Movement Ecology

Question 1

Movement

Answer 1

Changing of the spatial position of an individual

Properties of movement:
- active or passive
- happen on different spatial and temporal scales
- local (within home range) or regional/looking for new habitats (migration) or global (migration, range shift, invasion, displacement)

Question 2

Reasons for movement

Answer 2

Plants: pollinations, seed dispersal
Animals: search for new suitable habitat, search for food or mating partners, escape from predators…

Question 3

Influencing factors of movements

Answer 3

Navigation capacity, motion capacity, internal state, external factors

Question 4

Bewegungsarten

Answer 4

Random walk, levy walk, levy flight (Many short movements. Few, rare very long ones.)

Question 5

Navigation

Answer 5

Moon compass, star compass, magnetic compass, path integration, landmarks, bird migration: genetically controlled

Question 6

Isoline

Answer 6

along the line magnetic intensity does not change. Some isolines of low and high field intensities.

Question 7

Magnetic navigation in birds

Answer 7

• Radical-pair mechanism: Compass in the eye. Cells in retina are parallel. Depending on how the magnetic field lines align with these cells, birds see a shadow of the field lines. They can see inclination and direction. Additionally they have to remember where they are. They create a map from memory.
• Magnetite mechanism: birds have supermagnetite crystals in the upper beak that senses diff in magn. intensity. Neuronal pathways associated with magnetite-based receptors

Question 8

Dispersal / philopatry

Answer 8

• populations in discrete subunits
• exchange between subunits –> dispersal: natal dispersal (from birth region), secondary dispersal

difficult to study bc. :
* singular event
* very high mortality
* Dissappearance: dispersal or predation?
* Appearance: dispersal, recruitment or small range shift?
* Eimgration and immigration “events” not always dispersal
* Exploration- excursion- dispersal

stay in place of birth: **philopatry

• genetic diversity between subunits

Question 9

Advantages of philopatry

Answer 9

• familiar region (food, shelter, resting places)
• larger birthing group (Verdünnungseffekt, verwirrungseffekt, räuberentdeckung, geteilte wachsamkeit, räuberabwehr, nahrungssuche, resourcenverteidigung, informationstransfer, energiesparen)
• inheritance of parent territory

Question 10

Advantages and disadvantages of dispersal

Answer 10

Disadvantages: energy loss, unfamiliar territory, predators, time lag to good health condition

Advantages: avoidance of aggression, avoidance of inbreeding (choice of dispersal often linked to sex: often only males disperse, that way inbreeding is avoided)

Question 11

Migration of grey whales

Answer 11

cyclic, seasonal, daily

Summer: ice free, nutrient rich arctic waters
Winter: warm waters, homing, mating

Question 12

Mobility of species

Answer 12

Mobile Organismen
– General
* Dispersal, migration, movement, gene flow
– Bewegungsarten
* Foraging, migration, dispersal, home range, homing, nomadism
* Sessile Organismen

– Ausbreitungsstadien
* Abiotische Faktoren: Wind
* Biotische Vektoren

Question 13

4 basic components of Movement Ecology

Framework of Ran Nathan

Answer 13

1. Internal state (why) -> Motivation
2. Motion mechanisms (how) -> Machinery => generates movement path/ Coordinated flights
3. Navigation mechanism (when and where)
4. Extrenal factors

Question 14

Navigation capacity

Answer 14

Traits determining the timing of seed releasein relation to establishment opportunities in time and space
=> Always consider fitness