A green wave of saltmarsh productivity predicts the timing of the annual cycle in a long-distance migratory shorebird.

ABSTRACT: Understanding how migratory animals respond to spatial and temporal variation in habitat phenology is critical for identifying selection pressures and tradeoffs at different life history stages. We examined the influence of breeding habitat phenology on life history timing of the eastern willet (Tringa semipalmata semipalmata) across a latitudinal gradient of breeding sites on the east coast of North America. To describe migration and life history timing, we deployed light-level geolocators on willets at breeding sites in New Jersey, Massachusetts and Maine, USA and evaluated additional data on life history timing and migratory connectivity from previous studies, eBird and band recoveries. Willets from Nova Scotia to Georgia winter exclusively on the Atlantic coast of northern South Americ

SUBMITTER: Smith JAM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7693269 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature