southern China occurred because of the typhoon, with the insects partly crossing the boundary of the Asian populations, and that a mixture of individuals with different susceptibility to the insecticide happened to form the Taitung population at the time of collection.     

Differential responses of the dinoflagellate Cochlodinium polykrikoides bloom to episodic typhoon events

To better understand the effect of typhoons on the harmful alga Cochlodinium polykrikoides, we investigated cell population dynamics in relation to hydrographic conditions in Korean coastal waters before and after the passage of typhoons. After typhoon Lingling passed through the Yellow Sea, significant accumulation of C. polykrikoides on the southern coast of Namhae Island was associated with southerly winds on September 8, 2019. Similar to field observations of red tide, a particle transport model simulation showed that the virtual particles were greatly influenced by wind-driven currents associated with typhoons, particularly when diel vertical migration was included in the model. However, a bloom of C. polykrikoides disappeared immediately after the passage of typhoon Tapah on September 23, 2019. Because of the different patterns of bloom behavior after the passage of these typhoons, characteristics of other typhoons that affected the Korean peninsula during previous C. polykrikoides blooms were investigated. Analysis of typhoon properties including wind direction, precipitation, and wave height and energy suggested that high wave energy during the passage of a typhoon plays a critical role in the termination of C. polykrikoides blooms, because of its generation of high turbulence relative to other factors. In our study, the wave energy associated with typhoon Tapah (753.6 kJ m^?2 over 48 h) was much higher than that associated with typhoon Lingling (441.7 kJ m^?2 over 48 h). The results indicate that typhoons have an important role in determining the accumulation and termination of C. polykrikoides blooms through the physical effects of wind direction and wave energy.

     

Molecular characterization,spatial‐temporal expression and magnetic response patterns of iron‐sulfur cluster assembly1 (IscA1) in the rice planthopper,Nilaparvata lugens

The mechanisms of magnetoreception have been proposed as the magnetitebased, the chemical radical-pair and biocompass model, in which magnetite particles, the cryptochrome (Cry) or iron-sulfur cluster assembly 1 (IscA1) may be involved. However, little is known about the association among the molecules. Here we investigated the molecular characterization and the mRNA expression of IscA1 in different developmental stages, tissues and magnetic fields in the migratory brown planthopper (BPH), Nilaparvata lugens. NlIscA1 contains an open reading frame of 390 bp, encoding amino acids of 129, with the predicted molecular weight of 14.0 kDa and the isoelectric point of 9.10. Well-conserved Fe-S cluster binding sites were observed in the predicted protein. Phylogenetic analysis demonstrated NlIscA1 to be clustered into the insect's IscA1. NlIscA1 showed up-regulated mRNA expression during the period of migration. The mRNA expression of NlIscA1 could be detected in all the three tissues of head, thorax and abdomen, with the highest expression level in the abdomen. For the macropterous migratory Nilaparvata lugens, mRNA expression of NlIscA1 and N. lugens cryptochromel (Nlcry1) were up-regulated under the magnetic fields of 5 Gauss and 10 Gauss in strength (vs. local geomagnetic field), while N. lugens cryptochrome 2 (Nlcry2) remained stable. For the brachyterous non-migratory Nilaparvata lugens, no significant changes were found in mRNA expression of NlIscA1, Nlcry1 and Nlcry2 among different magnetic fields. These findings preliminarily reveal that the expression of NlIscA1 and Nlcry1 exhibited coordinated responses to the magnetic field. It suggests some potential associations among the putative magneto-sensitive molecules of cryptochrome and iron-sulfur cluster assembly.     

Der Eingriff der Eleonorenfalken in den herbstlichen Vogelzug

SummaryAmount of predation by Falco eleonorae on trans-mediterranean migrants About 2000 pairs ofFalco eleonorae breed on Mediterranean (and Atlantic) islands. These 4000 adults rear approximately 4000 young during the latter stages of the autumn migration. The author tries to calculate the number of migratory birds on which the Falcons prey in the last 60 days of their stay in the Palearctic region. He supposes the mean weight of the favourite prey to be 20 grams and the daily amount of food 80 grams and thus calculates that 1.750.000 birds of the size of a Nightingale serve annually as food for these Falcons during the period August 25 to October 25.Moreau (1961) estimated the number of Palearctic migrants crossing the Mediterranean sea to be about 600 millions. If this figure should be nearly correct, more than one out of every 600 migrants becomes a victim ofFalco eleonorae.      

