Arctic avian predators synchronise their spring migration with the northern progression of snowmelt
Curk, Teja; Pokrovsky, Ivan; Lecomte, Nicolas; Aarvak, Tomas; Brinker, David F.; Burnham, Kurt; Dietz, Andreas; Dixon, Andrew; Franke, Alastair; Gauthier, Gilles; Jacobsen, Karl-Otto; Kidd, Jeff; Lewis, Stephen B.; Øien, Ingar J.; Sokolov, Aleksandr; Sokolov, Vasiliy; Solheim, Roar; Weidensaul, Scott; Wiebe, Karen; Wikelski, Martin; Therrien, Jean-François; Safi, Kamran
Peer reviewed, Journal article
Published version

View/ Open
Date
2020Metadata
Show full item recordCollections
- Publikasjoner fra CRIStin [4478]
- Scientific Publications [24]
Original version
Curk, T., Pokrovsky, I., Lecomte, N., Aarvak, T., Brinker, D. F., Burnham, K., Dietz, A., Dixon, A., Franke, A., Gauthier, G., Jacobsen, K. -O., Kidd, J., Lewis, S. B., Øien, I. J., Sokolov., Sokolov, V., Solheim, R., Weidensaul, S., Wiebe, K., Wikelski, M., Therrien, J.-F. & Safi, K. (2020). Arctic avian predators synchronise their spring migration with the northern progression of snowmelt. Scientific Reports, 10. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-63312-0Abstract
Migratory species display a range of migration patterns between irruptive (facultative) to regular (obligate), as a response to different predictability of resources. In the Arctic, snow directly influences resource availability. The causes and consequences of different migration patterns of migratory species as a response to the snow conditions remains however unexplored. Birds migrating to the Arctic are expected to follow the spring snowmelt to optimise their arrival time and select for snow-free areas to maximise prey encounter en-route. Based on large-scale movement data, we compared the migration patterns of three top predator species of the tundra in relation to the spatio-temporal dynamics of snow cover. The snowy owl, an irruptive migrant, the rough-legged buzzard, with an intermediary migration pattern, and the peregrine falcon as a regular migrant, all followed, as expected, the spring snowmelt during their migrations. However, the owl stayed ahead, the buzzard stayed on, and the falcon stayed behind the spatio-temporal peak in snowmelt. Although none of the species avoided snow-covered areas, they presumably used snow presence as a cue to time their arrival at their breeding grounds. We show the importance of environmental cues for species with different migration patterns.