Using genetic markers to unravel the origin of birds converging towards pre-migratory sites

Scientific Reports
Anastasios BounasKonstantinos Sotiropoulos

Abstract

Identifying patterns of individual movements in spatial and temporal scales can provide valuable insight into the structure of populations and the dynamics of communities and ecosystems. Especially for migrating birds, that can face a variety of unfavorable conditions along their journey, resolving movements of individuals across their annual cycle is necessary in order to design better targeted conservation strategies. Here, we studied the movements of a small migratory falcon, the Lesser Kestrel (Falco naumanni), by genetically assigning feathers from individuals of unknown origin that concentrate in large roosts during the pre-migratory period. Our findings suggest that birds from multiple breeding populations in the Central and Eastern Mediterranean region move towards two pre-migratory sites in the Balkans, some of them detouring greatly from their expected flyways, travelling more than 500 km to reach these sites and prepare for the post-nuptial migration. By identifying the origin of individuals using the pre-migratory sites, not only we provide a better understanding of the possible impact of local threats at these sites on multiple breeding populations but also inform the design of effective conservation actions for th...Continue Reading

References

Aug 15, 1996·Nucleic Acids Research·P TaberletJ Bouvet
Aug 19, 1997·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·B Rannala, J L Mountain
Aug 5, 2000·American Journal of Human Genetics·K R EwenS J Foote
Apr 21, 2001·Journal of Theoretical Biology·T Alerstam
Oct 2, 2004·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Samuel K WasserMatthew Stephens
Nov 3, 2004·Genetics·Gilles GuillotJean François Cosson
May 17, 2006·Trends in Ecology & Evolution·Dustin R Rubenstein, Keith A Hobson
May 17, 2006·Trends in Ecology & Evolution·Stephanie ManelRobin S Waples
Aug 22, 2007·PloS One·Tara G MartinD Ryan Norris
Dec 9, 2008·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Ran NathanPeter E Smouse
Jan 1, 2008·Molecular Ecology Resources·François Rousset
Aug 25, 2011·Trends in Ecology & Evolution·Miriam LiedvogelStaffan Bensch
Nov 19, 2011·BMC Evolutionary Biology·Jesus T GarciaBeatriz Arroyo
Jun 6, 2013·Ecological Applications : a Publication of the Ecological Society of America·Shawn R GarnerChris C Wilson
Oct 10, 2013·The Journal of Animal Ecology·Raymond H G KlaassenThomas Alerstam
Oct 28, 2014·Molecular Ecology·Kristen C RueggThomas B Smith

❮ Previous
Next ❯

Citations

Apr 4, 2019·Scientific Reports·Courtneë Kleinhans, Sandi Willows-Munro

❮ Previous
Next ❯

Methods Mentioned

BETA
Genotyping

Software Mentioned

Genocline
MsatAllele
Structure
SCAT
QGIS
GIMLET
Micro
R
GeneClass2
Checker

Related Concepts

Related Feeds

Cell Migration

Cell migration is involved in a variety of physiological and pathological processes such as embryonic development, cancer metastasis, blood vessel formation and remoulding, tissue regeneration, immune surveillance and inflammation. Here is the latest research.