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Vojtěch Brlík, Jaroslav Koleček, Malcolm Burgess, Steffen Hahn, Diana Humple, Miloš Krist, Janne Ouwehand, Emily L. Weiser, Peter Adamík, José A. Alves, Debora Arlt, Sanja Barišić, Detlef Becker, Eduardo J. Belda, Václav Beran, Christiaan Both, Susana P. Bravo, Martins Briedis, Bohumír Chutný, Davor Ćiković, Nathan W. Cooper, Joana S. Costa, Víctor R. Cueto, Tamara Emmenegger, Kevin Fraser, Olivier Gilg, Marina Guerrero, Michael T. Hallworth, Chris Hewson, Frédéric Jiguet, James A. Johnson, Tosha Kelly, Dmitry Kishkinev, Michel Leconte, Terje Lislevand, Simeon Lisovski, Cosme López, Kent P. McFarland, Peter P. Marra, Steven M. Matsuoka, Piotr Matyjasiak, Christoph M. Meier, Benjamin Metzger, Juan S. Monrós, Roland Neumann, Amy Newman, Ryan Norris, Tomas Pärt, Václav Pavel, Noah Perlut, Markus Piha, Jeroen Reneerkens, Christopher C. Rimmer, Amélie Roberto‐Charron, Chiara Scandolara, Natalia Sokolova, Makiko Takenaka, Dirk Tolkmitt, Herman van Oosten, Arndt H. J. Wellbrock, Hazel Wheeler, Jan van der Winden, Klaudia Witte, Bradley K. Woodworth, Petr Procházka. (2020). Weak effects of geolocators on small birds: A meta-analysis controlled for phylogeny and publication bias (Vol. 89).
Abstract: Currently, the deployment of tracking devices is one of the most frequently used approaches to study movement ecology of birds. Recent miniaturization of light-level geolocators enabled studying small bird species whose migratory patterns were widely unknown. However, geolocators may reduce vital rates in tagged birds and may bias obtained movement data. There is a need for a thorough assessment of the potential tag effects on small birds, as previous meta-analyses did not evaluate unpublished data and impact of multiple life-history traits, focused mainly on large species and the number of published studies tagging small birds has increased substantially. We quantitatively reviewed 549 records extracted from 74 published and 48 unpublished studies on over 7,800 tagged and 17,800 control individuals to examine the effects of geolocator tagging on small bird species (body mass <100 g). We calculated the effect of tagging on apparent survival, condition, phenology and breeding performance and identified the most important predictors of the magnitude of effect sizes. Even though the effects were not statistically significant in phylogenetically controlled models, we found a weak negative impact of geolocators on apparent survival. The negative effect on apparent survival was stronger with increasing relative load of the device and with geolocators attached using elastic harnesses. Moreover, tagging effects were stronger in smaller species. In conclusion, we found a weak effect on apparent survival of tagged birds and managed to pinpoint key aspects and drivers of tagging effects. We provide recommendations for establishing matched control group for proper effect size assessment in future studies and outline various aspects of tagging that need further investigation. Finally, our results encourage further use of geolocators on small bird species but the ethical aspects and scientific benefits should always be considered.
Keywords: condition migration phenology reproduction return rate survival tag effect tracking device
Programme: 1036
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David Boertmann, Flemming Merkel, Olivier Gilg. (2020). Seabird Breeding Colonies in East and North Greenland: A Baseline (Vol. 73).
Abstract: This paper presents the results of a number of aircraft- and boat-based surveys for seabird breeding colonies in East and North Greenland carried out in the period 2003 to 2018 and gives the first comprehensive overview of the distribution and size of the seabird breeding colonies in this remote and mainly uninhabited region. Seventeen seabird species breed in approximately 800 sites distributed very unevenly along the coasts, with high concentrations at the polynyas and long stretches with very few breeding seabirds. Climate changes are in full progress in East and North Greenland, especially affecting the sea ice regime, and seabirds are expected to respond to these changes in different ways. For example, since the 1980s, Common Eiders (Somateria mollissima) have extended their breeding range more than two latitudinal degrees towards the north, now reaching the northernmost land on Earth. Lesser Black-backed Gulls (Larus fuscus) and Great Cormorants (Phalacrocorax carbo) have immigrated, and Sabine’s Gulls (Xema sabini) have increased and extended their range. Besides presenting survey results, this report may also serve as a baseline for future studies of the abundance of breeding seabirds in East and North Greenland.
