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Advancement in long-distance bird migration through individual plasticity in departure.

ABSTRACT: Globally, bird migration is occurring earlier in the year, consistent with climate-related changes in breeding resources. Although often attributed to phenotypic plasticity, there is no clear demonstration of long-term population advancement in avian migration through individual plasticity. Using direct observations of bar-tailed godwits (Limosa lapponica) departing New Zealand on a 16,000-km journey to Alaska, we show that migration advanced by six days during 2008-2020, and that within-individual advancement was sufficient to explain this population-level change. However, in individuals tracked for the entire migration (50 total tracks of 36 individuals), earlier departure did not lead to earlier arrival or breeding in Alaska, due to prolonged stopovers in Asia. Moreover, changes in breeding-site phenology varied across Alaska, but were not reflected in within-population differences in advancement of migratory departure. We demonstrate that plastic responses can drive population-level changes in timing of long-distance migration, but also that behavioral and environmental constraints en route may yet limit adaptive responses to global change.

SUBMITTER: Conklin JR

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8346503 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Advancement in long-distance bird migration through individual plasticity in departure.

Conklin Jesse R JR Lisovski Simeon S Battley Phil F PF

Nature communications 20210806 1

Globally, bird migration is occurring earlier in the year, consistent with climate-related changes in breeding resources. Although often attributed to phenotypic plasticity, there is no clear demonstration of long-term population advancement in avian migration through individual plasticity. Using direct observations of bar-tailed godwits (Limosa lapponica) departing New Zealand on a 16,000-km journey to Alaska, we show that migration advanced by six days during 2008-2020, and that within-individ ...[more]

PMID: 34362899

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Project description:Longitudinal tracking studies have revealed consistent differences in the migration patterns of individuals from the same populations. The sources or processes causing this individual variation are largely unresolved. As a result, it is mostly unknown how much, how fast and when animals can adjust their migrations to changing environments. We studied the ontogeny of migration in a long-distance migratory shorebird, the black-tailed godwit Limosa limosa limosa, a species known to exhibit marked individuality in the migratory routines of adults. By observing how and when these individual differences arise, we aimed to elucidate whether individual differences in migratory behaviour are inherited or emerge as a result of developmental plasticity. We simultaneously tracked juvenile and adult godwits from the same breeding area on their south- and northward migrations. To determine how and when individual differences begin to arise, we related juvenile migration routes, timing and mortality rates to hatch date and hatch year. Then, we compared adult and juvenile migration patterns to identify potential age-dependent differences. In juveniles, the timing of their first southward departure was related to hatch date. However, their subsequent migration routes, orientation, destination, migratory duration and likelihood of mortality were unrelated to the year or timing of migration, or their sex. Juveniles left the Netherlands after all tracked adults. They then flew non-stop to West Africa more often and incurred higher mortality rates than adults. Some juveniles also took routes and visited stopover sites far outside the well-documented adult migratory corridor. Such juveniles, however, were not more likely to die. We found that juveniles exhibited different migratory patterns than adults, but no evidence that these behaviours are under natural selection. We thus eliminate the possibility that the individual differences observed among adult godwits are present at hatch or during their first migration. This adds to the mounting evidence that animals possess the developmental plasticity to change their migration later in life in response to environmental conditions as those conditions are experienced.

Project description:BackgroundDifferent theories suggest birds may use compass or map navigational systems associated with Earth's magnetic intensity or inclination, especially during migratory flights. These theories have only been tested by considering properties of the Earth's magnetic field at coarse temporal scales, typically ignoring the temporal dynamics of geomagnetic values that may affect migratory navigational capacity.MethodsWe designed a simulation experiment to study if and how birds use the geomagnetic field during migration by using both high resolution GPS tracking data and geomagnetic data at relatively fine spatial and temporal resolutions in comparison to previous studies. Our simulations use correlated random walks (CRW) and correlated random bridge (CRB) models to model different navigational strategies based on underlying dynamic geomagnetic data. We translated navigational strategies associated with geomagnetic cues into probability surfaces that are included in the random walk models. Simulated trajectories from these models were compared to the actual GPS trajectories of migratory birds using 3 different similarity measurements to evaluate which of the strategies was most likely to have occurred.Results and conclusionWe designed a simulation experiment which can be applied to different wildlife species under varying conditions worldwide. In the case of our example species, we found that a compass-type strategy based on taxis, defined as movement towards an extreme value, produced the closest and most similar trajectories when compared to original GPS tracking data in CRW models. Our results indicate less evidence for map navigation (constant heading and bi-gradient taxis navigation). Additionally, our results indicate a multifactorial navigational mechanism necessitating more than one cue for successful navigation to the target. This is apparent from our simulations because the modelled endpoints of the trajectories of the CRW models do not reach close proximity to the target location of the GPS trajectory when simulated with geomagnetic navigational strategies alone. Additionally, the magnitude of the effect of the geomagnetic cues during navigation in our models was low in our CRB models. More research on the scale effects of the geomagnetic field on navigation, along with temporally varying geomagnetic data could be useful for further improving future models.

Project description:BackgroundMicroglia possess an elevated grade of plasticity, undergoing several structural changes based on their location and state of activation. The first step towards the comprehension of microglia's biology and functional responses to an extremely mutable extracellular milieu, consists in discriminating the morphological features acquired by cells maintained in vitro under diverse environmental conditions. Previous work described neither primary microglia grown on artificially patterned environments which impose physical cues and constraints, nor long distance migration of microglia in vitro. To this aim, the present work exploits artificial bio-mimetic microstructured substrates with pillar-shaped or line-grating geometries fabricated on poly(dimethylsiloxane) by soft lithography, in addition to microfluidic devices, and highlights some morphological/functional characteristics of microglia which were underestimated or unknown so far.ResultsWe report that primary microglia selectively adapt to diverse microstructured substrates modifying accordingly their morphological features and behavior. On micropatterned pillar-shaped geometries, microglia appear multipolar, extend several protrusions in all directions and form distinct pseudopodia. On both micropatterned line-grating geometries and microfluidic channels, microglia extend the cytoplasm from a roundish to a stretched, flattened morphology and assume a filopodia-bearing bipolar structure. Finally, we show that in the absence of any applied chemical gradient, primary microglia spontaneously moves through microfluidic channels for a distance of up to 500 ?m in approximately 12 hours, with an average speed of 0.66 ?m/min.ConclusionsWe demonstrate an elevated grade of microglia plasticity in response to a mutable extracellular environment, thus making these cells an appealing population to be further exploited for lab on chip technologies. The development of microglia-based microstructured substrates opens the road to novel hybrid platforms for testing drugs for neuroinflammatory diseases.

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Advancement in long-distance bird migration through individual plasticity in departure.

Publications

Advancement in long-distance bird migration through individual plasticity in departure.

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