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Tracking of Arctic tern migrations 2007-2008 Citation Egevang, C. 2012. Tracking of Arctic tern migrations 2007-2008. Data downloaded from OBIS-SEAMAP (http://seamap.env.duke.edu/dataset/705) on yyyy-mm-dd. https://marineinfo.org/id/dataset/3074 Contact: Egevang, Carsten Availability:  This dataset is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.Description The study of long-distance migration provides insights into the habits and performance of organisms at the limit of their physical abilities. The Arctic tern Sterna paradisaea is the epitome of such behavior; despite its small size (<125 g), banding recoveries and at-sea surveys suggest that its annual migration from boreal and high Arctic breeding grounds to the Southern Ocean may be the longest seasonal movement of any animal. Our tracking of 11 Arctic terns fitted with miniature (1.4 g) geolocators revealed that these birds do indeed travel huge distances (more than 80,000 km annually for some individuals). As well as confirming the location of the main wintering region, we also identified a previously unknown oceanic stopover area in the North Atlantic used by birds from at least two breeding populations (from Greenland and Iceland). Although birds from the same colony took one of two alternative southbound migration routes following the African or South American coast, all returned on a broadly similar, sigmoidal trajectory, crossing from east to west in the Atlantic in the region of the equatorial Intertropical Convergence Zone. Arctic terns clearly target regions of high marine productivity both as stopover and wintering areas, and exploit prevailing global wind systems to reduce flight costs on long-distance commutes. morePurpose: The Arctic tern is known to make the longest annual migration in the animal kingdom. During its breeding season, it is found far to the north where summer days are long, and it winters far south in the southern hemisphere, where the days are longest during November to February. This means that the Arctic tern probably experiences more sun light during a calendar year than any other creature on Earth. The long-distance travel of the Arctic tern is well-known both amongst researchers and in the broader public. Now, for the first time, technological advances allow us to follow the Arctic tern on its immense journey, practically from pole to pole. Supplemental information: Four erroneous points were removed from the original dataset: ARTE_410, 9/17/2007 noon; ARTE_370, 9/13/2007 noon; ARTE_373, 9/15/2007 noon and 9/16/2007 noon. Sand Island (74.263 degrees N, 20.160 degrees W), northeast Greenland, is the breeding colony for these Arctic terns and was placed on the map (red-orange square). Sand Island can be used as the beginning and end of all tracks, but since exact dates of the starting and ending of the migration were not available (high-Arctic zone = continuous day light during summer = poor positions when using geolocators), the tracklines for each animal were not mapped to and from the breeding colony. Original provider: Greenland Institute of Natural Resources Dataset credits: Greenland Institute of Natural Resources Scope Themes: Biology > Birds Keywords: Marine/Coastal, Animal migrations, Marine birds, A, Atlantic, EurOBIS calculated BBOX, Sterna paradisaea Pontoppidan, 1763 Geographical coverage A, Atlantic [Marine Regions] EurOBIS calculated BBOX Stations Bounding Box Coordinates: MinLong: -62,56; MinLat: -76,84 - MaxLong: 107,07; MaxLat: 71,6 [WGS84] Temporal coverage 13 August 2007 - 31 May 2008 Taxonomic coverage Sterna paradisaea Pontoppidan, 1763 [WoRMS] Contributors Related datasets Publication Based on this dataset Egevang, C. et al. (2010). Tracking of Arctic terns Sterna paradisaea reveals longest animal migration. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 107(5): 2078-2081. http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0909493107, more Dataset status: Completed Data type: Data Data origin: Research: field survey Metadatarecord created: 2012-05-14 Information last updated: 2024-08-08 | ||||
