Eco-evolutionary drivers of avian migratory connectivity |
| |
| Authors: | Niccolò Fattorini Alessandra Costanzo Andrea Romano Diego Rubolini Stephen Baillie Franz Bairlein Fernando Spina Roberto Ambrosini |
| |
| Institution: | 1. Department of Environmental Science and Policy, University of Milano, Milan, Italy;2. British Trust for Ornithology, The Nunnery, Thetford, UK;3. Institute of Avian Research, Wilhelmshaven, Germany
Max-Planck-Institute of Animal Behavior, Radolfzell, Germany;4. Area Avifauna Migratrice, Istituto Superiore per la Protezione e la Ricerca Ambientale (ISPRA), Ozzano dell'Emilia, Italy |
| |
| Abstract: | Migratory connectivity, reflecting the extent by which migrants tend to maintain their reciprocal positions in seasonal ranges, can assist in the conservation and management of mobile species, yet relevant drivers remain unclear. Taking advantage of an exceptionally large (~150,000 individuals, 83 species) and more-than-a-century-long dataset of bird ringing encounters, we investigated eco-evolutionary drivers of migratory connectivity in both short- and long-distance Afro-Palearctic migratory birds. Connectivity was strongly associated with geographical proxies of migration costs and was weakly influenced by biological traits and phylogeny, suggesting the evolutionary lability of migratory behaviour. The large intraspecific variability in avian migration strategies, through which most species geographically split into distinct migratory populations, explained why most of them were significantly connected. By unravelling key determinants of migratory connectivity, our study improves knowledge about the resilience of avian migrants to ecological perturbations, providing a critical tool to inform transboundary conservation and management strategies at the population level. |
| |
| Keywords: | avian migration bird conservation Convention on Migratory Species EURING European-African migrants migration ecology migratory connectivity mobile species ringing encounters |
|
|
