ArticlePloS one2014
Migratory herbivorous waterfowl track satellite-derived green wave index.
Article in PloS one, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 papers.
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Who cites it
22 citing papers in PubMed.
- Exploring potential environmental drivers of migration phenology in two Mongolian Plateau-nesting goose species.Movement ecology · 2025Article
- Shortening migration by 4500 km does not affect nesting phenology or increase nest success for black brant (Branta bernicla nigricans) breeding in Arctic and subarctic Alaska.Movement ecology · 2025Article
- Antibiotic resistance of heterotrophic bacteria from the sediments of adjoining high Arctic fjords, Svalbard.Brazilian journal of microbiology : [publication of the Brazilian Society for Microbiology] · 2024Article
- Pursuit and escape drive fine-scale movement variation during migration in a temperate alpine ungulate.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Unconventional life history in a migratory shorebird: desegregating reproduction and migration.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Decoupling of bird migration from the changing phenology of spring green-up.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- Synchrony of Bird Migration with Global Dispersal of Avian Influenza Reveals Exposed Bird Orders.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Migratory herbivorous waterfowl track multiple resource waves during spring migration.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Timing of spring departure of long distance migrants correlates with previous year's conditions at their breeding site.Biology letters · 2021Article
- Using satellite-derived estimates of plant phenological rhythms to predict sage-grouse nesting chronology.Ecology and evolution · 2020Article
- Arctic avian predators synchronise their spring migration with the northern progression of snowmelt.Scientific reports · 2020Article
- Migrating bison engineer the green wave.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2019Article
- Stochastic simulations reveal few green wave surfing populations among spring migrating herbivorous waterfowl.Nature communications · 2019Article
- Effects of species traits and environmental predictors on performance and transferability of ecological niche models.Scientific reports · 2019Article
- How do energy stores and changes in these affect departure decisions by migratory birds? A critical view on stopover ecology studies and some future perspectives.Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology · 2017Review
- Forage plants of an Arctic-nesting herbivore show larger warming response in breeding than wintering grounds, potentially disrupting migration phenology.Ecology and evolution · 2017Article
- Article
- Resource tracking within and across continents in long-distance bird migrants.Science advances · 2017Article
- Exploring the environmental drivers of waterfowl movement in arid landscapes using first-passage time analysis.Movement ecology · 2016Article
- Article
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Authors and funding
10 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Many migrating herbivores rely on plant biomass to fuel their life cycles and have adapted to following changes in plant quality through time. The green wave hypothesis predicts that herbivorous waterfowl will follow the wave of food availability and quality during their spring migration. However, testing this hypothesis is hampered by the large geographical range these birds cover. The satellite-derived normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) time series is an ideal proxy indicator for the development of plant biomass and quality across a broad spatial area. A derived index, the green wave index (GWI), has been successfully used to link altitudinal and latitudinal migration of mammals to spatio-temporal variations in food quality and quantity. To date, this index has not been used to test the green wave hypothesis for individual avian herbivores. Here, we use the satellite-derived GWI to examine the green wave hypothesis with respect to GPS-tracked individual barnacle geese from three flyway populations (Russian n = 12, Svalbard n = 8, and Greenland n = 7). Data were collected over three years (2008-2010). Our results showed that the Russian and Svalbard barnacle geese followed the middle stage of the green wave (GWI 40-60%), while the Greenland geese followed an earlier stage (GWI 20-40%). Despite these differences among geese populations, the phase of vegetation greenness encountered by the GPS-tracked geese was close to the 50% GWI (i.e. the assumed date of peak nitrogen concentration), thereby implying that barnacle geese track high quality food during their spring migration. To our knowledge, this is the first time that the migration of individual avian herbivores has been successfully studied with respect to vegetation phenology using the satellite-derived GWI. Our results offer further support for the green wave hypothesis applying to long-distance migrants on a larger scale.
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