St Andrews Research Repository

St Andrews University Home
View Item 
  •   St Andrews Research Repository
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • View Item
  •   St Andrews Research Repository
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • View Item
  •   St Andrews Research Repository
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • View Item
  • Login
JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

Using habitat selection theories to predict the spatiotemporal distribution of migratory birds during stopover - a case study of pink-footed geese Anser brachyrhynchus

Thumbnail
View/Open
Chudzinska_2015_Oikos_Habitatselection_CC.pdf (313.4Kb)
Date
07/2015
Author
Chudzinska, Magda E.
van Beest, Floris M.
Madsen, Jesper
Nabe-Nielsen, Jacob
Keywords
QH301 Biology
NDAS
Metadata
Show full item record
Altmetrics Handle Statistics
Altmetrics DOI Statistics
Abstract
Understanding how animals select for habitat and foraging resources therein is a crucial component of basic and applied ecology. The selection process is typically influenced by a variety of environmental conditions including the spatial and temporal variation in the quantity and quality of food resources, predation or disturbance risks, and inter-and intraspecific competition. Indeed, some of the most commonly employed ecological theories used to describe how animals choose foraging sites are: nutrient intake maximisation, density-dependent habitat selection, central-place foraging, and predation risk effects. Even though these theories are not mutually exclusive, rarely are multiple theoretical models considered concomitantly to assess which theory, or combination thereof, best predicts observed changes in habitat selection over space and time. Here, we tested which of the above theories best-predicted habitat selection of Svalbard-breeding pink-footed geese at their main spring migration stopover site in mid-Norway by computing a series of resource selection functions (RSFs) and their predictive ability (k-fold cross validation scores). At this stopover site geese fuel intensively as a preparation for breeding and further migration. We found that the predation risk model and a combination of the density-dependent and central-place foraging models best-predicted habitat selection during stopover as geese selected for larger fields where predation risk is typically lower and selection for foraging sites changed as a function of both distance to the roost site (i.e. central-place) and changes in local density. In contrast to many other studies, the nutritional value of the available food resources did not appear to be a major limiting factor as geese used different food resources proportional to their availability. Our study shows that in an agricultural landscape where nutritional value of food resources is homogeneously high and resource availability changes rapidly; foraging behaviour of geese is largely a tradeoff between fast refuelling and disturbance/predator avoidance.
Citation
Chudzinska , M E , van Beest , F M , Madsen , J & Nabe-Nielsen , J 2015 , ' Using habitat selection theories to predict the spatiotemporal distribution of migratory birds during stopover - a case study of pink-footed geese Anser brachyrhynchus ' , Oikos , vol. 124 , no. 7 , pp. 851-860 . https://doi.org/10.1111/oik.01881
Publication
Oikos
Status
Peer reviewed
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1111/oik.01881
ISSN
0030-1299
Type
Journal article
Rights
© 2015 The Authors. Oikos published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. on behalf of Nordic Society Oikos. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Description
Th is study was part of MC ’ s PhD project funded by Aarhus University. Th e fi eldwork was supported by the Norwegian Research Council project MIGRAPOP.
Collections
  • University of St Andrews Research
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/12523

Items in the St Andrews Research Repository are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.

Advanced Search

Browse

All of RepositoryCommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateNamesTitlesSubjectsClassificationTypeFunderThis CollectionBy Issue DateNamesTitlesSubjectsClassificationTypeFunder

My Account

Login

Open Access

To find out how you can benefit from open access to research, see our library web pages and Open Access blog. For open access help contact: openaccess@st-andrews.ac.uk.

Accessibility

Read our Accessibility statement.

How to submit research papers

The full text of research papers can be submitted to the repository via Pure, the University's research information system. For help see our guide: How to deposit in Pure.

Electronic thesis deposit

Help with deposit.

Repository help

For repository help contact: Digital-Repository@st-andrews.ac.uk.

Give Feedback

Cookie policy

This site may use cookies. Please see Terms and Conditions.

Usage statistics

COUNTER-compliant statistics on downloads from the repository are available from the IRUS-UK Service. Contact us for information.

© University of St Andrews Library

University of St Andrews is a charity registered in Scotland, No SC013532.

  • Facebook
  • Twitter