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Impact of weather conditions on ringing intensity in Suichuan avian passage, China

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Abstract

Suichuan is the second largest avian migration passage in China, while studies about local migration situation were rarely conducted. In this study, it aimed to provide the primary understanding of migration in Suichuan. The scale and diversity of migrants were analyzed. Moreover, the relationship between weather conditions including wind and rainfall and ringing intensity were also explored. Based on the field collected data from 2005 to 2010, dominant migrants in Suichuan were Ciconiiformes and Passeriformes, followed by Gruiformes, and the diversity of migrant species peaked in 2007. Correlations of bird ringing intensity with wind speed and rainfall were derived through a univariate analysis. Different groups of migrants shared different correlation patterns with each weather condition. Ringing intensity of small size Passeriformes was most easily affected by the adverse weather conditions (daily rainfall ≥15 mm or wind speed >2.5 ms−1); Gruiformes shared significant correlations with wind speeds <1.5 ms−1 and at 1.5–2.5 ms−1; whereas the large size Ciconiiformes showed non-significant relationships with both two meteorological variables. Totally, ringing intensity had significant negative correlations with frequencies of daily rainfall ≥15 mm and wind speed >2.5 ms−1. Multiple linear regression analysis confirmed that higher rainfall and stronger wind hampered total ringing intensity and these two predictors together could explain 79 % of the variation of total ringing intensity. Moreover, east wind was related to higher ringing intensity, especially for the groups of Ciconiiformes and others. The result of this exploratory study has important implications for assessing the impact of meteorological variables, such as wind and rain on migratory behavior in Suichuan.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the Forestry Bureau of Suichuan for their support and work on local bird ringing. Anonymous bird experts and related workers made great contributions to this work and provided valuable knowledge on bird migration in Suichuan. This study was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology, China, National Research Program (2012CB955501, 2012AA12A407), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41271099).

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Author notes

  1. Bing Xu

    Present address: State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Science, College of Global Change and Earth System Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Science, College of Global Change and Earth System Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China

    Lifan Chen, Zhenyu Jin & Ruiyun Li

  2. Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Biodiversity and Ecological Engineering, College of Life Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China

    Lu Dong

  3. Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Earth System Modelling, Center for Earth System Science, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    Bing Xu

  4. Department of Geography, University of Utah, 260 S. Central Campus Dr., Salt Lake City, UT, 84112, USA

    Bing Xu

Authors
  1. Lifan Chen
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  2. Zhenyu Jin
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  3. Lu Dong
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  4. Ruiyun Li
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  5. Bing Xu
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Bing Xu.

Additional information

This article is part of a Topical Collection in Environmental Earth Sciences on “Environment and Health in China II”, guest edited by Tian-Xiang Yue, Cui Chen, Bing Xu and Olaf Kolditz.

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Chen, L., Jin, Z., Dong, L. et al. Impact of weather conditions on ringing intensity in Suichuan avian passage, China. Environ Earth Sci 75, 1045 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-016-5331-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-016-5331-0

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