Landbird Migration in the American West: Recent Progress and Future Research Directions

Our knowledge of avian behaviors during the non-breeding period still lags behind that of the breeding season, but the last decade has witnessed a proliferation in research that has yielded significant progress in understanding migration patterns of North American birds. And, although the great majority of migration research has historically been conducted in the eastern half of the continent, there has been much recent progress on aspects of avian migration in the West. In particular, expanded use of techniques such as radar, plasma metabolites, mist-netting, count surveys, stable isotopes, genetic data, and animal tracking, coupled with an increase in multi-investigator collaborations, have all contributed to this growth of knowledge. There is increasing recognition that migration is likely the most limiting time of year for migratory birds, and this places increasing importance on continuing to decipher patterns of stopover ecology, identifying critical stopover habitats, and documenting migration routes in the diverse and changing landscapes of the American West. Here, we review and briefly synthesize the latest avian migration findings and advances and consider research needs to guide future research on migration in the West

Geography of Spring Landbird Migration Through Riparian Habitats in Southwestern North America

Migration stopover resources, particularly riparian habitats, are critically important to landbirds migrating across the arid southwestern region of North America. To explore the effects of species biogeography and habitat affinity on spring migration patterns, we synthesized existing bird abundance and capture data collected in riparian habitats of the borderlands region of the U.S. and Mexico. We determined the importance of geographic factors (longitude and latitude) in explaining variation in abundances and capture rates of 32 long-distance and three short-distance migrant species. Abundances and capture rates of 13 and 11 species, respectively, increased with increasing longitude, and four species\u27 abundance and capture rates decreased with increasing longitude. Riparian associates, but not nonriparian species, were more abundant in western sites. Their abundance patterns were only weakly influenced by species biogeography. In contrast, biogeography did influence abundance patterns of nonriparian birds, suggesting that they choose the shortest, most direct route between wintering and breeding areas. We hypothesize that riparian obligate birds may, to some degree, adjust their migration routes to maximize time spent in high-quality riparian zones, but they are able to find suitable habitat opportunistically when crossing more hostile landscapes. In contrast, nonriparian birds adhere more closely to a hierarchical model in which the migratory route is determined by biogeographic constraints. Conservation of riparian habitats is necessary to meet future habitat stopover requirements of many western Neotropical migrant birds. We advocate a coordinated research effort to further elucidate patterns of distribution and habitat use so that conservation activities can be focused effectively

Improved Intensity-Based Label-Free Quantification via Proximity-Based Intensity Normalization (PIN)

Researchers are increasingly turning to label-free MS1 intensity-based quantification strategies within HPLC–ESI–MS/MS workflows to reveal biological variation at the molecule level. Unfortunately, HPLC–ESI–MS/MS workflows using these strategies produce results with poor repeatability and reproducibility, primarily due to systematic bias and complex variability. While current global normalization strategies can mitigate systematic bias, they fail when faced with complex variability stemming from transient stochastic events during HPLC–ESI–MS/MS analysis. To address these problems, we developed a novel local normalization method, proximity-based intensity normalization (PIN), based on the analysis of compositional data. We evaluated PIN against common normalization strategies. PIN outperforms them in dramatically reducing variance and in identifying 20% more proteins with statistically significant abundance differences that other strategies missed. Our results show the PIN enables the discovery of statistically significant biological variation that otherwise is falsely reported or missed

Geography of spring landbird migration through riparian habitats in southwestern North America. Condor

Abstract. Migration stopover resources, particularly riparian habitats, are critically important to landbirds migrating across the arid southwestern region of North America. To explore the effects of species biogeography and habitat affinity on spring migration patterns, we synthesized existing bird abundance and capture data collected in riparian habitats of the borderlands region of the U.S. and Mexico. We determined the importance of geographic factors (longitude and latitude) in explaining variation in abundances and capture rates of 32 longdistance and three short-distance migrant species. Abundances and capture rates of 13 and 11 species, respectively, increased with increasing longitude, and four species' abundance and capture rates decreased with increasing longitude. Riparian associates, but not nonriparian species, were more abundant in western sites. Their abundance patterns were only weakly influenced by species biogeography. In contrast, biogeography did influence abundance patterns of nonriparian birds, suggesting that they choose the shortest, most direct route between wintering and breeding areas. We hypothesize that riparian obligate birds may, to some degree, adjust their migration routes to maximize time spent in high-quality riparian zones, but they are able to find suitable habitat opportunistically when crossing more hostile landscapes. In contrast, nonriparian birds adhere more closely to a hierarchical model in which the migratory route is determined by biogeographic constraints. Conservation of riparian habitats is necessary to meet future habitat stopover requirements of many western Neotropical migrant birds. We advocate a coordinated research effort to further elucidate patterns of distribution and habitat use so that conservation activities can be focused effectively