Postglacial northward expansion and genetic differentiation between migratory and sedentary populations of the broad‐tailed hummingbird (Selasphorus platycercus)

Unlike other migratory hummingbirds in North America, the broad‐tailed hummingbird (Selasphorus platycercus) exhibits both long‐distance migratory behaviour in the USA and sedentary behaviour in Mexico and Guatemala. We examined the evolution of migration linked to its northward expansion using a multiperspective approach. We analysed variation in morphology, mitochondrial and nuclear DNA, estimated migration rates between migratory and sedentary populations, compared divergence times with the occurrence of Quaternary climate events and constructed species distribution models to predict where migratory and sedentary populations resided during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and Last Interglacial (LIG) events. Our results are consistent with a recent northward population expansion driven by migration from southern sedentary populations. Phylogeographical analyses and population genetics methods revealed that migratory populations in the USA and sedentary populations in Mexico of the platycercus subspecies form one admixed population, and that sedentary populations from southern Mexico and Guatemala (guatemalae) undertook independent evolutionary trajectories. Species distribution modelling revealed that the species is a niche tracker and that the climate conditions associated with modern obligate migrants in the USA were not present during the LIG, which provides indirect evidence for recent migratory behaviour in broad‐tailed hummingbirds on the temporal scale of glacial cycles. The finding that platycercus hummingbirds form one genetic population and that suitable habitat for migratory populations was observed in eastern Mexico during the LIG also suggests that the conservation of overwintering sites is crucial for obligate migratory populations currently facing climate change effects.     

Rapid 'evolution' of migratory behaviour in the introduced house finch of eastern North America

The house finch (Carpodacus mexicanus) of eastern North America was introduced onto Long Island, New York, around 1940. The source is presumed to be southern California, where ca. 80% of individuals are completely sedentary. The eastern population has become migratory: by the early 1960s, 36% of eastern house finches were performing migratory movements (more than 80 km from their banding site) and that proportion has fluctuated between 28% and 54% in succeeding years. The movements of birds banded during the breeding season and recovered in winter were strongly orientated toward the south-west, and the same pattern was evident in the earliest recoveries (1958 to 1966); recoveries of birds banded during winter and recovered in the breeding season were orientated toward the north-east. The average distance of migration has continued to increase logarithmically. Areas colonized later, as the range expanded, were characterized by initial long migration distances and high proportions of migrants, suggesting that these traits have evolved in the eastern population. Eastern house finches are partial migrants: not all individuals migrate, and birds that migrate some winters remain in breeding areas in others. Younger birds exhibit a stronger tendency to migrate. A very few western (including southern California) house finches moved long distances, but they did so in directions consistent with seasonal migration, indicating that the machinery subserving migratory behaviour pre-existed in the parent population.     

Migratory movements of waterfowl in Central Asia and avian influenza emergence: sporadic transmission of H5N1 from east to west

Waterfowl in the genera Anas and Tadorna are suspected as vectors in the long‐distance transmission of highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1. The former Soviet Republics of Central Asia are situated at an important migratory crossroads for these and other species of birds that bridges regions where the disease is prevalent. However, waterfowl movements through Central Asia are poorly quantified. In this study, historical data derived from over 80 years of bird ringing are combined with recent satellite tracking data to delineate migration routes, movement chronology and habitat use patterns of waterfowl in relation to H5N1 outbreak locations. Results confirm migratory linkage between breeding and moulting areas in northern Kazakhstan and southern Siberia, with non‐breeding areas in the Caspian, Black and eastern Mediterranean Sea basins, as well as with South Asia. However, unlike the situation in neighbouring regions, most notably western China, H5N1 outbreaks have not been recurrent in Central Asia after they were first reported during summer 2005 and spring 2006. These findings have implications in relation to potential sampling biases, species‐specific variation in migratory behaviour and continuing regional H5N1 transmission risks.