China News Service, Beijing, March 4 (Reporter Sun Zifa) There are billions of migratory birds migrating between breeding grounds and wintering grounds in the world every year, and their migration routes are almost all over the world.
Scientific issues such as the reasons for the formation of their migration routes and the factors affecting their migration distances have always attracted the attention of academic circles.
The peregrine falcon tracked by satellite stops at its nesting site in the Lena River Delta, Russia (picture from Andrew Dixon).
Photo courtesy of Springer Nature
The Zhan Xiangjiang laboratory team of the Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences integrated years of satellite tracking data and population genome information to establish a migration system for the Arctic Peregrine Falcon, revealing the main reasons for its migration route and key genes for long-distance migration.
This important research paper on bird migration, led by Chinese scientists, was published online in the international top academic journal Nature in the early morning of March 4th, Beijing time.
The migration system of peregrine falcons in Asia and Europe.
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 dive speed of close to 390 kilometers per hour. It is also one of the most successful top predators on earth, widely distributed in the world except Antarctica. Six continents.
In this study, researchers spent 6 years in the main breeding grounds of peregrine falcons from west to east in the Arctic Circle (Kola Peninsula, Korguyev Island, Yamal Peninsula, Taimer Peninsula, Lena River, Kory Ma He (Mahe) wore satellite trackers for 56 peregrine falcons to construct a migration system for Arctic peregrine falcons.
Satellite tracking found that these Arctic peregrine falcons mainly use five migratory routes, with very high migration connectivity and repeatability at the population and individual levels.
Moreover, the migration distances of these populations are significantly different: two groups in the west migrate short distances (3,600 kilometers on average), and four groups migrate long distances in the east (average 6,400 kilometers).
The research team's population genomics analysis of 35 peregrine falcons in 4 regions showed that the Kola and Korguyev populations in the west and the Yamal and Kolyma populations in the east have the nearest common ancestors.
Based on the genome-wide model developed in this research, it is estimated that the differentiation time of long/short-distance populations will be around the last ice peak (about 20,000 to 30,000 years ago).
The results of population dynamics inference and potential breeding and wintering ground reconstruction show that during the transition from the last ice peak to the Holocene, the retreat of breeding grounds driven by glacier retreat and the changes of wintering grounds may be the main reasons for the formation of the migration route of peregrine falcons. Historical reasons.
Changes in migration routes of the Arctic Peregrine Falcon and the genetic basis of long-distance migration.
Photo courtesy of Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
For the current migration routes, the researchers found that the environmental heterogeneity between the different routes is very strong, the areas of dramatic environmental changes are highly consistent with the boundaries of the migration routes, and the differences between the routes are significantly more correlated with selective genetic differentiation than in the middle. Sexual genetic differentiation shows that environmental differences and related local adaptations play an important role in maintaining current migration routes.
Further through the comparative analysis of the genomes of long-distance migratory populations, the researchers found for the first time that a gene related to memory ability, ADCY8, is positively selected in long-distance migratory populations. Experiments have proved that there are functional differences in the main genotypes of long-distance migratory populations and short-distance migratory populations, revealing Long-term memory may be an important basis for long-distance migration of birds.
The researchers also reminded through simulation predictions that in the context of increasingly severe global warming in the future, the population of Arctic peregrine falcons in western Asia and Europe may face two threats: changes in migration strategies and retreat of main breeding grounds.
It is understood that this latest research is led by the Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, with the participation of the Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Cardiff University, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior in Germany.
For the first time, this research comprehensively combines a variety of new research methods such as remote sensing satellite tracking, genomics, neurobiology, etc., through multidisciplinary integrated analysis, and clarifies Arctic birds from multiple dimensions such as behavior, evolution, genetics, ecology, and global climate change. Migration routes have formed history, current maintenance mechanisms, and future trends, and discovered key genes for long-distance migration of birds, demonstrating the important role of interdisciplinary and innovative research in the protection of migratory birds.
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