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Movement patterns of a keystone waterbird species are highly predictable from landscape configuration

Overview of attention for article published in Movement Ecology, February 2017
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  • In the top 25% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (93rd percentile)

Mentioned by

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3 news outlets
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1 X user

Citations

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33 Dimensions

Readers on

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130 Mendeley
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Title
Movement patterns of a keystone waterbird species are highly predictable from landscape configuration
Published in
Movement Ecology, February 2017
DOI 10.1186/s40462-016-0092-7
Pubmed ID
Authors

Erik Kleyheeg, Jacintha G. B. van Dijk, Despina Tsopoglou-Gkina, Tara Y. Woud, Dieuwertje K. Boonstra, Bart A. Nolet, Merel B. Soons

Abstract

Movement behaviour is fundamental to the ecology of animals and their interactions with other organisms, and as such contributes to ecosystem dynamics. Waterfowl are key players in ecological processes in wetlands and surrounding habitats through predator-prey interactions and their transportation of nutrients and other organisms. Understanding the drivers of their movement behaviour is crucial to predict how environmental changes affect their role in ecosystem functioning. Mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) are the most abundant duck species worldwide and important dispersers of aquatic invertebrates, plants and pathogens like avian influenza viruses. By GPS tracking of 97 mallards in four landscape types along a gradient of wetland availability, we identified patterns in their daily movement behaviour and quantified potential effects of weather conditions and water availability on the spatial scale of their movements. We demonstrate that mallard movement patterns were highly predictable, with regular commuting flights at dusk and dawn between a fixed day roost and one or several fixed nocturnal foraging sites, linked strongly to surface water. Wind and precipitation hardly affected movement, but flight distances and home range sizes increased when temperatures dropped towards zero. Flight distances and home range sizes increased exponentially with decreasing availability of freshwater habitat. Total shoreline length and the number of water bodies in the landscape surrounding the roost were the best predictors of the spatial scale of daily mallard movements. Our results show how mallards may flexibly adjust the spatial scale of their movements to wetland availability in the landscape. This implies that mallards moving between discrete habitat patches continue to preserve biotic connectivity in increasingly fragmented landscapes. The high predictability of mallard movement behaviour in relation to landscape features makes them reliable dispersal vectors for organisms to adapt to, and allows prediction of their ecological role in other landscapes.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profile of 1 X user who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 130 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Germany 1 <1%
Unknown 129 99%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Ph. D. Student 32 25%
Student > Master 26 20%
Researcher 19 15%
Student > Bachelor 9 7%
Student > Postgraduate 6 5%
Other 12 9%
Unknown 26 20%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 54 42%
Environmental Science 28 22%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 4 3%
Veterinary Science and Veterinary Medicine 3 2%
Nursing and Health Professions 2 2%
Other 6 5%
Unknown 33 25%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 27. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 22 February 2017.
All research outputs
#1,229,172
of 22,953,506 outputs
Outputs from Movement Ecology
#51
of 316 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#28,821
of 420,356 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Movement Ecology
#1
of 4 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 22,953,506 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 94th percentile: it's in the top 10% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 316 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 22.3. This one has done well, scoring higher than 83% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 420,356 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 93% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 4 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has scored higher than all of them