In the clear: Weather drives the northward movement of American Tree Sparrows (Spizelloides arborea) as spring progresses
Data files
Apr 25, 2025 version files 42.41 KB
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ATSPassigment.R
14.06 KB
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ATSPdeparture.rds
1.99 KB
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ATSPisotope.csv
2.46 KB
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ATSPrecurrent.rds
14.53 KB
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ATSPrelocations.rds
4.68 KB
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README.md
4.69 KB
Abstract
The American Tree Sparrow (Spizelloides arborea) is a sub-Arctic breeding species that spends the nonbreeding season in temperate regions of North America, and is a high-priority candidate for conservation status assessment. To provide new information about their movement ecology and migratory connectivity, we used automated radiotelemetry to track their movements and stable-isotope analysis of feathers to infer breeding or natal origin. The work is published in the Journal of Field Ornithology. In this repository, we include several datasets that support the work and an R script showing the geographical assignment procedure.
Dataset DOI: 10.5061/dryad.cc2fqz6hk
Description of the data and file structure
We used Motus automated radiotelemetry to track the movements of American Tree Sparrows and stable-isotope analysis of feathers to infer their breeding or natal origin. This repository contains the data used to support the publication in the Journal of Field Ornithology and an R script to show the geographical assignment procedure.
Files and variables
File: ATSPassigment.R
Description: R script code to assign geographical origin to American Tree Sparrows based on their feather deuterium value
File: ATSPdeparture.rds
Description: departure time from capture locations; *.rds can be read by readRDS in R
Variables
- motusTagID: unique identifier for the Motus radiotransmitter
- year: year of the study (YYYY)
- Location: capture location (OLD CUT, GUELPH = Guelph Lake Nature Centre)
- capture.yday: capture day of year
- Age: age class (AHY = after-hatch-year, HY = hatch-year)
- ts_depart: datetime of departure (YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss), set in UTC to be used in UTC system-time-zone
- yday_closest_sunset: last day of the year at the capture location during a diurnal period (i.e., day of departure). For example, a bird leaving at 1 am would be associated with the previous day
- depart_sunset - hours since the most recent sunset
File: ATSPisotope.csv
Description: feather deuterium values
Variables
- BandNumber: USGS leg band number
- motusTagID: unique identifier for the Motus radiotransmitter
- year: year of the study (YYYY)
- Location: capture location (OLD CUT, GUELPH = Guelph Lake Nature Centre)
- Age: age class (AHY = after-hatch-year, HY = hatch-year)
- isotope: stable hydrogen isotope ratio of feather tip in parts per thousand
File: ATSPrecurrent.rds
Description: daily event data with time-varying weather variables; *.rds can be read by readRDS in R
Variables
- motusTagID: unique identifier for the Motus radiotransmitter
- year: year of the study (YYYY)
- capture.yday: capture day of year
- Age: age class (AHY = after-hatch-year, HY = hatch-year)
- yday: day of year of the relocation event
- tstart: number of days since capture - 1
- tstop: number of days since capture
- move: presence of a nocturnal relocation event (0 = no, 1 = yes)
- temp: near surface air temperature (degrees Celsius); calculate from NCEP/NCAR variable 'air.sig995'
- pres: atmospheric pressure (kPa); calculated from NCEP/NCAR variable 'pres.sfc'
- tcdc: total cloud cover for 6 h beginning at reference time (%); NCEP/NCAR variable 'tcdc.eatm'
- prate.sfc: precipitable water at surface (rain or snow in kg/m^2); NCEP/NCAR variable 'pr_wtr.eatm'
- uwind1000: u component of wind at 1000 mb (m/s); NCEP/NCAR variable 'uwnd'
- vwind1000: v component of wind at 1000 mb (m/s); NCEP/NCAR variable 'vwnd'
- snow_grnd: daily snow on ground (cm)
File: ATSPrelocations.rds
Description: timing of nocturnal relocation events; *.rds can be read by readRDS in R
Variables
- motusTagID: unique identifier for the Motus radiotransmitter
- year: year of the study (YYYY)
- Location: capture location (OLD CUT, GUELPH = Guelph Lake Nature Centre)
- capture.yday: capture day of year
- Age: age class (AHY = after-hatch-year, HY = hatch-year)
- yday_sunset: day of year associated with the nocturnal relocation
- ts: datetime of passage timing (YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss), set in UTC to be used in UTC system-time-zone)
- recvDeployName: Motus receiver name
- recvDeployLat: Motus receiver latitude (decimal degrees)
- recvDeployLon: Motus receiver longitude (decimal degrees)
Code/software
All data processing, statistical analysis, and figure generation were done in R version 4.4.1 (2024-06-14 ucrt).
ATSPassignment.R shows the geographical assignment procedure.
Access information
Citation for the publicly accessible weather data:
- Kalnay, E., M. Kanamitsu, R. Kistler, W. Collins, D. Deaven, L. Gandin, M. Iredell, S. Saha, G. White, J. Woollen, Y. Zhu, A. Leetmaa, M. Chelliah, W. Ebisuzaki, W. Higgins, J. Janowiak, K. C. Mo, C. Ropelewski, J. Wang, R. Jenne et al. 1996. The NCEP/NCAR 40-year reanalysis project. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 77:437-470.
Citation for the publicly accessible Motus data:
- Hannah, K., S. Mackenzie, R. Wood, J. Costa, and M. Cadman. 2020a. American Tree Sparrows - Ontario (Project 231). Data accessed from Motus Wildlife Tracking System, Birds Canada. https://motus.org/