An integrative framework to combine migratory connectivity and demographic data

Killian Gregory, a PhD student at CEFE-CNRS under the supervision of Aurélien Besnard, has recently published a scientific article in the journal Methods in Ecology and Evolution entitled “An integrative framework to combine migratory connectivity and demographic data”.

Together, the authors have developed a flexible modeling framework that combines an integrated migratory connectivity model, which describes the flows of migrants between breeding and wintering populations, and an integrated population model, which describes variations in numbers within breeding populations. The resulting model brings together tools used over the past fifteen years in studies of population dynamics and migratory connectivity to analyze various data: counts, ring readings and recoveries, and GPS tracking. By cross-referencing the information contained in these different data sets, the model aims to link migratory flows and the demography of migratory populations.

The model was first tested on simulated data and showed that the inclusion of migratory connectivity data, which provides information on survival during migration, improves the estimation of demographic parameters (survival, fecundity) in the integrated population model.

Subsequently tested on data from the Eurasian Curlew, HABITRACK’s “proof of concept” species, the model improved the estimation of demographic parameters, as well as the estimation of connectivity parameters between regions where data were scarce.

This model thus offers significant prospects for exploring the interaction between migration and demographic dynamics, avenues also being explored by Carole Doucerain.