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opencc-zeroJan 2024View details →

Community-science reveals delayed fall migration of waterfowl and spatiotemporal effects of a changing climate

Climate change has well-documented, yet variable, influences on the annual movements of migratory birds. The effects of climate change on fall migration remains understudied compared to spring, but appears to be less consistent among species, regions, and years. Changes in the pattern and timing of waterfowl migration in particular may result in cascading effects on ecosystem function, and socioeconomic and cultural outcomes. We investigated changes in the migration of 15 waterfowl species along a major flyway corridor of continental importance in northeastern North America using 43 years of community-science data. We built spatially- and temporally-explicit hierarchical generative additive models for each species and demonstrated that climate, specifically the interaction between minimum temperature and precipitation, significantly influences migration phenology for most species. Certain species' migratory movements responded to specific temperature thresholds (climate migrants) and others reacted more to the interaction of temperature and precipitation (extreme event migrants). There are already significant changes in the fall migration phenology of common waterfowl species with high ecological and economic importance, which may simply increase in the context of a changing climate. If not addressed, climate change could induce mismatches in management, regulations, and population surveys which would negatively impact the hunting industry. Our findings highlight the importance of considering species-specific spatiotemporal scales of effect on climate on migration and our methods can be widely adapted to quantify and forecast climate-driven changes in wildlife migration.

opencc-zeroApr 2024View details →

Lower baseline immunity in invasive Egyptian Goose compared to sympatric native waterfowls

Successful invasive species out-compete native species for vital resources. To increase their spreading success, invasive species need to trade off nutritional and metabolic resources allocated to reproduction and range expansion with other costly body functions. One proposed mechanism for the reallocation of resources is a trade-off with the immune function. According to the evolution of the increased competitive ability hypothesis, a reduced investment in immunity would be favoured by parasite loss in colonised habitats. It is also suggested that invaders would reallocate resources among different immune effectors depending on the new pathogens they encounter in the new habitat. Reallocation of resources may also involve the regulation of oxidative status given its fundamental link with the immune system. Relying on a panel of blood-based markers of immune function and oxidative status quantified in an invasive species (Egyptian Goose) and two native competing species (Mallard and Mute Swan) in Germany, we tested the hypothesis that the invasive species would have a lower investment in immune function compared to the native species. We predicted lower levels of baseline immune markers associated with systemic inflammatory response, and higher levels of certain low-cost immunological effectors (e.g. humoral effectors) in the invasive species compared to the two native species. If Egyptian Geese reduced their investment in immune function, we would also expect that geese generated less oxidative damage and had a lower expression of antioxidant defences than native species. We found lower levels of several immune markers associated either with inflammatory response or humoral innate and adaptive immunity in the invasive species compared to the two native species. The bacteria-killing ability of plasma was the only immune marker that was upregulated in Egyptian Geese. Markers of oxidative status were higher in Mallards compared to the other species. The results of our study point to an overall reduced investment in immune function in the invasive species as a possible energy-saving immunological strategy due to the loss of parasites in the newly colonised habitats, as observed in a previous study. Thus, a lower investment in immune function may benefit other energy-demanding activities, such as reproduction, dispersal, and territoriality.

opencc-zeroDec 2021View details →

Integrating dynamic processes into waterfowl conservation prioritization tools

Aim: Traditional approaches for including species' distributions in conservation planning have presented them as long-term averages of variation. Like these approaches, the main waterfowl conservation targeting tool in the United States Prairie Pothole Region (US PPR) is based primarily on long-term averaged distributions of breeding pairs. While this tool has supported valuable conservation, it does not explicitly consider spatiotemporal changes in spring wetland availability and does not assess wetland availability during the brood rearing period. We sought to develop a modeling approach and targeting tool that incorporated these types of dynamics for breeding waterfowl pairs and broods. This goal also presented an opportunity for us to compare predictions from a traditional targeting tool based on long-term averages to predictions from spatiotemporal models. Such a comparison facilitated tests of the underlying assumption that this traditional targeting tool could provide an effective surrogate measure for conservation objectives such as brood abundance and climate refugia. Location: US PPR Methods: We developed spatiotemporal models of waterfowl pair and brood abundance within the PPR of the US. We compared the distributions predicted by these models and assessed similarity with the averaged pair data that is used to develop the current waterfowl targeting tool. Results: Results demonstrated low similarity and correlation between the averaged pair data and spatiotemporal brood and pair models. The spatiotemporal pair model distributions served as better surrogates for brood abundance than the averaged pair data. Main conclusions: Our study underscored the contributions that the current targeting tool has made to waterfowl conservation but also suggested that conservation plans in the region would benefit from the consideration of inter- and intra-annual dynamics. We suggested that using only the averaged pair data and derived products might result in the omission of 46-98% of important pair and brood habitat, respectively, from conservation plans.

