Losing a staging area: Eastward redistribution of Afro-Eurasian ruffs is associated with deteriorating fuelling conditions along the western flyway |
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| Authors: | Yvonne I Verkuil Natalia Karlionova Eldar N Rakhimberdiev Joop Jukema Jan J Wijmenga Jos CEW Hooijmeijer Pavel Pinchuk Eddy Wymenga Allan J Baker Theunis Piersma |
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| Institution: | 1. Animal Ecology Group, Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Studies, University of Groningen, PO Box 11103, 9700 CC Groningen, The Netherlands;2. Department of Natural History, Royal Ontario Museum, 100 Queen’s Park Crescent, Toronto, Canada M5S 2C6;3. Institute of Zoology, Belarusian National Academy of Sciences, Academichnaya Street 27, 220072 Minsk, Belarus;4. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Cornell University, Ithaca, USA;5. Department of Vertebrate Zoology, Biological Faculty, Lomonosov Moscow State University, 119991 Moscow, Russia;6. Haerdawei 62, 8854 AC Oosterbierum, The Netherlands;7. Altenburg & Wymenga Ecological Consultants, Súderwei 2, 9269 TZ Feanwâlden, The Netherlands;8. Department of Zoology, University of Toronto, 25 Harbord Street, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 3G5;9. Department of Marine Ecology, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ), PO Box 59, 1790 AB Den Burg, Texel, The Netherlands |
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| Abstract: | The fuelling performance of long-distance migrants at staging areas indicates local conditions and determines the viability of migration routes. Here we present a first case study where long-term fuelling performance was documented along two migration routes with differential population trends. Ruffs (Philomachus pugnax) are shorebirds of inland freshwater wetlands that migrate from the sub-Saharan wintering grounds, via Europe, to the northern Eurasian breeding grounds. Assessments from 2001 to 2008 of fuelling during northward migration at the major western and eastern staging site revealed that daily mass gain rates steeply declined across years in the grasslands for dairy production in Friesland, The Netherlands, and remained constant in the Pripyat floodplains in Belarus, 1500 km further east. Migrants in Friesland decreased from 2001 to 2010 by 66%, amounting to a loss of 21,000 individuals when counts were adjusted for length of stay as determined by resightings. In the same period numbers in Pripyat increased by 12,000. Ruffs individually ringed in Friesland were resighted in subsequent springs at increasingly eastern sites including Pripyat. Our results corroborate published evidence for an eastward redistribution of Arctic breeding ruffs and suggest that the decreasing fuelling rates in the westernmost staging area contribute to this redistribution. The shift implies that responses occur within a single generation. The hypothesis that the choice of route during northward migration may be driven by food availability can now be tested by creating greater areas of wet grasslands in Friesland. When local staging conditions improve we predict that ruffs will make the reverse shift. |
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