Dryad
Published January 14, 2019 | Version v1
Dataset Open

Data from: Large birds travel farther in homogeneous environments

Authors/Creators

  • 1. Goethe University Frankfurt
  • 2. Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre
  • 3. University of North Carolina at Charlotte
  • 4. Max Planck Institute for Ornithology
  • 5. University of Alicante
  • 6. College of William & Mary
  • 7. University of Utah
  • 8. University College Cork
  • 9. University of Maryland, College Park
  • 10. Monash University
  • 11. University of Florida
  • 12. BirdLife Denmark Copenhagen Denmark*
  • 13. Biodiversity Research Institute
  • 14. Storch Schweiz Kreuzlingen Switzerland*
  • 15. Philipp University of Marburg
  • 16. University of Konstanz
  • 17. University of Alberta
  • 18. University of Guelph
  • 19. University of Cape Town
  • 20. International Crane Foundation
  • 21. Hebrew University of Jerusalem
  • 22. University College Dublin
  • 23. North Carolina State University
  • 24. Utrecht University
  • 25. Columbia University
  • 26. University of Valencia
  • 27. Friends University
  • 28. Virginia Commonwealth University
  • 29. National Zoological Park
  • 30. Royal Society for the Protection of Birds
  • 31. Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust Gloucester UK*
  • 32. French National Centre for Scientific Research
  • 33. University of Haifa
  • 34. BirdLife Österreich Vienna Austria*
  • 35. Tel Aviv University
  • 36. University of Twente
  • 37. Raptor View Research Institute Missoula Montana*
  • 38. University of Georgia
  • 39. Ecology and Environment DepartmentDHI Hørsholm Denmark*
  • 40. United States Geological Survey
  • 41. Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology
  • 42. VulPro NPC Skeerpoort South Africa*
  • 43. Ornitela UAB Vilnius Lithuania*
  • 44. University of Lisbon

Description

Aim: Animal movement is an important determinant of individual survival, population dynamics, and ecosystem structure and function. Yet it is still unclear how local movements are related to resource availability and the spatial arrangement of resources. Using resident bird species and migratory bird species outside of the migratory period, we examined how the distribution of resources affect the movement patterns of both large terrestrial birds (e.g., raptors, bustards, hornbills) and waterbirds (e.g., cranes, storks, ducks, geese, flamingos). Location: Global Time Period: 2003 - 2015 Major taxa studied: Birds Methods: We compiled GPS tracking data for 386 individuals across 36 bird species. We calculated the straight-line distance between GPS locations of each individual at the 1-hour and 10-day timescales. For each individual and timescale, we calculated the median and 0.95 quantile of displacement. We used linear mixed-effects models to examine the effect of the spatial arrangement of resources, measured as Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) homogeneity, on avian movements while accounting for mean resource availability, body mass, diet, flight type, migratory status and taxonomy and spatial autocorrelation. Results: We found a significant effect of resource spatial arrangement at the 1-hour and 10-day timescales. On average, individual movements were seven times longer in environments with homogeneously distributed resources compared with areas of low resource homogeneity. Contrary to previous work, we found no significant effect of resource availability, diet, flight type, migratory status or body mass on the non-migratory movements of birds. Main conclusions: We suggest that longer movements in homogeneous environments may reflect the need for different habitat types associated with foraging and reproduction. This highlights the importance of landscape complementarity, where habitat patches within a landscape include a range of different, yet complimentary resources. As habitat homogenisation increases, it may force birds to travel increasingly longer distances to meet their diverse needs.

Notes

Bird Movement and EVI Homogeneity Data
Data from Tucker et al. Large birds travel farther in homogeneous environments. Data includes species names, median displacement (km), 0.95 quantile displacement (km), body mass (g), mean EVI value and EVI homogeneity values.
TuckerBirdData_DRYAD.csv

Files

TuckerBirdData_DRYAD.csv

Files (27.3 kB)

Name Size Download all
md5:d98f6e2dfe46f053dea6341515a91f62
27.3 kB Preview Download

Additional details

Related works

Is cited by
10.1111/geb.12875 (DOI)