Migration in organisms refers to the directed, typically seasonal or life-stage–dependent movement of individuals or populations between distinct geographic regions, often driven by spatiotemporal variation in resources, breeding opportunities, or environmental conditions. It is characterized by relatively long-distance, persistent movements with clear origin and destination areas, underpinned by evolved orientation and navigation mechanisms (e.g., celestial, geomagnetic, olfactory cues). Migration can be obligate or facultative, partial or complete within a population, and plays critical roles in gene flow, metapopulation dynamics, ecological connectivity, disease spread, and responses to climate and habitat change across taxa including animals, plants (via propagule movement), and microorganisms.
As climate change becomes a major driver of migration, EU researchers are listening to affected communities to help support fairer policies for those most at risk.
Environment
Dec 18, 2025
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A new study led by scientists from the University of Hawaiʻi (UH) Mānoa Hawaiʻi Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB) Shark Lab reveals a critical link between seasonal seabird nesting and the movements of top marine predators ...
Plants & Animals
Dec 16, 2025
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New research led by the University of St Andrews has created the most comprehensive maps to date of the distribution of gray and harbor seals in Northwest Europe, encompassing the majority of seal populations on the continental ...
Plants & Animals
Dec 16, 2025
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Red-backed shrikes fly thousands of kilometers to reach Africa—and they do so with astonishing precision. Aided by new technology, researchers at Lund University in Sweden have been able to track the birds' journeys in detail. ...
Plants & Animals
Dec 11, 2025
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A team of scientists at the University of Minnesota has uncovered the routes by which zebra mussels spread through Minnesota lakes, pointing to some surprising bodies of water that were the likely origins for the period of ...
Ecology
Dec 10, 2025
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Many bird species have moved toward colder areas in the mountains of Europe as the climate has warmed over the past two decades. Sunny southern slopes attract birds to live at higher elevations than do shadier northern slopes.
Plants & Animals
Dec 5, 2025
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Just north of the great Serengeti wildebeest migration, a smaller migration across the Mara ecosystem is collapsing. New maps published in the Atlas of Ungulate Migration reveal the dramatic impact of fencing on the long-distance ...
Plants & Animals
Dec 4, 2025
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With victims numbering in the millions, malaria is an infectious disease caused by the bite of a mosquito carrying the malaria parasite. After penetrating the skin, the pathogen moves with helical trajectories. It almost ...
Cell & Microbiology
Nov 24, 2025
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Loggerhead turtles are able to sense Earth's magnetic field in two ways, but it wasn't clear which sense the animals use to detect the magnetic field when navigating using the magnetic map they are born with. Now researchers ...
Plants & Animals
Nov 20, 2025
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Researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL) have reconstructed the distribution history of black pepper over the past 21,000 years in an international study. Using a new approach, ...
Ecology
Nov 20, 2025
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