28-Year Dataset Tracks Multiple Changes In Movement Of Marine/Terrestrial Animals Across The Arctic
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Now, a global archive of animal movement is making it easier to make those connections. The newly launched Arctic Animal Movement Archive (AAMA), includes 28 years of terrestrial and marine animal tracking studies on more than 96 animal species across the Arctic, Arctic marine, and subarctic (including boreal forests and taiga). More than a hundred universities, conservation groups, and government agencies from 17 countries contributed to the archive, including national, regional and First Nations governments. The archive is hosted by the Max Planck Institute’s Movebank platform and funded by NASA.
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The data could not have been collected without the knowledge and participation of Indigenous peoples and First Nations groups, Gurarie said. Many of the Indigenous researchers “have a sense for which herd animals belong to just by physical appearances in a way that we [non-Indigenous researchers] don’t have access to.” They’re also deeply invested in the work as “caribou are the most directly meaningful for their material culture.”
The researchers also analyzed 21 years of movement data for black bears, grizzly bears, caribou, moose and wolves to see how they are responding to changes in seasonal temperatures and winter snow conditions. It turns out, each group is responding differently, which could have consequences for predator-prey interactions, competition, and foraging success. “Movement is central to animal survival in the harsh Arctic environment. Yet movement is costly, especially in the stark Arctic landscapes,” Hebblewhite said. “Our work showed that increasing temperatures, especially in summer, were affecting movement rates of these large mammals, which could have energetic costs that stress these species. And changes in snow in the winter were also influencing wildlife movements — also in ways that could have population impacts.”
An analysis of movement data from more than 100 golden eagles (Aquila chrysaetos) migrating north revealed a difference in arrival times at breeding grounds over a 24-year period. After mild winters, immature birds arrived earlier in the spring to breeding grounds than adult birds. Such changes may impact their breeding success, and present “age-specific challenges during migration and at their warming Arctic summering grounds,” the paper states.
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https://news.mongabay.com/2020/11/a-warming-arctic-is-changing-animal-migrations-decades-of-tracking-shows/
