3 research outputs found
Biological Earth observation with animal sensors
Space-based tracking technology using low-cost miniature tags is now delivering data on fine-scale animal movement at near-global scale. Linked with remotely sensed environmental data, this offers a biological lens on habitat integrity and connectivity for conservation and human health; a global network of animal sentinels of environmen-tal change
Tracing the origin of vagrant Siberian songbirds with stable isotopes : the case of Yellow-browed Warbler (Abrornis inornatus) in Fennoscandia
Vagrant birds are mesmerizing birdwatchers worldwide, but the nature of vagrancy and
the true origin of the vagrants are poorly known. To Western Europe, the massive Siberian
land mass delivers most of the vagrant songbirds, e.g. Yellow-browed Warbler (YBW)
(Abrornis inornatus, formerly Phylloscopus inornatus). In this study we used stable hydrogen isotope ratios in tail feathers (
2
Hf
) from two ringing stations in northern Fennoscandia in an attempt to link vagrant YBW to potential regions of origin. We could do this
thanks to a collection of samples from nestling and breeding adult YBW in Central Siberia. Compared with the nestling samples, the Fennoscandian
2
Hf data indicated origins in
the western and/or southern parts of the breeding range. The assignment map created in
IsoMAP showed high probabilities of origins in the Komi Republic, N/NW of the Ural
Mountains. Although our study rules out a large proportion of the YBW breeding range,
our method could not pin-point a precise region of origin. The main reason for this is the
similarity of environmental hydrogen isotope ratios across longitudes in Eurasia. For increased precision, we propose a multi-method approach (e.g. stable isotopes and genetics) based on significantly more data from across the vast and challenging Siberian territory. More international collaboration will be vital for this endeavour.peerReviewe