Journal article
The interplay of wind and uplift facilitates over-water flight in facultative soaring birds
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES, v 288(1958), 20211603
08 Sep 2021
PMID: 34493076
Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
Abstract
Flying over the open sea is energetically costly for terrestrial birds. Despite this, over-water journeys of many birds, sometimes hundreds of kilometres long, are uncovered by bio-logging technology. To understand how these birds afford their flights over the open sea, we investigated the role of atmospheric conditions, specifically wind and uplift, in subsidizing over-water flight at a global scale. We first established that Delta T, the temperature difference between sea surface and air, is a meaningful proxy for uplift over water. Using this proxy, we showed that the spatio-temporal patterns of sea-crossing in terrestrial migratory birds are associated with favourable uplift conditions. We then analysed route selection over the open sea for five facultative soaring species, representative of all major migratory flyways. The birds maximized wind support when selecting their sea-crossing routes and selected greater uplift when suitable wind support was available. They also preferred routes with low long-term uncertainty in wind conditions. Our findings suggest that, in addition to wind, uplift may play a key role in the energy seascape for bird migration that in turn determines strategies and associated costs for birds crossing ecological barriers such as the open sea.
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Details
- Title
- The interplay of wind and uplift facilitates over-water flight in facultative soaring birds
- Publication Details
- PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES, v 288(1958), 20211603
- Publisher
- ROYAL SOC; LONDON
- Grant note
- Tagging and tracking of Eleonora's falcons from Greece were conducted in the framework of the project 'LIFE13 NAT/GR/000909 Conservation measures to assist the adaptation of Falco eleonorae to climate change' with the financial support of the European Union LIFE Instrument and the Green Fund. Tracking of Eleonora's falcons from Spain was partly funded by the Cabildo de Lanzarote, European Social Fund, and adaptation and improvement of the internationalization of e-infrastructure of the ICTS-RBD for the ESFRI-LifeWatch. UvA-BiTS studies are facilitated by infrastructures for e-Ecology, developed with the support of LifeWatch, and conducted on the Dutch national e-infrastructure with the support of SURF Cooperative. Oriental honey buzzards were tracked as part of a project commissioned by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) in Japan. Tracking of ospreys in the Mediterranean was financially supported by the Foundation Prince Albert II de Monaco and the Associazone Italiana della Fondation Prince Albert II de Monaco ONLUS, the Corsica Natural Regional Park (France), the Maremma Regional Park Agency (Italy) and the Tuscan Archipelago National Park (Italy). P.B. was financially supported by Erasmus+ ICM programme ofthe European Union and the University of Haifa. Development andmaintenance ofEnv-DATAwas inpart supported by the US National Science Foundation award 1564380 and NASA award NNX11AP61G.
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Drexel University
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:000693568800002
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-85115372851
- Other Identifier
- 991021860663904721
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- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- International collaboration
- Web of Science research areas
- Biology
- Ecology
- Evolutionary Biology