Environmental variability, reliability of information and the timing of migration.

ABSTRACT: The timing of migration and migratory steps is highly relevant for fitness. Because environmental conditions vary between years, the optimal time for migration varies accordingly. Therefore, migratory animals could clearly benefit from acquiring information as to when it is the best time to migrate in a specific year. Thus, environmental predictability and variability are fundamental characteristics of migration systems but their relationship and consequence for migratory progression has remained unexplored. We develop a simple dynamic model to identify the optimal migration behaviour in environments that differ in predictability, variability and the number of intermediate stop-over sites. Our results indicate that higher predictability along migration routes enables organisms to better ti

SUBMITTER: Bauer S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7282917 | biostudies-literature | 2020 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature