Fuelling conditions at staging sites can mitigate Arctic warming effects in a migratory bird | Nature Communications
The paper:
The refuelling quality of stopover sites of temperate zones determines the ability that long-migrant arctic shorebirds can cope with climate-related changes in the Arctic. That is the main insight coming from the paper of Eldar Rakhimberdiev (NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Lomonosov Moscow State University) and his co-authors from Netherlands, Russia and Alaska recently published in Nature Communications:
In their study, the researchers focused on the effect of advances in Arctic phenology on spring schedules and, possibly, population dynamics of godwits at the flyway scale of the taymyrensis population. They show that due to climate change, Godwits need to arrive earlier and earlier in Siberia each year in order to match with the peak abundance of insect. Whether or not they are able to adjust their time or arrival is determined by the density of their main prey (i.e. lugworm) at their stopover, the Wadden Sea.

The paper of Rakhimberdiev et al. is somewhat unique, combining various long-term data set (i.e. satellite transmitters, overwintering prey, arctic breeding conditions, survival analysis, spring schedules) gather along a whole flyway of a long-distance migratory shorebird. Figure retrieved from Nature Communications at https://go.nature.com/2pSNR3p.
(c)Nature Communications.
The “story behind the paper”:
Read also the “story behind the paper” published in Nature Ecology & Evolution community blog written by Pr. Theunis Piersma (University of Groningen & NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research) which started by a telephone call in 1984, from a farmer and specialist potato grower named Joop Jukema:

The “story behind the paper” published in Nature Ecology & Evolution community blog” share the real story behind Eldar and al. paper, from conception to publication, the highs and the lows. This picture shows Eldar Rakhimberdiev searching for the first shorebird nests at Lake Taimyr, 23 June 2005 (74°N, 100°E). (c)Mikhail Soloviev, retrieved from Nature Research Ecology & Evolution Community forum at https://go.nature.com/2pSNR3p.
Featured image: Ringed bar tailed godwit, (c)Global Flyway Ecology – Team Piersma. https://teampiersma.org/