Flyways and migratory behaviour of the Vega gull (Larus vegae), a little-known Arctic endemic
Large gulls are generalist predators that play an important role in Arctic food webs. Describing the migratory patterns and phenology of these predators is essential to understanding how Arctic ecosystems function. However, from all six large Arctic gull taxa, including three long-distance migrants,...
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crplos:10.1371/journal.pone.0281827 2024-05-19T07:35:09+00:00 Flyways and migratory behaviour of the Vega gull (Larus vegae), a little-known Arctic endemic Gilg, Olivier van Bemmelen, Rob S. A. Lee, Hansoo Park, Jin-Young Kim, Hwa-Jung Kim, Dong-Won Lee, Won Y. Sokolovskis, Kristaps Solovyeva, Diana V. Bossart, Janice L. National Research Foundation of Korea National Institute of Biological Resources of Korea National Geographic Society Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency 2023 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0281827 https://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0281827 en eng Public Library of Science (PLoS) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ PLOS ONE volume 18, issue 2, page e0281827 ISSN 1932-6203 journal-article 2023 crplos https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0281827 2024-05-01T06:59:45Z Large gulls are generalist predators that play an important role in Arctic food webs. Describing the migratory patterns and phenology of these predators is essential to understanding how Arctic ecosystems function. However, from all six large Arctic gull taxa, including three long-distance migrants, to date seasonal movements have been studied only in three and with small sample sizes. To document the flyways and migratory behaviour of the Vega gull, a widespread but little-studied Siberian migrant, we monitored 28 individuals with GPS loggers over a mean period of 383 days. Birds used similar routes in spring and autumn, preferring coastal to inland or offshore routes, and travelled 4000–5500 km between their breeding (Siberia) and wintering grounds (mainly the Republic of Korea and Japan). Spring migration mainly occurred in May, and was twice as fast and more synchronized among individuals than autumn migration. Migration bouts mainly occurred during the day and twilight, but rates of travel were always higher during the few night flights. Flight altitudes were nearly always higher during migration bouts than during other bouts, and lower during twilight than during night or day. Altitudes above 2000m were recorded during migrations, when birds made non-stop inland flights over mountain ranges and vast stretches of the boreal forest. Individuals showed high inter-annual consistency in their movements in winter and summer, indicating strong site fidelity to their breeding and wintering sites. Within-individual variation was similar in spring and autumn, but between individual variation was higher in autumn than in spring. Compared to previous studies, our results suggest that the timing of spring migration in large Arctic gulls is likely constrained by snowmelt at breeding grounds, while the duration of migration windows could be related to the proportion of inland versus coastal habitats found along their flyways (‘fly-and-forage’ strategy). Ongoing environmental changes are hence likely in short term to ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Siberia PLOS PLOS ONE 18 2 e0281827 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
PLOS |
op_collection_id |
crplos |
language |
English |
description |
Large gulls are generalist predators that play an important role in Arctic food webs. Describing the migratory patterns and phenology of these predators is essential to understanding how Arctic ecosystems function. However, from all six large Arctic gull taxa, including three long-distance migrants, to date seasonal movements have been studied only in three and with small sample sizes. To document the flyways and migratory behaviour of the Vega gull, a widespread but little-studied Siberian migrant, we monitored 28 individuals with GPS loggers over a mean period of 383 days. Birds used similar routes in spring and autumn, preferring coastal to inland or offshore routes, and travelled 4000–5500 km between their breeding (Siberia) and wintering grounds (mainly the Republic of Korea and Japan). Spring migration mainly occurred in May, and was twice as fast and more synchronized among individuals than autumn migration. Migration bouts mainly occurred during the day and twilight, but rates of travel were always higher during the few night flights. Flight altitudes were nearly always higher during migration bouts than during other bouts, and lower during twilight than during night or day. Altitudes above 2000m were recorded during migrations, when birds made non-stop inland flights over mountain ranges and vast stretches of the boreal forest. Individuals showed high inter-annual consistency in their movements in winter and summer, indicating strong site fidelity to their breeding and wintering sites. Within-individual variation was similar in spring and autumn, but between individual variation was higher in autumn than in spring. Compared to previous studies, our results suggest that the timing of spring migration in large Arctic gulls is likely constrained by snowmelt at breeding grounds, while the duration of migration windows could be related to the proportion of inland versus coastal habitats found along their flyways (‘fly-and-forage’ strategy). Ongoing environmental changes are hence likely in short term to ... |
author2 |
Bossart, Janice L. National Research Foundation of Korea National Institute of Biological Resources of Korea National Geographic Society Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Gilg, Olivier van Bemmelen, Rob S. A. Lee, Hansoo Park, Jin-Young Kim, Hwa-Jung Kim, Dong-Won Lee, Won Y. Sokolovskis, Kristaps Solovyeva, Diana V. |
spellingShingle |
Gilg, Olivier van Bemmelen, Rob S. A. Lee, Hansoo Park, Jin-Young Kim, Hwa-Jung Kim, Dong-Won Lee, Won Y. Sokolovskis, Kristaps Solovyeva, Diana V. Flyways and migratory behaviour of the Vega gull (Larus vegae), a little-known Arctic endemic |
author_facet |
Gilg, Olivier van Bemmelen, Rob S. A. Lee, Hansoo Park, Jin-Young Kim, Hwa-Jung Kim, Dong-Won Lee, Won Y. Sokolovskis, Kristaps Solovyeva, Diana V. |
author_sort |
Gilg, Olivier |
title |
Flyways and migratory behaviour of the Vega gull (Larus vegae), a little-known Arctic endemic |
title_short |
Flyways and migratory behaviour of the Vega gull (Larus vegae), a little-known Arctic endemic |
title_full |
Flyways and migratory behaviour of the Vega gull (Larus vegae), a little-known Arctic endemic |
title_fullStr |
Flyways and migratory behaviour of the Vega gull (Larus vegae), a little-known Arctic endemic |
title_full_unstemmed |
Flyways and migratory behaviour of the Vega gull (Larus vegae), a little-known Arctic endemic |
title_sort |
flyways and migratory behaviour of the vega gull (larus vegae), a little-known arctic endemic |
publisher |
Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0281827 https://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0281827 |
genre |
Arctic Siberia |
genre_facet |
Arctic Siberia |
op_source |
PLOS ONE volume 18, issue 2, page e0281827 ISSN 1932-6203 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0281827 |
container_title |
PLOS ONE |
container_volume |
18 |
container_issue |
2 |
container_start_page |
e0281827 |
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1799473629757440000 |