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Spatial variation in spring arrival patterns of Afro‐Palaearctic bird migration across Europe

Border, Jennifer A.; Boersch‐Supan, Philipp H.; Pearce‐Higgins, James W.; Hewson, Chris M.; Howard, Christine; Stephens, Philip A.; Willis, Stephen G.; Houston, Alasdair I.; Gargallo, Gabriel; Baillie, Stephen R.

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Authors

Jennifer A. Border

Philipp H. Boersch‐Supan

James W. Pearce‐Higgins

Chris M. Hewson

Alasdair I. Houston

Gabriel Gargallo

Stephen R. Baillie



Abstract

Aim: Geographical patterns of migrant species arrival have been little studied, despite their relevance to global change responses. Here, we quantify continent-wide inter-specific variation in spatio-temporal patterns of spring arrival of 30 common migrant bird species and relate these to species characteristics and environmental conditions.

Location: Europe

Time period: 2010-2019

Major taxa studied: Birds, 30 species

Methods: Using citizen science data from EuroBirdPortal, we modelled arrival phenology for 30 Afro-Palearctic migrant species across Europe to extract start and duration of species arrival at a 400 km square resolution. We related inter and intra-specific variation in arrival and duration to species characteristics and temperature at the start of the growing season (green-up) .

Results: Spatial variation in start of arrival times indicates it took on average 1.6 days for the leading migratory front to move northwards by 100 km (range: 0.6—2.5 days). There was a major gradient in arrival phenology, from species which arrived earlier, least synchronously, in colder temperatures and progressed slowly northwards to species which arrived later, most synchronously and in warmer temperatures, and advanced quickly through Europe. The slow progress of early arrivers suggests that temperature limits their northward advance; this group included Aerial Insectivores and species wintering north of the Sahel. For the late arrivers, which included species wintering further south, seasonal resource availability in Africa may delay their arrival into Europe.

Main conclusions: We found support for the green-wave hypothesis applying widely to migratory landbirds. Species arrival phenologies are linked to ecological differences between taxa, such as diet, and wintering location. Understanding these differences informs predictions of species’ sensitivity to global change. Publishing these arrival phenologies will facilitate further research and have additional conservation benefits such as informing designation of hunting seasons. Our methods are applicable to any taxa with repeated occurrence data across large scales.

Key words: phenology, European-African migrants, bird migration, spring arrival, spatial variation, intraspecific and interspecific variation, EuroBirdPortal, citizen scientists, complete lists and casual records

Citation

Border, J. A., Boersch‐Supan, P. H., Pearce‐Higgins, J. W., Hewson, C. M., Howard, C., Stephens, P. A., Willis, S. G., Houston, A. I., Gargallo, G., & Baillie, S. R. (2024). Spatial variation in spring arrival patterns of Afro‐Palaearctic bird migration across Europe. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 33(7), Article e13850. https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.13850

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Apr 16, 2024
Online Publication Date May 2, 2024
Publication Date May 2, 2024
Deposit Date May 10, 2024
Publicly Available Date May 13, 2024
Journal Global Ecology and Biogeography
Print ISSN 1466-822X
Electronic ISSN 1466-8238
Publisher Wiley
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 33
Issue 7
Article Number e13850
DOI https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.13850
Public URL https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/2436175
Publisher URL https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/geb.13850

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