Advances in linking wintering migrant birds to their breeding-ground origins using combined analyses of genetic and stable isotope markers.

ABSTRACT: An enduring problem in avian ecology and conservation is linking breeding and wintering grounds of migratory species. As migratory species and populations vary in the degree to which individuals from distinct breeding locales mix on stop-over sites and wintering grounds, establishing migratory connectivity informs our understanding of population demography and species management. We present a new Bayesian approach for inferring breeding grounds of wintering birds of unknown origins in North America. We incorporate prior information from analysis of genetic markers into geographic origin assignment based upon stable-hydrogen isotope analysis of feathers (δ(2)H(f)), using the Loggerhead Shrike (Lanius ludovicianus). Likely geographic origins derived from analyses of DNA microsatellites were

SUBMITTER: Chabot AA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3423384 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature