Data from: Migratory connectivity at high latitudes: Sabine’s gulls (Xema sabini) from a colony in the Canadian High Arctic migrate to different oceans ...

• Main Authors: Davis, Shanti E., Maftei, Mark, Mallory, Mark L.
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: Movebank Data Repository 2016
• Subjects: Xema sabini; animal movement; animal tracking; avian migration; light-level loggers; migratory connectivity; MODIS; Sabine's gull; sea surface temperature; Sabine's Gull
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5441/001/1.c745vb70; https://www.datarepository.movebank.org/handle/10255/move.599

The world's Arctic latitudes are some of the most recently colonized by birds, and an understanding of the migratory connectivity of circumpolar species offers insights into the mechanisms of range expansion and speciation. Migratory divides exist for many birds, however for many taxa it is unclear where such boundaries lie, and to what extent these affect the connectivity of species breeding across their ranges. Sabine’s gulls (Xema sabini) have a patchy, circumpolar breeding distribution and overwinter in two ecologically similar areas in different ocean basins: the Humboldt Current off the coast of Peru in the Pacific, and the Benguela Current off the coasts of South Africa and Namibia in the Atlantic. We used geolocators to track Sabine’s gulls breeding at a colony in the Canadian High Arctic to determine their migratory pathways and wintering sites. Our study provides evidence that birds from this breeding site disperse to both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans during the non-breeding season, which ...