Keywords: climate change colonial seabirds distribution Greenland
Programme: 1036
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Tuomas Kankaanpää, Eero Vesterinen, Bess Hardwick, Niels M. Schmidt, Tommi Andersson, Paul E. Aspholm, Isabel C. Barrio, Niklas Beckers, Joël Bêty, Tone Birkemoe, Melissa DeSiervo, Katherine H. I. Drotos, Dorothee Ehrich, Olivier Gilg, Vladimir Gilg, Nils Hein, Toke T. Høye, Kristian M. Jakobsen, Camille Jodouin, Jesse Jorna, Mikhail V. Kozlov, Jean-Claude Kresse, Don-Jean Leandri-Breton, Nicolas Lecomte, Maarten Loonen, Philipp Marr, Spencer K. Monckton, Maia Olsen, Josée-Anne Otis, Michelle Pyle, Ruben E. Roos, Katrine Raundrup, Daria Rozhkova, Brigitte Sabard, Aleksandr Sokolov, Natalia Sokolova, Anna M. Solecki, Christine Urbanowicz, Catherine Villeneuve, Evgenya Vyguzova, Vitali Zverev, Tomas Roslin. (2020). Parasitoids indicate major climate-induced shifts in arctic communities (Vol. 26).
Abstract: Climatic impacts are especially pronounced in the Arctic, which as a region is warming twice as fast as the rest of the globe. Here, we investigate how mean climatic conditions and rates of climatic change impact parasitoid insect communities in 16 localities across the Arctic. We focus on parasitoids in a widespread habitat, Dryas heathlands, and describe parasitoid community composition in terms of larval host use (i.e., parasitoid use of herbivorous Lepidoptera vs. pollinating Diptera) and functional groups differing in their closeness of host associations (koinobionts vs. idiobionts). Of the latter, we expect idiobionts—as being less fine-tuned to host development—to be generally less tolerant to cold temperatures, since they are confined to attacking hosts pupating and overwintering in relatively exposed locations. To further test our findings, we assess whether similar climatic variables are associated with host abundances in a 22 year time series from Northeast Greenland. We find sites which have experienced a temperature rise in summer while retaining cold winters to be dominated by parasitoids of Lepidoptera, with the reverse being true for the parasitoids of Diptera. The rate of summer temperature rise is further associated with higher levels of herbivory, suggesting higher availability of lepidopteran hosts and changes in ecosystem functioning. We also detect a matching signal over time, as higher summer temperatures, coupled with cold early winter soils, are related to high herbivory by lepidopteran larvae, and to declines in the abundance of dipteran pollinators. Collectively, our results suggest that in parts of the warming Arctic, Dryas is being simultaneously exposed to increased herbivory and reduced pollination. Our findings point to potential drastic and rapid consequences of climate change on multitrophic-level community structure and on ecosystem functioning and highlight the value of collaborative, systematic sampling effort.
Keywords: Arctic climate change DNA barcoding Dryas food webs functional traits host–parasitoid interactions insect herbivory pollinators
Programme: 1036
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Jeroen Reneerkens, Tom S. L. Versluijs, Theunis Piersma, José A. Alves, Mark Boorman, Colin Corse, Olivier Gilg, Gunnar Thor Hallgrimsson, Johannes Lang, Bob Loos, Yaa Ntiamoa‐Baidu, Alfred A. Nuoh, Peter M. Potts, Job ten Horn, Tamar Lok. (2020). Low fitness at low latitudes: Wintering in the tropics increases migratory delays and mortality rates in an Arctic breeding shorebird (Vol. 89).
Abstract: Evolutionary theories of seasonal migration generally assume that the costs of longer migrations are balanced by benefits at the non-breeding destinations. We tested, and rejected, the null hypothesis of equal survival and timing of spring migration for High Arctic breeding sanderling Calidris alba using six and eight winter destinations between 55°N and 25°S, respectively. Annual apparent survival was considerably lower for adult birds wintering in tropical West Africa (Mauritania: 0.74 and Ghana: 0.75) than in three European sites (0.84, 0.84 and 0.87) and in subtropical Namibia (0.85). Moreover, compared with adults, second calendar-year sanderlings in the tropics, but not in Europe, often refrained from migrating north during the first possible breeding season. During northward migration, tropical-wintering sanderlings occurred at their final staging site in Iceland 5–15 days later than birds wintering further north or south. Namibia-wintering sanderlings tracked with solar geolocators only staged in West Africa during southward migration. The low annual survival, the later age of first northward migration and the later passage through Iceland during northward migration of tropical-wintering sanderlings, in addition to the skipping of this area during northward but not southward migration by Namibia-wintering sanderlings, all suggest they face issues during the late non-breeding season in West Africa. Migrating sanderlings defy long distances but may end up in winter areas with poor fitness prospects. We suggest that ecological conditions in tropical West Africa make the fuelling prior to northward departure problematic.
