University of Liverpool
Earth, Ocean and Ecological Sciences

Background: Whilst an increasing amount is known about how animal migrate across continents, almost nothing is known about whether the underlying mechanisms promote or constrain route flexibility through time. Animal migration is perhaps the best example of how movement decisions have ecosystem-scale consequences, and hence understanding changes in migratory behaviour is a fundamental question in modern evolutionary bioscience. This same understanding must also form part of our societal and economic responses to rapid environmental alteration, given the extent to which humans are changing the world around us in the Anthropocene. Aims and objectives: Addressing questions of this scale requires a model organism chosen specifically for the task in hand. Here, I propose to study perhaps most remarkable migratory evolution ever observed. Breeding in Siberia and (normally) wintering in Southern Asia, the yellow-browed warbler (Phylloscopus inornatus) has become an increasingly regular winter visitor in Western Europe: 10,000km away from where it normally resides. Using population genomic techniques, I propose to use samples already gathered across Europe and Asia to determine the geographic and evolutionary origins of these pioneering individuals. Via genomic comparison between the European pioneers and their Asian counterparts I will reveal the source population from which this remarkable European migratory route has involved and, in turn, will investigate how the mechanisms of genetic migratory inheritance interact with changes in the environment to promote/constrain migratory evolution on an intercontinental scale. Applications and benefits: Because of their mobility, migratory animals have the capacity to alter multiple ecosystems across vast spatial scales. While this strategy maximises resource exploitation, it also makes them inherently vulnerable to anthropogenic environmental interference. As such, the ecological importance of investigating migratory taxa cannot be underestimated. By treating migratory behaviour as a dynamic entity not simply as a static phenomenon , I will determine how and why migratory behaviour is changing in our rapidly changing world, connecting second-by-second movement decisions to their epoch-to-epoch causes and consequences. In doing so I will consider animal migration within a truly global context, and in turn will inform on an enduring enigma with very real practical applications.