Fig. 4 in Spatio-temporal variation in prevalence and intensity of trematodes responsible for waterfowl die-offs in faucet snail-infested waterbodies of Minnesota, USA

Fig. 4. (continued).

Fig. 4 in Spatio-temporal variation in prevalence and intensity of trematodes responsible for waterfowl die-offs in faucet snail-infested waterbodies of Minnesota, USA

Fig. 4. (continued).

Fig. 4 in Spatio-temporal variation in prevalence and intensity of trematodes responsible for waterfowl die-offs in faucet snail-infested waterbodies of Minnesota, USA

Fig. 4. (continued).

Fig. 4 in Spatio-temporal variation in prevalence and intensity of trematodes responsible for waterfowl die-offs in faucet snail-infested waterbodies of Minnesota, USA

Fig. 4. (continued).

Fig. 4 in Spatio-temporal variation in prevalence and intensity of trematodes responsible for waterfowl die-offs in faucet snail-infested waterbodies of Minnesota, USA

Fig. 4. (continued).

opencc-by-4.0Dec 2019View details →

Fig. 1 in Molecular survey on the occurrence of avian haemosporidia, Coxiella burnetii and Francisella tularensis in waterfowl from central Italy

Fig. 1. Phylogenetic tree showing the Leucocytozoon sequencing results.

opencc-by-4.0Dec 2001View details →

Fig. 2 in The Fossil Waterfowl (Aves: Anseriformes) from the Eocene of England

Fig. 2. Phylogenetic position of Anatalavis oxfordi proposed by Olson (1999).

opencc-zeroFeb 2023View details →

Population genomics and phylogeography of four Australasian waterfowl

Biogeographic barriers can restrict gene flow, but variation in ecological drivers of dispersal influences the effectiveness of these barriers among different species. Detailed information about the genetic connectivity and movement of waterfowl across biogeographic barriers in northern Australia and Papua New Guinea is limited. We compared genetic connectivity for four species of Australasian waterfowl that vary in their capacity and predisposition for dispersal: Radjah Shelduck (Tadorna radjah), Wandering Whistling-Duck (Dendrocygna arcuata), Green Pygmy-Goose (Nettapus pulchellus), and Pacific Black Duck (Anas superciliosa). We obtained >2,700 loci from double-digest restriction-associated DNA sequencing for 15 to 40 individuals per species and found idiosyncratic patterns of population structure among the four species. The mostly sedentary Radjah Shelduck exhibited clear genetic differences between New Guinea and Australia as well as among locations within Australia. In contrast, the presumed sedentary Green Pygmy-Goose did not show obvious structure. Likewise, populations of the more dispersive Wandering Whistling Duck and Pacific Black Duck were unstructured and genetically indistinguishable between southern New Guinea and northern Australia. Our data suggest some Australo-Papuan biogeographical barriers are insufficient to impede gene flow in waterfowl species capable of dispersing great distances. In sedentary species like the Radjah Shelduck, these barriers, perhaps coupled with its ecology and natural history, restrict gene flow. Our findings bring new insight into the population ecology of Australo-Papuan waterfowl.

opencc-zeroJun 2023View details →

Data from: Assigning harvested waterfowl to geographic origin using feather δ2H isoscapes: What is the best analytical approach?

