Abstract
The southern North Sea is part of an important flyway for nocturnal bird migration, but is also risky as it stretches over a large surface of water. Selecting nights with suitable weather conditions for migration can be critical for a bird’s survival. The aim of this study is to unravel the weather-related bird migration decisions, by providing a descriptive analysis of the synoptic weather conditions over the North Sea on nights with very high and low migration intensities and compare these conditions to the prevailing climatology. For this study, bird radar data were utilized from an offshore wind farm off the Dutch coast, in the North Sea. The study suggests that atmospheric conditions clear of rain and frontal systems, dominated by high pressure systems and tailwinds in spring and sidewinds in autumn are most suitable for nights of intense migration. Differences in temperature, relative humidity and cloud cover appear less significant between intense and low migration nights, suggesting that these variables exert only a secondary role on migration. We discuss how future developments in radar aeroecology and the integration of meteorology can help improve our ability to forecast bird migration.
Original language | English |
---|---|
Article number | 542438 |
Pages (from-to) | 1-15 |
Number of pages | 15 |
Journal | Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution |
Volume | 8 |
Early online date | 7 Oct 2020 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Oct 2020 |
Funding
This work is part of the Open Technology Programme, project “Interactions between birds and offshore wind farms: drivers, consequences and tools for mitigation” (project number 17083), financed by NWO Domain Applied and Engineering Sciences, in collaboration with the following private and public partners: Rijkswaterstaat and Gemini Windpark as well as the project “External drivers of spatial and temporal dynamics of the bird movement over the North Sea” funded by Gemini Windpark.
Funders | Funder number |
---|---|
Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics of University of Amsterdam | |
MEP-NSW | 17083 |
NWO domain Applied and Engineering Sciences | |
Rijkswaterstaat and Gemini Windpark |
Keywords
- bird migration
- North Sea
- radar data
- radar observations
- synoptic weather