READING WEEK 1: HOMEWORK
Global-scale animal ecology reveals behavioral changes in
response to climate change
By Maryland University
1. Using a new large-scale data archive of animal movement studies, an
international team including University of Maryland biologists found that animals
are responding in unexpected ways to climate change. The archive contains data
from studies across the global Arctic and sub-Arctic, an enormous region that is
experiencing some of the most dramatic effects of global warming, including
animal declines.
2. After developing the archive, the researchers used it to conduct three case
studies that revealed surprising patterns and associations between climate change
and the behavior of golden eagles, bears, caribou, moose and wolves. This work
demonstrates both the feasibility and importance of studying animal ecology on
extremely large scales. A research paper describing the archive and case studies
appears in the November 6, 2020, issue of the journal Science.
3. "I'm really excited about how this work shows what you can learn from
comparing data across populations on a very large scale," said Elie Gurarie, an
associate research scientist in UMD's Department of Biology and a co-author of
the paper. "I would say this is an early example of what we might call global
animal movement ecology. We're increasing our ability to monitor the pulse of
animal populations across the Earth and ask big picture questions about what it
means."
4. Large-scale monitoring of things like sea-surface temperature and global
forest cover have revealed important information about the response of Earth's
systems to climate change and human activity. But big-picture trends in animal
behavior have been difficult to study, in part because animal ecology is not
traditionally studied across landscapes that span entire regions of the globe, and
also because the necessary data are collected by a variety of agencies and
jurisdictions and are therefore neither standardized nor easily accessible.
5. To address these issues, Gurarie and his collaborators spent years building
relationships with scientists from national, regional and First Nations governments
and research groups throughout the Arctic to convey the benefits of sharing data in
a global repository that they call the Arctic Animal Movement Archive (AAMA).
Currently, the archive includes contributions from researchers from over 100
universities, government agencies and conservation groups across 17 countries.
6. The archive includes data from 201 terrestrial and marine animal tracking
studies representing more than 8,000 animals between 1991 and the present. Using
this data, Gurarie and members of his lab analyzed the movements of more than
900 female caribou from 2000 to 2017. They found that the iconic long-distance
migrating caribou are giving birth earlier in the spring, roughly tracking rates of
warming. But among the non-migratory mountain and lowland woodland caribou
only the northern sub-populations are showing similar changes. While the drivers
of these differences remain a mystery, understanding their behavior is critical to
anticipating how they will respond as the Arctic continues to warm and many
populations continue to decline.
7. "It's tricky to predict how these trends might impact populations," Gurarie
said. "On the one hand, it can be better to give birth earlier, as it gives the calves
more opportunity to grow during the summer season. On the other hand, giving
birth too early may mean you literally don't have time to reach the optimal
calving grounds. The ability to look at biological processes, like birth, at such a
large scale, across populations and subspecies and over millions of square
kilometers, is unprecedented for a species in such a remote and harsh environment.
These results reveal patterns that we would not have suspected, and point to further
lines of inquiry about everything from caribou evolution to their ability to adapt to
environmental changes moving forward."
8. Data analysis tools Gurarie developed to study caribou were also used for
another case study led by his collaborators.
9. In an analysis comparing movements of more than 100 golden eagles from
1993 to 2017, Scott LaPoint, a researcher from Columbia University who is now at
Black Rock Forest Consortium, found that immature birds migrating north in the
spring arrived earlier following mild winters, while adult birds did not. The timing
shift for young birds varied in response to a large-scale climate cycle called the
Pacific Decadal Oscillation, which is being affected by climate change. Such age-
related behavior changes could only be seen through decades of movement data
and may have implications for breeding success.
10. A third study by Peter Mahoney of the University of Washington looked at
the movement speeds of bears, caribou, moose and wolves from 1998 to 2019. His
study showed that species respond differently to seasonal temperatures and winter
snow conditions. Those differences could influence species interactions, food
competition and predator-prey dynamics.
11. The scientists expect that other researchers will continue to mine the AAMA
for answers to pressing questions about whether and how animals are responding
to a changing Arctic. Meanwhile, the resource continues to expand as more data
comes in from currently tracked animals and more researchers add their studies.
12. "This work has given us a baseline to understand the large-scale picture so
we can get a sense of how animals and environments are really interacting across
species and across space as the environment changes," Gurarie said.
1. Words and phrases explanation
Explain the following words and expressions, as used in the article
a. monitor the pulse of animal population
……………………………………………………………………………………….
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Suggested answer: observe and analyze the behavior/trend of animal groups
b. a global repository
……………………………………………………………………………………….
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Suggested answer: an animal data storage from different sources worldwide
c. the drivers of these differences
……………………………………………………………………………………….
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Suggested answer: factors/forces of the differences between non-migratory
mountain and lowland woodland caribou
d. to reach the optimal calving grounds.
……………………………………………………………………………………….
……………………………………………………………………………………….
Suggested answer: to arrive at the best/most suitable/favorable locations for
giving birth/calving/ reproducing
e. age-related behavior changes
……………………………………………………………………………………….
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Suggested ansswer: behavior alterations related to/influenced by age
f. predator-prey dynamics
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Suggested answer: the relationship/interaction between predator and prey
2. Comprehension questions
Read the article and answer the following questions
a. Why did the researchers create the Arctic Animal Movement Archive (AAMA)?
……………………………………………………………………………………….
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……………………………………………………………………………………….
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Suggested answer (P4,5,6): The researchers create the Arctic Animal Movement
Archive (AAMA) to collect and centralize data from animal movement
investigations undertaken throughout the global Arctic and sub-Arctic regions. The
repository was created to address the challenges of studying animal ecology on a
wide scale by allowing for the collaborative sharing of data from various sources.
b. What distinctions were found in the behavior of non-migratory mountain and
lowland woodland caribou sub-populations?
……………………………………………………………………………………….
……………………………………………………………………………………….
……………………………………………………………………………………….
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Suggested answer (P6): The study found changes in the behavior of non-migratory
mountain and lowland woodland caribou subpopulations in response to climate
change. Only the northern subpopulations exhibited changes in the time of giving
birth.
c. What patterns did the case study on golden eagles reveal regarding the timing of
migration for immature and adult birds?
……………………………………………………………………………………….
……………………………………………………………………………………….
……………………………………………………………………………………….
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Suggested answer (P9): The case study on golden eagles indicated that juvenile
birds moving north arrived earlier following mild winters, although adult birds did
not. The time shift for juvenile birds fluctuated in response to the Pacific Decadal
Oscillation, a large-scale climatic cycle.
d. What do the scientists anticipate in terms of future research using the Arctic
Animal Movement Archive?
……………………………………………………………………………………….
……………………………………………………………………………………….
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Suggested answer (P11): Scientists anticipate that more researchers will continue
to utilize the Arctic Animal Movement Archive in search of answers to pressing
questions concerning how animals respond to the changing Arctic environment.
Concurrently, the resource keeps expanding as new findings from animals
currently under observation are made and more researchers contribute their
findings.