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Does climate change explain the decline of a trans-Saharan Afro-Palaearctic migrant?

  • Global Change Ecology - Original Paper
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Abstract

There is an urgent need to understand how climate change will impact on demographic parameters of vulnerable species. Migrants are regarded as particularly vulnerable to climate change; phenological mismatch has resulted in the local decline of one passerine, whilst variations in the survival of others have been related to African weather conditions. However, there have been few demographic studies on trans-Saharan non-passerine migrants, despite these showing stronger declines across Europe than passerines. We therefore analyse the effects of climate on the survival and productivity of common sandpipers Actitis hypoleucos, a declining non-passerine long-distant migrant using 28 years’ data from the Peak District, England. Adult survival rates were significantly negatively correlated with winter North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), being lower when winters were warm and wet in western Europe and cool and dry in northwest Africa. Annual variation in the productivity of the population was positively correlated with June temperature, but not with an index of phenological mismatch. The 59% population decline appears largely to have been driven by reductions in adult survival, with local productivity poorly correlated with subsequent population change, suggesting a low degree of natal philopatry. Winter NAO was not significantly correlated with adult survival rates in a second, Scottish Borders population, studied for 12 years. Variation in climatic conditions alone does not therefore appear to be responsible for common sandpiper declines. Unlike some passerine migrants, there was no evidence for climate-driven reductions in productivity, although the apparent importance of immigration in determining local recruitment complicates the assessment of productivity effects. We suggest that further studies to diagnose common sandpiper declines should focus on changes in the condition of migratory stop-over or wintering locations. Where possible, these analyses should be repeated for other declining migrants.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the many landowners who allowed us to conduct this fieldwork, including Blackhope, Raeshaw and Rosebery Estates (Borders), M. Cotterill, G. Wainright, L. Hassel, Severn-Trent Water and the National Trust (Peak District). We are also grateful to Adam Batty, Lynn Campbell, Alan Lauder, Tony O’Connor, Trevor Smith and Bill Underwood for their assistance in the field, and to Phil Holland for his long involvement with the Ashop study. We are grateful for many helpful comments from two anonymous referees and Katrin Böhning-Gaese. This study fully complied with current UK laws.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. RSPB, Dunedin House, 25 Ravelston Terrace, Edinburgh, EH4 3TP, UK

    J. W. Pearce-Higgins & C. M. Beale

  2. School of Biological Sciences, Victoria University of Manchester, 3.239 Stopford Building, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK

    D. W. Yalden

  3. 38 Leamington Terrace, Edinburgh, EH10 4JL, UK

    T. W. Dougall

  4. The Macaulay Institute, Craigiebuckler, Aberdeen, AB15 8QH, UK

    C. M. Beale

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  1. J. W. Pearce-Higgins
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  2. D. W. Yalden
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Correspondence to J. W. Pearce-Higgins.

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Communicated by Katrin Böhning-Gaese.

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Pearce-Higgins, J.W., Yalden, D.W., Dougall, T.W. et al. Does climate change explain the decline of a trans-Saharan Afro-Palaearctic migrant?. Oecologia 159, 649–659 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-008-1242-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-008-1242-4

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