The response of spring arrival dates of non-passerine migrants to climate change

Under the conditions of climate warming spring arrival dates of birds were noticeably earlier for both short-distance and long-distance migrants: earlier arrival was statistically significant for 10 short-distance migrants (83.3%) of 12 investigated and for 5 long-distance migrants (62.5%) of 8 inve...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Acta Zoologica Lituanica
Main Authors: Žalakevičius, Mečislovas, Bartkevičienė, Galina, Ivanauskas, Feliksas, Nedzinskas, Vytautas
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:Lithuanian
English
Published: 2009
Subjects:
Online Access:http://lmavb.lvb.lt/LMAVB:ELABAPDB5848018&prefLang=en_US
Description
Summary:Under the conditions of climate warming spring arrival dates of birds were noticeably earlier for both short-distance and long-distance migrants: earlier arrival was statistically significant for 10 short-distance migrants (83.3%) of 12 investigated and for 5 long-distance migrants (62.5%) of 8 investigated (p < 0.05). During the study period arrival dates became earlier on average from 0.14 days per year for black tern (Chlidonias niger) to 1.15 for common crane (Grus grus). The arrival to an observation site directly depends on air temperatures increasing in the site and en route of Europe and decreasing in North Africa. For all 12 short/medium-distance migrant species spring arrival has been registered statistically significantly earlier at a higher positive North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) index in winter (p < 0.05). In the group of long-distance migrants the correlation between advancement of arrival dates and growth of NAO index has been registered for 3 species (37.5%) of 8 investigated in winter and in March and for 2 species (25%)- in February (p < 0.05). The timing of spring arrival depends on atmospheric circulation conditions en route.