Establishing links between breeding, stopover, and wintering sites for migratory species is important for their effective conservation and management. Isotopic assignment methods used to create these connections rely on the use of predictable, established relationships between the isotopic composition of environmental hydrogen and that of the non-exchangeable hydrogen in animal tissues, often in the form of a calibration equation relating feather (δ2Hf) values derived from known-origin individuals and amount-weighted long-term precipitation (δ2Hp) data. The efficacy of assigning waterfowl to moult origin using stable isotopes depends on the accuracy of these relationships and their statistical uncertainty. Most current calibrations for terrestrial species in North America are done using amount-weighted mean growing-season δ2Hp values, but the calibration relationship is less clear for aquatic and semi-aquatic species. Our objective was to critically evaluate current methods used to calibrate δ2Hp isoscapes to predicted δ2Hf values for waterfowl. Specifically, we evaluated the strength of the relationships between δ2Hp values from three commonly used isoscapes and known-origin δ2Hf values from three published and one collected as part of this study, also grouping these data into foraging guilds (dabbling vs diving ducks).

opencc-byAug 2023View details →

Corn field management for wintering waterfowl on eastern Long Island, New York

The study took place in corn fields in Suffolk County, Long Island, New York, 7 February – 4 April 2018 and 7 February – 10 April 2019 (Fig.1). Fields were planted for typical production corn with 15.2 cm (6 inch) spacing among plants in rows 30.5 cm (12 inch) apart. Suffolk County contains coastal wetlands, freshwater ponds, and rural landscapes where corn fields are available to wintering waterfowl. Seasonal corn yield and wildlife abundance were determined at two corn fields in 2018 and 2019 (Cutchogue [41.023 ° N, -72.511° W] and Orient Point [41.141° N, -72.278° W]) and included another corn field in 2019 (Brookhaven [40.798° N, -72.891° W]). Corn fields were divided into three sections and marked them with flagging to identify them from a distance. The mean (± SE) corn field size was 4.08 ± 0.20 ha (Cutchogue = 3.99 ha, [0.87 ha, 1.33 ha, and 1.79 ha sections]; Orient = 4.47 ha, [1.46 ha, 1.46 ha, and 1.55 ha sections]; Brookhaven = 3.78 ha, [1.26 ha, 1.26 ha, and 1.26 ha sections]). Corn field samples were taken to obtain an index of corn availability and corn depletion rates following Barney [8]. One section in each field was chopped with a brush-hog every 2 weeks until all three sections in a field were chopped. Section of standing corn were sampled once the day before chopping and after chopping once every two weeks in 2018 and weekly in 2019. Sampling was adjusted to weekly in 2019 because some sections were depleted to zero or near zero kg/ha in < 2 weeks during 2018. A random sampling design was used to distribute samples throughout the field. Main transects (n = 3) were established perpendicular to the field edge in each section of a field (evenly spaced 20 − 26 m apart). Each sampling period, a random number generator was used to select sampling points along each main transect. The same number of samples were taken along each main transect (n = 4; n = 12 per section). A random number generator was used to determine the left or right direction of samples to be taken off of the main transect along a perpendicular transect. A random number generator was used to determine the distance of the sampling point along the perpendicular transect (between 1 – 10 m). Corn was sampled using a 1 m × 1 m quadrat at each sampling point and all corn within each quadrat was collected and placed in marked plastic bags. All individual kernels, cobs full of kernels, and cobs partial covered in kernels were included in the sample and frozen within 4 hrs of sampling. In the lab, corn was thawed, kernels were removed from cobs, and samples were dried at 60℃ until a constant mass at 48 hrs and weighed to ± 0.1 g, and reported as kg/ha. Wildlife surveys were conducted at each field 8 February – 3 April 2018 and 8 February – 9 April 2019. Morning and evening surveys were conducted, switching the time of survey at each field weekly. Morning surveys occurred 30 min before to 2 h after sunrise and evening surveys were 2 h before to 30 mins after sunset. To survey two fields on the same day, one field was surveyed in the morning and another field in the evening following weekly protocol for switching survey times. Each field was surveyed 3 times per week. Observation points were adjusted accordingly to maximize clear line of site when each section was chopped. Waterfowl flew into and landed in fields during sunrise and sunset surveys. Canada geese that were in fields at the start counts were included. This scenario reduced error in counting and identifying waterfowl to species, so 100% detection was assumed. For each field, total number of waterfowl, species composition, and other wildlife were recorded. Other wildlife included blackbirds (Icteridae), white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), and wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo).

publicFeb 2023View details →

Population genomics and phylogeography of four Australasian waterfowl

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publicSep 2022View details →

Integrating dynamic processes into waterfowl conservation prioritization tools

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publicJun 2025View details →

Persistent lead poisoning of waterfowl in the Camargue (southern France) 10 years after the ban on the use of lead ammunition in wetlands

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publicDec 2024View details →

Examining inter-regional and intra-seasonal differences in wintering waterfowl landscape associations among Pacific and Atlantic flyways

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