Data from: Movement patterns of a keystone waterbird species are highly predictable from landscape configuration

Citation
Kleyheeg E, van Dijk JGB, Nolet BA, Soons MB. 2017. Data from: Movement patterns of a keystone waterbird species are highly predictable from landscape configuration. Movebank Data Repository. https://doi.org/10.5441/001/1.p9c4nc97
Abstract
Background: Movement behaviour is fundamental to the ecology of animals and their interactions with other organisms, and as such contributes to ecosystem dynamics. Waterfowl are key players in ecological processes in wetlands and surrounding habitats through predator-prey interactions and their transportation of nutrients and other organisms. Understanding the drivers of their movement behaviour is crucial to predict how environmental changes affect their role in ecosystem functioning. Mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) are the most abundant duck species worldwide and important dispersers of aquatic invertebrates, plants and pathogens like avian influenza viruses. By GPS tracking of 97 mallards in four landscape types along a gradient of wetland availability, we identified patterns in their daily movement behaviour and quantified potential effects of weather conditions and water availability on the spatial scale of their movements. Results: We demonstrate that mallard movement patterns were highly predictable, with regular commuting flights at dusk and dawn between a fixed day roost and one or several fixed nocturnal foraging sites, linked strongly to surface water. Wind and precipitation hardly affected movement, but flight distances and home range sizes increased when temperatures dropped towards zero. Flight distances and home range sizes increased exponentially with decreasing availability of freshwater habitat. Total shoreline length and the number of water bodies in the landscape surrounding the roost were the best predictors of the spatial scale of daily mallard movements. Conclusions: Our results show how mallards may flexibly adjust the spatial scale of their movements to wetland availability in the landscape. This implies that mallards moving between discrete habitat patches continue to preserve biotic connectivity in increasingly fragmented landscapes. The high predictability of mallard movement behaviour in relation to landscape features makes them reliable dispersal vectors for organisms to adapt to, and allows prediction of their ecological role in other landscapes.
Keywords
Anas platyrhynchos,animal movement,animal tracking,dispersal,ecological connectivity,habitat fragmentation,home range,land use change,landscape configuration,mallard,movement ecology
Taxa
Taxon
Anas platyrhynchos
Mallard
Sensors
Sensor
GPS
Related Workflows
BibTex
@misc{001/1_p9c4nc97,
  title = {Data from: Movement patterns of a keystone waterbird species are highly predictable from landscape configuration},
  author = {Kleyheeg, E and van, Dijk, JGB and Nolet, BA and Soons, MB},
  year = {2017},
  URL = {http://dx.doi.org/10.5441/001/1.p9c4nc97},
  doi = {doi:10.5441/001/1.p9c4nc97},
  publisher = {Movebank data repository}
}
RIS
TY  - DATA
ID  - doi:10.5441/001/1.p9c4nc97
T1  - Data from: Movement patterns of a keystone waterbird species are highly predictable from landscape configuration
AU  - Kleyheeg, Erik
AU  - van Dijk, Jacintha G.B.
AU  - Nolet, Bart A.
AU  - Soons, Merel B.
Y1  - 2017/03/24
KW  - Anas platyrhynchos
KW  - Anas platyrhynchos
KW  - animal movement
KW  - animal tracking
KW  - dispersal
KW  - ecological connectivity
KW  - habitat fragmentation
KW  - home range
KW  - land use change
KW  - landscape configuration
KW  - mallard
KW  - movement ecology
KW  - Anas platyrhynchos
PB  - Movebank data repository
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.5441/001/1.p9c4nc97
DO  - doi:10.5441/001/1.p9c4nc97
ER  -
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