| Titre : | Bird migration: a novel theory for the evolution, the control and the adaptability of bird migration |
| Auteurs : | P. Berthold, Auteur |
| Type de document : | Article |
| Dans : | Journal of Ornithology (142(2) APR 2001) |
| Article en page(s) : | 148-159 |
| Langues: | Anglais |
| Résumé : | The migratory behaviour of many bird species is currently changing, evidently in connection with global warming; in general there is a shift towards sedentariness. Because experimental studies indicate that all crucial aspects of migration are under direct genetic control, it is unlikely that the observed changes result from phenotypic plasticity. Equally improbable is the assumption of more numerous mutations in the same direction. Instead, the cause may well be rapid processes of selection and microevolution, which are demonstrable in the field and experimentally reproducible. An ideal initial situation for selection processes is partial migration. Such birds' genetic predisposition for both migration and nonmigration amounts to a kind of turntable, from which migrants, residents and partial migrants with various proportions of migratory and nonmigratory individuals can be selected. Partial migration is not only the most common Life form among birds, but is a widespread type of behaviour that developed early in the evolution of plants and animals. The new bird migration theory postulates that birds either evolved partial migration very early or inherited it from avian ancestors, like other characteristics of migration such as compasses and fat deposition. In any case, birds thus possess a fundamental control mechanism which, depending on the environmental situation, permits the rapid emergence of phenotypic migrants or residents or transitional mixed populations comprising various combinations of migrant and resident individuals. This simple new theory allows us to dispense with the previous concept that migratory birds arose polyphyletically from nonmigrants by mutational "behavioural jumps"-a concept that cannot explain, for instance, the currently increased shift away from migratory behaviour. |
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