Keywords: demography fitness migration nutrient storage strategies site fidelity solar geolocation survival timing
Programme: 1036
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Bédard, A., Bêty, J., Gilg, O., Group, T.i.w., Giroux, M.-a. (2018). Les colonies d’oies supportées par les activités anthropiques dans les écosystèmes tempérés peuvent-elles affecter l’activité des prédateurs de la toundra? Une comparaison multi-sites à l’échelle circumpolaire. Bachelor's thesis, , .
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Peter S. Ungar, Blaire Van Valkenburgh, Alexandria S. Peterson, Aleksandr A. Sokolov, Natalia A. Sokolova, Dorothee Ehrich, Ivan A. Fufachev, Olivier Gilg, Alexandra Terekhina, Alexander Volkovitskiy, Viktor Shtro. (2021). Dental evidence for variation in diet over time and space in the Arctic fox, Vulpes lagopus (Vol. 44).
Abstract: Studies of the effects of variation in resource availability are important for understanding the ecology of high-latitude mammals. This paper examines the potential of dental evidence (tooth wear and breakage) as a proxy for diet and food choice in Vulpes lagopus, the Arctic fox. It presents a preliminary study of dental microwear, gross wear score, and tooth breakage in a sample (n = 78 individuals) from the Yamal Peninsula of the Russian Arctic. While these measures have each been associated with feeding ecology in larger carnivorans (e.g., proportion of bone in the diet), they have yet to be combined in any study and have rarely been applied to smaller species or those from high latitudes. Arctic foxes from the north and south of the peninsula, and those from rodent peak and trough density periods, are compared to assess impact of changes in food availability across space and time. Results indicate that microwear textures vary in dispersion, with more variation in texture complexity, including higher values (suggesting more consumption of bone), in the rodent-poor period in the north of Yamal. Gross wear scores and tooth breakage are also significantly higher for the north of Yamal than the south. These data together suggest that dental evidence can provide important insights into variation in the feeding ecology of Arctic foxes and potentially into the impacts of changes in food abundance across space and time.
Programme: 1036
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Jana Maresova, Alena Suchackova Bartonova, Martin Konvicka, Toke T. Høye, Olivier Gilg, Jean-Claude Kresse, Nazar A. Shapoval, Roman V. Yakovlev, Zdenek Faltynek Fric. (2021). The story of endurance: Biogeography and the evolutionary history of four Holarctic butterflies with different habitat requirements (Vol. 48).
Abstract: Aim Biogeographical studies on the entire ranges of widely distributed species can change our perception of species’ range dynamics. We studied the effects of Pleistocene glacial cycles on current butterfly species distributions, aiming to uncover complex biogeographic patterns in the Holarctic, a region dramatically affected by Cenozoic climate change. Location Eurasia and North America. Taxon Boloria chariclea, Agriades optilete, Carterocephalus palaemon, Oeneis jutta. Methods We reconstructed the biogeographic history of four butterfly species differing in habitat preferences (B. chariclea – tundra, A. optilete – bogs, C. palaemon – temperate grasslands, O. jutta – taiga), using one mitochondrial and two nuclear DNA markers and species distribution modelling. Results Except for B. chariclea, all species originated in Eurasia. The open habitat species A. optilete and C. palaemon formed widely distributed east-west genetic clusters in continental Asia and clusters separated from them in Europe. Genetic clusters of the taiga species O. jutta were not geographically separated in Eurasia, suggesting Pleistocene fragmentation and recent reconnection. The glaciated North America was recolonized from Beringian and southerly situated refugia by all four species. Main conclusions The Pleistocene mammoth steppe allowed a widespread continuous distribution of open habitat butterflies, while in contrast the distribution of a taiga-specialist species was more limited. In the mostly flat and continental North Asia, the butterflies of various types of open habitats survived ice age in widely distributed east-west belts. In the mountainous and oceanic regions of Europe, Beringia and west North America, all four species persisted in contracted areas during the glacials. After deglaciation, they expanded their ranges and formed contact zones among populations. To conclude, the harsh climate of the glacials did not represent an obstacle for butterflies. Instead, different habitat specialists selected their own ways to thrive in the dynamic conditions of Quaternary glacial periods.
