Citizen science reveals waterfowl responses to extreme winter weather.

Autor: Masto NM; College of Arts and Sciences, Tennessee Technological University, Cookeville, Tennessee, USA., Robinson OJ; Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA., Brasher MG; Ducks Unlimited Inc., Memphis, Tennessee, USA., Keever AC; College of Arts and Sciences, Tennessee Technological University, Cookeville, Tennessee, USA., Blake-Bradshaw AG; College of Arts and Sciences, Tennessee Technological University, Cookeville, Tennessee, USA., Highway CJ; College of Arts and Sciences, Tennessee Technological University, Cookeville, Tennessee, USA., Feddersen JC; Division of Wildlife and Forestry, Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, Nashville, Tennessee, USA., Hagy HM; National Wildlife Refuge System, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Stanton, Tennessee, USA., Osborne DC; College of Forestry, Agriculture, and Natural Resources, University of Arkansas at Monticello, Monticello, Arkansas, USA., Combs DL; College of Arts and Sciences, Tennessee Technological University, Cookeville, Tennessee, USA., Cohen BS; College of Arts and Sciences, Tennessee Technological University, Cookeville, Tennessee, USA.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Global change biology [Glob Chang Biol] 2022 Sep; Vol. 28 (18), pp. 5469-5479. Date of Electronic Publication: 2022 Jun 16.
DOI: 10.1111/gcb.16288
Abstrakt: Global climate change is increasing the frequency and severity of extreme climatic events (ECEs) which may be especially detrimental during late-winter when many species are surviving on scarce resources. However, monitoring animal populations relative to ECEs is logistically challenging. Crowd-sourced datasets may provide opportunity to monitor species' responses to short-term chance phenomena such as ECEs. We used 14 years of eBird-a global citizen science initiative-to examine distribution changes for seven wintering waterfowl species across North America in response to recent extreme winter polar vortex disruptions. To validate inferences from eBird, we compared eBird distribution changes against locational data from 362 GPS-tagged Mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) in the Mississippi Flyway. Distributional shifts between eBird and GPS-tagged Mallards were similar following an ECE in February 2021. In general, the ECE affected continental waterfowl population distributions; however, responses were variable across species and flyways. Waterfowl distributions tended to stay near wintering latitudes or moved north at lesser distances compared with non-ECE years, suggesting preparedness for spring migration was a stronger "pull" than extreme weather was a "push" pressure. Surprisingly, larger-bodied waterfowl with grubbing foraging strategies (i.e., geese) delayed their northward range shift during ECE years, whereas smaller-bodied ducks were less affected. Lastly, wetland obligate species shifted southward during ECE years. Collectively, these results suggest specialized foraging strategies likely related to resource limitations, but not body size, necessitate movement from extreme late-winter weather in waterfowl. Our results demonstrate eBird's potential to monitor population-level effects of weather events, especially severe ECEs. eBird and other crowd-sourced datasets can be valuable to identify species which are adaptable or vulnerable to ECEs and thus, begin to inform conservation policy and management to combat negative effects of global climate change.
(© 2022 The Authors. Global Change Biology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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