Evidence of change in migratory patterns of the ornithofauna in a coastal locality of the Gulf of Mexico during an ENSO event

Abstract

The study of migrations can give us the key for determining changes in avian communities during global events such as El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon. For this reason, changes in bird migration patterns were addressed through non-parametric analysis of variance and temporal and beta diversity correlations during an ENSO event at Barra Norte Beach (BN) in Tuxpan, Ver., Mexico. The diversity of birds change from 53 species before the anomalies to 66 during the ENSO event, this gradient of change occurred to the diversity of migratory birds (from 21 to 32). These results may be an evidence that the high impact ENSO anomalies can modify bird migration patterns, which is supported by differences in medians richness (especially in migratory birds) as well as by positive and significant values in correlations in beta and alpha diversity. Finally, we conclude that the migratory route of Gulf of Mexico can serve as an alternative for the migration of birds during events such as ENSO phenomenon.