Keywords: COI Ef-1α insect Lepidoptera mammoth steppe Pleistocene Quaternary RpS5 species distribution modelling
Programme: 1036
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Rune Dietz, Jérôme Fort, Christian Sonne, Céline Albert, Jan Ove Bustnes, Thomas Kjær Christensen, Tomasz Maciej Ciesielski, Jóhannis Danielsen, Sam Dastnai, Marcel Eens, Kjell Einar Erikstad, Anders Galatius, Svend-Erik Garbus, Olivier Gilg, Sveinn Are Hanssen, Björn Helander, Morten Helberg, Veerle L. B. Jaspers, Bjørn Munro Jenssen, Jón Einar Jónsson, Kaarina Kauhala, Yann Kolbeinsson, Line Anker Kyhn, Aili Lage Labansen, Martin Mørk Larsen, Ulf Lindstøm, Tone K. Reiertsen, Frank F. Rigét, Anna Roos, Jakob Strand, Hallvard Strøm, Signe Sveegaard, Jens Søndergaard, Jiachen Sun, Jonas Teilmann, Ole Roland Therkildsen, Thorkell Lindberg Thórarinsson, Rune Skjold Tjørnløv, Simon Wilson, Igor Eulaers. (2021). A risk assessment of the effects of mercury on Baltic Sea, Greater North Sea and North Atlantic wildlife, fish and bivalves (Vol. 146).
Abstract: A wide range of species, including marine mammals, seabirds, birds of prey, fish and bivalves, were investigated for potential population health risks resulting from contemporary (post 2000) mercury (Hg) exposure, using novel risk thresholds based on literature and de novo contamination data. The main geographic focus is on the Baltic Sea, while data from the same species in adjacent waters, such as the Greater North Sea and North Atlantic, were included for comparative purposes. For marine mammals, 23% of the groups, each composing individuals of a specific sex and maturity from the same species in a specific study region, showed Hg-concentrations within the High Risk Category (HRC) and Severe Risk Category (SRC). The corresponding percentages for seabirds, fish and bivalves were 2.7%, 25% and 8.0%, respectively, although fish and bivalves were not represented in the SRC. Juveniles from all species showed to be at no or low risk. In comparison to the same species in the adjacent waters, i.e. the Greater North Sea and the North Atlantic, the estimated risk for Baltic populations is not considerably higher. These findings suggest that over the past few decades the Baltic Sea has improved considerably with respect to presenting Hg exposure to its local species, while it does still carry a legacy of elevated Hg levels resulting from high neighbouring industrial and agricultural activity and slow water turnover regime.
Keywords: Biological effect Bird of prey Hg Marine mammal Risk threshold Seabird
Programme: 1036
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Nicolas Meyer, Loïc Bollache, François-Xavier Dechaume-Moncharmont, Jérôme Moreau, Eve Afonso, Anders Angerbjörn, Joël Bêty, Dorothée Ehrich, Vladimir Gilg, Marie-Andrée Giroux, Jannik Hansen, Richard B. Lanctot, Johannes Lang, Nicolas Lecomte, Laura McKinnon, Jeroen Reneerkens, Sarah T. Saalfeld, Brigitte Sabard, Niels M. Schmidt, Benoît Sittler, Paul Smith, Aleksandr Sokolov, Vasiliy Sokolov, Natalia Sokolova, Rob van Bemmelen, Olivier Gilg. (2020). Nest attentiveness drives nest predation in arctic sandpipers (Vol. 129).
Abstract: Most birds incubate their eggs to allow embryo development. This behaviour limits the ability of adults to perform other activities. Hence, incubating adults trade off incubation and nest protection with foraging to meet their own needs. Parents can either cooperate to sustain this tradeoff or incubate alone. The main cause of reproductive failure at this reproductive stage is predation and adults reduce this risk by keeping the nest location secret. Arctic sandpipers are interesting biological models to investigate parental care evolution as they may use several parental care strategies. The three main incubation strategies include both parents sharing incubation duties (‘biparental’), one parent incubating alone (‘uniparental’), or a flexible strategy with both uniparental and biparental incubation within a population (‘mixed’). By monitoring the incubation behaviour in 714 nests of seven sandpiper species across 12 arctic sites, we studied the relationship between incubation strategy and nest predation. First, we described how the frequency of incubation recesses (NR), their mean duration (MDR), and the daily total duration of recesses (TDR) vary among strategies. Then, we examined how the relationship between the daily predation rate and these components of incubation behaviour varies across strategies using two complementary survival analysis. For uniparental and biparental species, the daily predation rate increased with the daily total duration of recesses and with the mean duration of recesses. In contrast, daily predation rate increased with the daily number of recesses for biparental species only. These patterns may be attributed to two independent mechanisms: cryptic incubating adults are more difficult to locate than unattended nests and adults departing the nest or feeding close to the nest can draw predators’ attention. Our results demonstrate that incubation behaviour as mediated by incubation strategy has important consequences for sandpipers’ reproductive success.
Keywords: Arctic shorebirds breeding behaviour incubation recesses incubation strategy nest survival parental care
Programme: 1036
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Sittler, B., Lang, J., Gilg, O., Aebischer, A. (2020). Snowy owls in Greenland on the brink? Insights from 32 years of long-term monitoring on Traill Island.
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