Citizen science reveals waterfowl responses to extreme winter weather

作者：Nicholas M. Masto, Orin J. Robinson, Michael G. Brasher, Allison C. Keever, Abigail G. Blake‐Bradshaw, Cory J. Highway, Jamie C. Feddersen, Heath M. Hagy, Douglas C. Osborne, Daniel L. Combs, Bradley S. Cohen · 发表于：Global Change Biology · 年份：2022 · DOI：10.1111/gcb.16288 · 被引用次数：33 · 研究领域：Species Distribution and Climate Change、Insect and Arachnid Ecology and Behavior、Animal and Plant Science Education

Global climate change is increasing the frequency and severity of extreme climatic events (ECEs) which may be especially detrimental during late-winter when many species are surviving on scarce resources. However, monitoring animal populations relative to ECEs is logistically challenging. Crowd-sourced datasets may provide opportunity to monitor species' responses to short-term chance phenomena such as ECEs. We used 14 years of eBird-a global citizen science initiative-to examine distribution changes for seven wintering waterfowl species across North America in response to recent extreme winter polar vortex disruptions. To validate inferences from eBird, we compared eBird distribution changes against locational data from 362 GPS-tagged Mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) in the Mississippi Flyway. Distributional shifts between eBird and GPS-tagged Mallards were similar following an ECE in February 2021. In general, the ECE affected continental waterfowl population distributions; however, responses were variable across species and flyways. Waterfowl distributions tended to stay near wintering latitudes or moved north at lesser distances compared with non-ECE years, suggesting preparedness for spring migration was a stronger "pull" than extreme weather was a "push" pressure. Surprisingly, larger-bodied waterfowl with grubbing foraging strategies (i.e., geese) delayed their northward range shift during ECE years, whereas smaller-bodied ducks were less affected. Lastly, wetland obligat...