05/11/2020
We are ecstatic to announce the launch of the Arctic Animal Movement Archive! Hundreds of researchers worked together to create a dynamic collaborative archive documenting 3 decades of animal movement in the Arctic & subarctic.
The Arctic Animal Movement Archive facilitates long-term & large-scale ecological studies of the and reveals the timing & extent of changes to animal behavior patterns. The AAMA is a growing archive! For more info and to join, see: https://www.movebank.org/cms/movebank-content/arctic-animal-movement-archive
To illustrate the Archive's utility, here are three case studies (referenced in this paper: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abb7080) that combine data collected over decades, across thousands of kilometers:
(1) Using AAMA data for 103 golden eagles migrating from 1993 to 2017, researchers found that the eagles arrived at their Arctic summering grounds earlier following milder winters, with potential implications for fledgling survival.
(2) Researchers estimated calving dates of ~1k caribou from 2000 to 2017 in 3 very different ecotypes: long-distance migrators, mountain caribou & lowland woodland (boreal) caribou. The northern subpops are trending towards earlier calving, ~1 week sooner over the past 10 years.
(3) In compiling data of 1720 bears, caribou, moose and wolves from 1998 to 2019, researchers found that weather affects movement rates of mammals on land, impacting their ability to find food and altering predator-prey relationships.
