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Habitat‐mediated timing of migration in polar bears: an individual perspective
Migration phenology is largely determined by how animals respond to seasonal changes in environmental conditions. Our perception of the relationship between migratory behavior and environmental cues can vary depending on the spatial scale at which these interactions are measured. Understanding the b...
Autores principales: | , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
John Wiley and Sons Inc.
2016
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4979725/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27547331 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.2233 |
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author | Cherry, Seth G. Derocher, Andrew E. Lunn, Nicholas J. |
author_facet | Cherry, Seth G. Derocher, Andrew E. Lunn, Nicholas J. |
author_sort | Cherry, Seth G. |
collection | PubMed |
description | Migration phenology is largely determined by how animals respond to seasonal changes in environmental conditions. Our perception of the relationship between migratory behavior and environmental cues can vary depending on the spatial scale at which these interactions are measured. Understanding the behavioral mechanisms behind population‐scale movements requires knowledge of how individuals respond to local cues. We show how time‐to‐event models can be used to predict what factors are associated with the timing of an individual's migratory behavior using data from GPS collared polar bears (Ursus maritimus) that move seasonally between sea ice and terrestrial habitats. We found the concentration of sea ice that bears experience at a local level, along with the duration of exposure to these conditions, was most associated with individual migration timing. Our results corroborate studies that assume thresholds of >50% sea ice concentration are necessary for suitable polar bear habitat; however, continued periods (e.g., days to weeks) of exposure to suboptimal ice concentrations during seasonal melting were required before the proportion of bears migrating to land increased substantially. Time‐to‐event models are advantageous for examining individual movement patterns because they account for the idea that animals make decisions based on an accumulation of knowledge from the landscapes they move through and not simply the environment they are exposed to at the time of a decision. Understanding the migration behavior of polar bears moving between terrestrial and marine habitat, at multiple spatiotemporal scales, will be a major aspect of quantifying observed and potential demographic responses to climate‐induced environmental changes. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-4979725 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2016 |
publisher | John Wiley and Sons Inc. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-49797252016-08-19 Habitat‐mediated timing of migration in polar bears: an individual perspective Cherry, Seth G. Derocher, Andrew E. Lunn, Nicholas J. Ecol Evol Original Research Migration phenology is largely determined by how animals respond to seasonal changes in environmental conditions. Our perception of the relationship between migratory behavior and environmental cues can vary depending on the spatial scale at which these interactions are measured. Understanding the behavioral mechanisms behind population‐scale movements requires knowledge of how individuals respond to local cues. We show how time‐to‐event models can be used to predict what factors are associated with the timing of an individual's migratory behavior using data from GPS collared polar bears (Ursus maritimus) that move seasonally between sea ice and terrestrial habitats. We found the concentration of sea ice that bears experience at a local level, along with the duration of exposure to these conditions, was most associated with individual migration timing. Our results corroborate studies that assume thresholds of >50% sea ice concentration are necessary for suitable polar bear habitat; however, continued periods (e.g., days to weeks) of exposure to suboptimal ice concentrations during seasonal melting were required before the proportion of bears migrating to land increased substantially. Time‐to‐event models are advantageous for examining individual movement patterns because they account for the idea that animals make decisions based on an accumulation of knowledge from the landscapes they move through and not simply the environment they are exposed to at the time of a decision. Understanding the migration behavior of polar bears moving between terrestrial and marine habitat, at multiple spatiotemporal scales, will be a major aspect of quantifying observed and potential demographic responses to climate‐induced environmental changes. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2016-06-26 /pmc/articles/PMC4979725/ /pubmed/27547331 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.2233 Text en © 2016 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
spellingShingle | Original Research Cherry, Seth G. Derocher, Andrew E. Lunn, Nicholas J. Habitat‐mediated timing of migration in polar bears: an individual perspective |
title | Habitat‐mediated timing of migration in polar bears: an individual perspective |
title_full | Habitat‐mediated timing of migration in polar bears: an individual perspective |
title_fullStr | Habitat‐mediated timing of migration in polar bears: an individual perspective |
title_full_unstemmed | Habitat‐mediated timing of migration in polar bears: an individual perspective |
title_short | Habitat‐mediated timing of migration in polar bears: an individual perspective |
title_sort | habitat‐mediated timing of migration in polar bears: an individual perspective |
topic | Original Research |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4979725/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27547331 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.2233 |
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