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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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:aebe2a77e18e4915a0fcd43c9ea096d1 2023-05-15T14:50:03+02:00 Flyways and migratory behaviour of the Vega gull (Larus vegae), a little-known Arctic endemic Olivier Gilg Rob S. A. van Bemmelen Hansoo Lee Jin-Young Park Hwa-Jung Kim Dong-Won Kim Won Y. Lee Kristaps Sokolovskis Diana V. Solovyeva 2023-01-01T00:00:00Z https://doaj.org/article/aebe2a77e18e4915a0fcd43c9ea096d1 EN eng Public Library of Science (PLoS) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9934386/?tool=EBI https://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203 1932-6203 https://doaj.org/article/aebe2a77e18e4915a0fcd43c9ea096d1 PLoS ONE, Vol 18, Iss 2 (2023) Medicine R Science Q article 2023 ftdoajarticles 2023-02-26T01:41:57Z 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 Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic |
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Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
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Medicine R Science Q |
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Medicine R Science Q Olivier Gilg Rob S. A. van Bemmelen Hansoo Lee Jin-Young Park Hwa-Jung Kim Dong-Won Kim Won Y. Lee Kristaps Sokolovskis Diana V. Solovyeva Flyways and migratory behaviour of the Vega gull (Larus vegae), a little-known Arctic endemic |
topic_facet |
Medicine R Science Q |
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 ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Olivier Gilg Rob S. A. van Bemmelen Hansoo Lee Jin-Young Park Hwa-Jung Kim Dong-Won Kim Won Y. Lee Kristaps Sokolovskis Diana V. Solovyeva |
author_facet |
Olivier Gilg Rob S. A. van Bemmelen Hansoo Lee Jin-Young Park Hwa-Jung Kim Dong-Won Kim Won Y. Lee Kristaps Sokolovskis Diana V. Solovyeva |
author_sort |
Olivier Gilg |
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 |
https://doaj.org/article/aebe2a77e18e4915a0fcd43c9ea096d1 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic Siberia |
genre_facet |
Arctic Siberia |
op_source |
PLoS ONE, Vol 18, Iss 2 (2023) |
op_relation |
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9934386/?tool=EBI https://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203 1932-6203 https://doaj.org/article/aebe2a77e18e4915a0fcd43c9ea096d1 |
_version_ |
1766321140166295552 |