The way in which migratory birds redistribute themselves in their breeding and wintering quarters affects their resilience to climate and environmental changes: this is demonstrated by an international study coordinated by researchers from the University of Milan and published in Ecology Letters.
The work represents the first publication deriving from the data present in the European Migration Atlas, a project completed in 2022 and financed by the Italian Government and the Convention for the Conservation of Migratory Species, to which the State contributed in collaboration with Ispra and others international partners.
Through this study, the researchers found that a good indicator for species conservation is migratory connectivity, a measure that reflects the degree to which migratory birds tend to stick together in both their wintering and breeding quarters. explains Roberto Ambrosini, coordinator of the study.
“Thanks to a huge dataset of sightings of birds with recognition rings, spanning more than a century, we have investigated the eco-evolutionary factors underlying the migratory connectivity of birds migrating between Europe and Africa”. By examining nearly 150,000 individuals of 83 species of short- and long-range migratory birds, the researchers continue, “we have shown how migratory connectivity essentially depends on geographical variables such as migration distance and the extension of the area in which they migrate populations, which, in turn, ultimately depends on the shape of the continents”.
Source: Ansa
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