Large birds travel farther in homogeneous environments

Aim: Animal movement is an important determinant of individual survival, population dynamics and ecosystem structure and function. Nonetheless, it is still unclear how local movements are related to resource availability and the spatial arrangement of resources. Using resident bird species and migratory bird species outside the migratory period, we examined how the distribution of resources affects the movement patterns of both large terrestrial birds (e.g., raptors, bustards and hornbills) and waterbirds (e.g., cranes, storks, ducks, geese and flamingos). Location: Global. Time period: 2003–2015. Major taxa studied: Birds. Methods: We compiled GPS tracking data for 386 individuals across 36 bird species. We calculated the straight‐line distance between GPS locations of each individual at the 1‐hr and 10‐day time‐scales. For each individual and time‐scale, we calculated the median and 0.95 quantile of displacement. We used linear mixed‐effects models to examine the effect of the spatial arrangement of resources, measured as enhanced vegetation index homogeneity, on avian movements, while accounting for mean resource availability, body mass, diet, flight type, migratory status and taxonomy and spatial autocorrelation. Results: We found a significant effect of resource spatial arrangement at the 1‐hr and 10‐day time‐scales. On average, individual movements were seven times longer in environments with homogeneously distributed resources compared with areas of low resource homogeneity. Contrary to previous work, we found no significant effect of resource availability, diet, flight type, migratory status or body mass on the non‐migratory movements of birds. Main conclusions: We suggest that longer movements in homogeneous environments might reflect the need for different habitat types associated with foraging and reproduction. This highlights the importance of landscape complementarity, where habitat patches within a landscape include a range of different, yet complementary resources. As habitat homogenization increases, it might force birds to travel increasingly longer distances to meet their diverse needs.

National Trust for Scotland; Penguin Foundation; The U.S. Department of Energy, Grant/Award Number: DE-EE0005362; Australian Research Council; NASA's Arctic Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE), Grant/Award Number: NNX15AV92A; Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research, Grant/Award Number: VIDI 864.10.006; BCC; NSF Award, Grant/Award Number: ABI-1458748; U.K. Department for Energy and Climate Change; ‘Juan de la Cierva ‐ Incorporación’ postdoctoral grant; Irish Research Council, Grant/Award Number: GOIPD/2015/81 ; DECC; Goethe International Postdoctoral Programme, People Programme (Marie Curie Actions) of the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme FP7/2007‐2013/ under REA grant agreement no [291776]; German Aerospace Center Award, Grant/Award Number: 50JR1601; Scottish Natural Heritage; Solway Coast AONB Sustainable Development Fund; COWRIE Ltd.; Heritage Lottery Fund; Robert Bosch Stiftung; NSF Division of Biological Infrastructure Award, Grant/Award Number: 1564380; Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, Grant/Award Number: IJCI-2014-19190; Energinet.dk; NASA Award, Grant/Award Number: NNX15AV92A; MAVA Foundation; Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, Grant/Award Number: SFRH/BPD/118635/2016; National Key R&D Program of China, Grant/Award Number: 2016YFC0500406; Green Fund of the Greek Ministry of Environment