专题：Science报道
White-rumpled Sandpiper (Calidris fuscicollis)雏鸟，Bylot Island, Nunavut。
资料来源: Laura McKinnon
据1月15日的《科学》杂志报道说，北极滨鸟每年都会精疲力竭地长途迁徙到它们的在荒芜遥远的北极的繁殖地区。科学家们报告说，它们这样做确实也会得到回报。 这些鸟所下的蛋因此而不容易被狐狸及其它掠食动物吃掉。 在北极筑巢的鸟具有令人印象深刻的迁徙策略，例如，它们会从其在南美洲的南端、非洲和大洋洲的南部的过冬场所飞到其在北极的繁殖场所。 这些鸟在长途旅行时在体力上所付出的代价已经被人们作了深入的研究，人们也对这些鸟是如何设法完成这一旅行的方式做了大量的研究。
正如一篇相关的Perspective文章所写的，人们对这些鸟为什么要作如此远距离的旅行仍然不清楚。 为了测试掠食行为可能会在较高纬度的地方有所减少这一假设，Laura McKinnon及其同僚在1500个人工鸟巢中放入了鸟蛋，并将这些人工巢置放在沿着一段北极地带的7个滨鸟繁殖场所，该地带由南至北的长度超过3000公里。 研究人员对这些鸟巢进行了至少2个夏天的监控后发现，处在越北面的鸟巢越不容易受到掠食动物的侵害。 在一篇相关的Perspective中，Olivier Gilg和Nigel G. Yoccoz对掠食行为是如何影响北极生物多元性的议题进行了详尽的解释。
推荐原始出处：
Science 15 January 2010: DOI: 10.1126/science.1183010
Lower Predation Risk for Migratory Birds at High Latitudes
L. McKinnon,1,* P. A. Smith,2 E. Nol,3 J. L. Martin,4 F. I. Doyle,5 K. F. Abraham,6 H. G. Gilchrist,7 R. I. G. Morrison,2 J. Bêty1
Quantifying the costs and benefits of migration distance is critical to understanding the evolution of long-distance migration. In migratory birds, life history theory predicts that the potential survival costs of migrating longer distances should be balanced by benefits to lifetime reproductive success, yet quantification of these reproductive benefits in a controlled manner along a large geographical gradient is challenging. We measured a controlled effect of predation risk along a 3350-kilometer south-north gradient in the Arctic and found that nest predation risk declined more than twofold along the latitudinal gradient. These results provide evidence that birds migrating farther north may acquire reproductive benefits in the form of lower nest predation risk.
1 Département de Biologie, Université du Québec à Rimouski and Centre d’Etudes Nordiques, Rimouski, Québec, G5L3A1, Canada.
2 Environment Canada, National Wildlife Research Centre, Ottawa, Ontario, K1A0H3, Canada.
3 Ecology and Conservation Group, Environment and Life Sciences Graduate Program and Biology Department, Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario, K9J7B8, Canada.
4 Département Dynamique des Systèmes Ecologiques, Centre d'Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Montpellier, France.
5 Wildlife Dynamics Consulting, Telkwa, British Colombia, V0J2X0, Canada.
6 Wildlife Research " Development Section, Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, Peterborough, Ontario, K9J7B8, Canada.
7 Environment Canada, National Wildlife Research Centre and Department of Biology, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, K1S5B6, Canada.
