The migration of geese depends on patterns and processes on several scales, i.e. from the physiological constraints of the individual to changes in the patterns of habitat suitability at the landscape level. To understand these strongly interacting processes, an approach is needed that explicitly combines research on several scales, from the individual to the landscape.

The project relies on the close co-operation between research groups with expertise in animal energetics and foraging ecology in relation to avian migration (IfV Wilhelmshaven, Animal Ecology Group, Groningen) and vegetation dynamics and coastal ecology (Community and Conservation Ecology Group, Groningen, RIZA Institute for Freshwater Ecology, Lelystad, NL) as well as the modelling expertise of the Landscape Ecology Group of the University of Oldenburg in co-operation with the Institute of Geoinformation Sciences in Enschede (remote sensing approach). Data on movements of ringed individual birds as well as on population numbers through counts of wintering and breeding birds become available through the close co-operation with SOVON (Bird Research Netherlands).

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