• Arctic SDI catalogue
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Horned Grebes show weak migratory connectivity based on light-level geolocation and stable isotopes

Understanding how bird populations are spatially structured throughout their annual cycles is critical to identifying when and where these populations are most limited. Canadian breeding populations of Horned Grebe (Podiceps auritus cornutus; hereafter grebe) appear to have substantially declined since 1970, and uncertainty in annual movements of this species limits our understanding of factors affecting their population dynamics. To address this knowledge gap and identify grebes’ migration routes and non-breeding areas, we fit light-level geolocators and sampled feathers for stable isotopes (carbon δ13C, nitrogen δ15N, hydrogen δ2H) in Prairie and Boreal portions of the grebe breeding range between 2020 and 2023. Geolocator data (n = 18 birds) indicated that grebes undertook southeastern fall migratory movements and occupied marine and freshwater non-breeding locations across a large geographic area including southeastern Canada, the Midwest and southern United States, the Atlantic Coast, and the Gulf of Mexico. Geolocator and feather stable isotope data confirmed weak migratory connectivity and separated birds into four distinct non-breeding ground clusters. Our results suggest threats that grebes experience on non-breeding areas may have diffuse effects on breeding populations and further provide novel information on the migration ecology and spatial linkages of two breeding populations of grebes in North America. Taken together, these findings will help to inform development and implementation of management strategies for this species of conservation concern.

Simple

Date ( RI_366 )
2026-04-24
Date ( RI_367 )
2026-04-27
RI_414
  Government of Canada; Environment and Climate Change Canada
Fontaine Building 12th floor, 200 Sacré-Coeur Blvd , Gatineau , Quebec , K1A 0H3 ,
Status
completed; complété RI_593
Maintenance and update frequency
asNeeded; auBesoin RI_540
Keywords
  • Horned Grebe, Migratiry Connectivity, Migration ecology, Stable Isotopes
Business Functions Fonctions de l'entreprise ( RI_528 )
  • Expand Scientific Knowledge / Develop New Methodologies for Assessing Site Conditions
Government of Canada Core Subject Thesaurus Thésaurus des sujets de base du gouvernement du Canada ( RI_528 )
  • Animal health
  • Animal research
  • Boreal ecosystems
  • Climate change
  • Pollutants
Use limitation
Open Government Licence - Canada (http://open.canada.ca/en/open-government-licence-canada)
Access constraints
license; licence RI_606
Use constraints
license; licence RI_606
Spatial representation type
textTable; texteTable RI_637
Metadata language
eng; CAN
Character set
UTF8
Topic category
  • Biota
  • Environment
Begin date
2020-01-10
End date
2023-12-15
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Reference system identifier
http://www.epsg-registry.org / EPSG:3978 /
Distribution format
  • XLSX ( unknown )

RI_412
  Government of Canada; Environment and Climate Change Canada
OnLine resource
View ECCC Data Mart (English) ( HTTPS )

Web Service;HTML;eng

OnLine resource
View ECCC Data Mart (French) ( HTTPS )

Web Service;HTML;fra

OnLine resource
2604_DailyLocationsGeo.csv ( WWW:DOWNLOAD-1.0-http--download )

Dataset;CSV;eng,fra

OnLine resource
2604_HeadFeathers_CHN.csv ( WWW:DOWNLOAD-1.0-http--download )

Dataset;CSV;eng,fra

File identifier
1e034481-bf43-4f8f-9f95-b110c45ab7f1 XML
Metadata language
eng; CAN
Character set
utf8; utf8 RI_458
Hierarchy level
dataset; jeuDonnées RI_622
Date stamp
2026-06-18T19:25:38.226978Z
Metadata standard name
North American Profile of ISO 19115:2003 - Geographic information - Metadata
Metadata standard version
CAN/CGSB-171.100-2009
RI_412
  Government of Canada; Environment and Climate Change Canada; Science and Technology Branch / Wildlife and Landscape Science
RI_409
  Government of Canada; Environment and Climate Change Canada; Science and Technology Branch / Wildlife and Landscape Science - Pauli, Bruce ( Chief, Ecosytem Health Research )
RI_415
  Government of Canada; Environment and Climate Change Canada; Science and Technology Branch / Wildlife and Landscape Science - Gurney, Kirsty ( Research scientist )
Saskatchewan , S7N 0X4 , Canada
 
 

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