BEIJING, March 4 (Xinhua) -- Billions of migratory birds in the world migrate between breeding and wintering grounds every year, and their migration routes are almost all over the world. Scientific questions such as what are the reasons for the formation of their migration routes and what factors affect the migration distance have always attracted the attention of the academic community.
The peregrine falcon, tracked by satellites, stopped at its nesting site in Russia's Lena River Delta (image by Andrew Dixon). Springer Nature Courtesy photo
The Zhan Xiangjiang laboratory team of the Institute of Zoology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences established a migration system for the Arctic peregrine falcon by integrating years of satellite tracking data and population genomic information, revealing the main causes of its migration route and the key genes of long-distance migration. The latest paper on the important achievements of bird migration research led by Chinese scientists was published online in the early morning of March 4, Beijing time in the international top academic journal Nature.
Eurasian peregrine falcon migration system. Photo courtesy of Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
According to the research team, the peregrine falcon is one of the fastest flying animals in the world, with a maximum subduction speed of nearly 390 kilometers per hour, and it is also one of the most successful top predators on Earth, widely distributed on six continents except Antarctica. In this study, the researchers spent 6 years to build an Arctic peregrine falcon migration system in the main breeding areas of peregrine falcons in the Arctic Circle from west to east (Kola Peninsula, Korguev Island, Yamal Peninsula, Temer Peninsula, Lena River, Korema River) to build an Arctic peregrine falcon migration system. Satellite tracking found that these Arctic peregrine falcons mainly use 5 migration routes and have very high migratory connectivity and repeatability at the population and individual levels. Moreover, the migration distances of these populations are significantly different: two short-distance migrations in the west (an average of 3600 km) and four long-distance migrations in the east (an average of 6400 km).
The team's genomic analysis of 35 peregrine falcons in four of these regions showed that the Korla and Korguev populations in the west and the Yamal and Korema populations in the east had recent common ancestors. Based on the genome-wide model developed in the study, it is estimated that the divergence time of the long/short range populations is estimated to be around the last glacial peak (about 20,000 to 30,000 years ago). Population dynamic inference and potential breeding and wintering ground reconstruction results show that during the transition from the last glacial peak to the Holocene, the northward retreat of the breeding ground due to the retreat of glaciers and the change of wintering land may be the main historical reasons for the formation of peregrine falcon migration routes.
Genetic basis of migration routes and long-distance migration of Arctic peregrine falcons. Photo courtesy of Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
For the current migration routes, the researchers found that the environmental heterogeneity between different routes is very strong, the areas of environmental changes are highly consistent with the boundaries of migration routes, and the correlation between the differences between routes and selective genetic differentiation is significantly greater than that of neutral genetic differentiation, indicating that environmental differences and related local adaptations play an important role in maintaining the current migration routes.
Further through the comparative analysis of the genomes of long and short migration populations, the researchers found for the first time that a gene related to memory ability, ADCY8, was positively selected in long-distance migration populations, and experiments proved that there were functional differences in the main genotypes of long and short migratory populations, revealing that long-term memory may be an important basis for long-distance migration of birds.
The researchers also used simulations to warn that in the context of increasing global warming in the future, Arctic peregrine falcon populations in western Eurasia could face two threats: changes in migration strategies and retreat of major breeding grounds.
It is understood that this latest research is led by the Institute of Zoology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the Institute of Biophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Cardiff University in the United Kingdom, the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior in Germany are involved in cooperation.
For the first time, the study comprehensively combines a variety of new research methods such as remote sensing satellite tracking, genomics, neurobiology, etc., and through multidisciplinary integrated analysis, from multiple dimensions such as behavior, evolution, genetics, ecology and global climate change, to clarify the past formation history, current maintenance mechanism and future change trend of Arctic bird migration routes, and discover the key genes of long-distance migration of birds, showing the important role of interdisciplinary innovative research in the protection of migratory birds. (End)
Source: China News Network