Migratory herbivorous waterfowl track multiple resource waves during spring migration

Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences, vol. 291, pp. 20241448

Abstract

East Asian herbivorous waterfowl intensively use farmland in spring, next to their natural habitat. Accordingly, they might have expanded their migration strategy from merely tracking the green wave of newly emerging vegetation to also incorporating the availability of post-harvest agricultural seeds (here dubbed the seed wave). However, if and how waterfowl use multiple food resources to time their seasonal migration is still unknown. We test this migration strategy using 167 spring migration tracks of five East Asian herbivorous waterfowl species and mixed-effect resource selection function models. We found that all study species arrived at their core stopover sites in the Northeast China Plain after agricultural seeds became available, extended their stay after spring vegetation emerged and arrived at their breeding sites around the emergence of vegetation. At the core stopover sites, all study species used snowmelt as a cue to track seed availability, although smaller-bodied species tended to arrive later. At the breeding sites, swans tracked the onset of vegetation emergence and geese tracked the mid- or end phases of snowmelt. Our findings suggest that waterfowl track multiple resource waves to fine-tune their migration, highlighting new opportunities for conservation.

Authors 13

1. Fei Xu

   Chongqing University · Tsinghua University

   Affiliation as printed

   Department of Earth System Science, Ministry of Education Field Research Station for East Asian Migratory Birds, Tsinghua University , Beijing 100086, People’s Republic of China

   Key Laboratory of the Three Gorges Reservoir Region’s Eco-Environment, Ministry of Education, Chongqing University , Chongqing 400045, People’s Republic of China

2. Wei Wu

   Sun Yat-sen University · Guizhou University · Tsinghua University

   Affiliation as printed

   Department of Earth System Science, Ministry of Education Field Research Station for East Asian Migratory Birds, Tsinghua University , Beijing 100086, People’s Republic of China

   Mining College, Guizhou University , Guiyang, Guizhou 550025, People’s Republic of China

   School of Geography and Planning, Sun Yat-sen University , Guangzhou 510275, People’s Republic of China

3. Jie Wei

   Tsinghua University

   Affiliation as printed

   Department of Earth System Science, Ministry of Education Field Research Station for East Asian Migratory Birds, Tsinghua University , Beijing 100086, People’s Republic of China

4. Qinchuan Xin

   Sun Yat-sen University

   Affiliation as printed

   School of Geography and Planning, Sun Yat-sen University , Guangzhou 510275, People’s Republic of China

5. Ben Wielstra Aachen Institute of Biology, Leiden University Naturalis Biodiversity Center

   Leiden University · Naturalis Biodiversity Center

   Affiliation as printed

   Institute of Biology, Leiden University , Leiden, The Netherlands

   Naturalis Biodiversity Center , Leiden, The Netherlands

6. Frank A. La Sorte

   Yale University

   Affiliation as printed

   Center for Biodiversity and Global Change, Yale University , New Haven, CT 06511, USA

   Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Yale University , New Haven, CT 06511, USA

7. Guangchun Lei

   Beijing Forestry University

   Affiliation as printed

   School of Ecology and Nature Conservation, Beijing Forestry University , Beijing 100083, People’s Republic of China

8. Jialin Lei

   Beijing Forestry University

   Affiliation as printed

   School of Ecology and Nature Conservation, Beijing Forestry University , Beijing 100083, People’s Republic of China

9. Wenzhao Wu

   Sun Yat-sen University · Guizhou University · Tsinghua University

   Affiliation as printed

   Department of Earth System Science, Ministry of Education Field Research Station for East Asian Migratory Birds, Tsinghua University , Beijing 100086, People’s Republic of China

   Mining College, Guizhou University , Guiyang, Guizhou 550025, People’s Republic of China

   School of Geography and Planning, Sun Yat-sen University , Guangzhou 510275, People’s Republic of China

10. Yongchuan Yang

    Chongqing University

    Affiliation as printed

    Key Laboratory of the Three Gorges Reservoir Region’s Eco-Environment, Ministry of Education, Chongqing University , Chongqing 400045, People’s Republic of China

11. Peng Gong

    University of Hong Kong · Tsinghua University

    Affiliation as printed

    Department of Earth System Science, Ministry of Education Field Research Station for East Asian Migratory Birds, Tsinghua University , Beijing 100086, People’s Republic of China

    Department of Geography, Department of Earth Sciences, Institute for Climate and Carbon Neutrality, The University of Hong Kong , Hong Kong

12. Bing Xu

    Tsinghua University

    Affiliation as printed

    Department of Earth System Science, Ministry of Education Field Research Station for East Asian Migratory Birds, Tsinghua University , Beijing 100086, People’s Republic of China

13. Yali Si Aachen Institute of Environmental Sciences (CML)

    Leiden University · Tsinghua University

    Affiliation as printed

    Department of Earth System Science, Ministry of Education Field Research Station for East Asian Migratory Birds, Tsinghua University , Beijing 100086, People’s Republic of China

    Institute of Environmental Sciences, Leiden University , Leiden 2333 CC, The Netherlands