Migratory birds modulate niche tradeoffs in rhythm with seasons and life history

Movement is a key means by which animals cope with variable environments. As they move, animals construct individual niches composed of the environmental conditions they experience. Niche axes may vary over time and covary with one another as animals make tradeoffs between competing needs. Seasonal migration is expected to produce substantial niche variation as animals move to keep pace with major life history phases and fluctuations in environmental conditions. Here, we apply a time-ordered principal component analysis to examine dynamic niche variance and covariance across the annual cycle for four species of migratory crane: common crane (<i>Grus grus</i>, n = 20), demoiselle crane (<i>Anthropoides virgo</i>, n = 66), black-necked crane (<i>Grus nigricollis</i>, n = 9), and white-naped crane (<i>Grus vipio</i>, n = 9). We consider four key niche components known to be important to aspects of crane natural history: enhanced vegetation index (resources availability), temperature (thermoregulation), crop proportion (preferred foraging habitat), and proximity to water (predator avoidance). All species showed a primary seasonal niche "rhythm" that dominated variance in niche components across the annual cycle. Secondary rhythms were linked to major species-specific life history phases (migration, breeding, and nonbreeding) as well as seasonal environmental patterns. Furthermore, we found that cranes' experiences of the environment emerge from time-dynamic tradeoffs among niche components. We suggest that our approach to estimating the environmental niche as a multidimensional and time-dynamical system of tradeoffs improves mechanistic understanding of organism-environment interactions.

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Publication Details

Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Published
2024-09-23
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2316827121
Citations
10
Primary Topic
Avian ecology and behavior
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
4.13

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article

Migratory birds modulate niche tradeoffs in rhythm with seasons and life history

Fabiola Iannarilli, Georg Heine, Walter Jetz, Yu. O. Andryushchenko et al.
10 citations
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Avian ecology and behavior
4.13
article

Migratory birds modulate niche tradeoffs in rhythm with seasons and life history

Fabiola Iannarilli, Georg Heine, Walter Jetz, Yu. O. Andryushchenko, Sherub Sherub, Martin C. Wikelski, Scott W. Yanco, Tuvshintugs Sukhbaatar, Oleg Goroshko, Nina Richter, Nyambayar Batbayar, Ivan G. Pokrovsky, Ruth Y. Oliver, Е. I. Ilyashenko, Andrei Gavrilov, Mark Desholm, Henrik Skov, Johan Månsson, Bernd Vorneweg, Batbayar Galtbalt, Tseveenmyadag Natsagdorj, V. Yu. Ilyashenko, Mindaugas Dagys, Е. А. Мудрик, Ramūnas Žydelis, U. Mueller, Ben Carlson, Lovisa Nilsson
article en
10 citations

Abstract

Movement is a key means by which animals cope with variable environments. As they move, animals construct individual niches composed of the environmental conditions they experience. Niche axes may vary over time and covary with one another as animals make tradeoffs between competing needs. Seasonal migration is expected to produce substantial niche variation as animals move to keep pace with major life history phases and fluctuations in environmental conditions. Here, we apply a time-ordered principal component analysis to examine dynamic niche variance and covariance across the annual cycle for four species of migratory crane: common crane (<i>Grus grus</i>, n = 20), demoiselle crane (<i>Anthropoides virgo</i>, n = 66), black-necked crane (<i>Grus nigricollis</i>, n = 9), and white-naped crane (<i>Grus vipio</i>, n = 9). We consider four key niche components known to be important to aspects of crane natural history: enhanced vegetation index (resources availability), temperature (thermoregulation), crop proportion (preferred foraging habitat), and proximity to water (predator avoidance). All species showed a primary seasonal niche "rhythm" that dominated variance in niche components across the annual cycle. Secondary rhythms were linked to major species-specific life history phases (migration, breeding, and nonbreeding) as well as seasonal environmental patterns. Furthermore, we found that cranes' experiences of the environment emerge from time-dynamic tradeoffs among niche components. We suggest that our approach to estimating the environmental niche as a multidimensional and time-dynamical system of tradeoffs improves mechanistic understanding of organism-environment interactions.

Proceedings of the National Academy of SciencesVol. 121(41)
Russian Academy of Sciences (RU), National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (UA), University of California, Santa Barbara (US), University of Konstanz (DE), Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SE), Yale University (US), Institute of Natural Resources, Ecology and Cryology (RU), Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior (DE), Institute of Zoology (KZ), Nature Research Centre (LT), I.I. Schmalhausen Institute of Zoology (UA), Vavilov Institute of General Genetics (RU), Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution (RU), DHI (DK), Baikal Nature Reserve (RU), Lithuanian Ornithological Society (LT), Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan (KZ)
National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Yale University, California Institute of Technology, International Crane Foundation, Russian Foundation for Basic Research, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Ministry of Environment, Nuclear Safety and Security Commission, Sveriges Lantbruksuniversitet, Universität Konstanz, Nature, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Russian Academy of Sciences
Life in Land
Openalex Percentile: Top 6%
Avian ecology and behavior
4.13
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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