Ducks change wintering patterns due to changing climate in the important wintering waters of the Odra River Estuary

Dominik Marchowski; Łukasz Jankowiak; Dariusz Wysocki; Łukasz Ławicki; Józef Girjatowicz

doi:10.7717/peerj.3604

Ducks change wintering patterns due to changing climate in the important wintering waters of the Odra River Estuary

PeerJ. 2017 Jul 31:5:e3604. doi: 10.7717/peerj.3604. eCollection 2017.

Authors

Dominik Marchowski¹, Łukasz Jankowiak¹, Dariusz Wysocki¹, Łukasz Ławicki², Józef Girjatowicz³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Vertebrate Zoology and Anthropology, Institute for Research on Biodiversity, Faculty of Biology, University of Szczecin, Szczecin, Poland.
² West-Pomeranian Nature Society, Szczecin, Poland.
³ Hydrography and Water Management Unit, Faculty of Earth Science, University of Szczecin, Szczecin, Poland.

Abstract

Some species of birds react to climate change by reducing the distance they travel during migration. The Odra River Estuary in the Baltic Sea is important for wintering waterfowl and is where we investigated how waterbirds respond to freezing surface waters. The most abundant birds here comprise two ecological groups: bottom-feeders and piscivores. Numbers of all bottom-feeders, but not piscivores, were negatively correlated with the presence of ice. With ongoing global warming, this area is increasing in importance for bottom-feeders and decreasing for piscivores. The maximum range of ice cover in the Baltic Sea has a weak and negative effect on both groups of birds. Five of the seven target species are bottom-feeders (Greater Scaup Aythya marila, Tufted Duck A. fuligula, Common Pochard A. ferina, Common Goldeneye Bucephala clangula and Eurasian Coot Fulica atra), and two are piscivores (Smew Mergellus albellus and Goosander Mergus merganser). Local changes at the level of particular species vary for different reasons. A local decline of the Common Pochard may simply be a consequence of its global decline. Climate change is responsible for some of the local changes in the study area, disproportionately favoring some duck species while being detrimental to others.

Keywords: Baltic Sea; Behavior; Common Pochard; Eurasian coot; Greater Scaup; Ice coverage sensitivity; Important Bird Areas; Smew; Tufted Duck; Winter range shift.

Grants and funding

Birds were counted by volunteer members of the West-Pomeranian Nature Society. Since 2011, mid-winter counts are part of a larger program called Monitoring of Birds of Poland, a project commissioned by the General Inspectorate of Environment Conservation (GIOŚ), supported by the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management to (NFOŚiGW), and coordinated by the Polish Society for the Protection of Birds (OTOP) http://monitoringptakow.gios.gov.pl/about-project. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.