Weather at the winter and stopover areas determines spring migration onset, progress, and advancements in Afro-Palearctic migrant birds.

ABSTRACT: Climate change causes changes in the timing of life cycle events across all trophic groups. Spring phenology has mostly advanced, but large, unexplained, variations are present between and within species. Each spring, migratory birds travel tens to tens of thousands of kilometers from their wintering to their breeding grounds. For most populations, large uncertainties remain on their exact locations outside the breeding area, and the time spent there or during migration. Assessing climate (change) effects on avian migration phenology has consequently been difficult due to spatial and temporal uncertainties in the weather potentially affecting migration timing. Here, we show for six trans-Saharan long-distance migrants that weather at the wintering and stopover grounds almost entirely (∼80%

SUBMITTER: Haest B 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7382219 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature