Compensating for wind drift can improve goalward flight efficiency in animal taxa, especially among those that rely on thermal soaring to travel large distances. Little is known, however, about how animals acquire this ability. The great frigatebird () exemplifies the challenges of wind drift compensation because it lives a highly pelagic lifestyle, travelling very long distances over the open ocean but without the ability to land on water. Using GPS tracks from fledgling frigatebirds, we followed young frigatebirds from the moment of fledging to investigate whether wind drift compensation was learnt and, if so, what sensory inputs underpinned it. We found that the effect of wind drift reduced significantly with both experience and access to visual landmark cues. Further, we found that the effect of experience on wind drift compensation was more pronounced when birds were out of sight of land. Our results suggest that improvement in wind drift compensation is not solely the product of either physical maturation or general improvements in flight control. Instead, we believe it is likely that they reflect how frigatebirds learn to process sensory information so as to reduce wind drift and maintain a constant course during goalward movement.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
---|---|
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7661306 | PMC |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2020.1970 | DOI Listing |
Nat Commun
January 2025
Centro de Astrobiologia (CAB), INTA-CSIC, Torrejón de Ardoz, Madrid, Spain.
Microorganisms are present in snow/ice of the Antarctic Plateau, but their biogeography and metabolic state under extreme local conditions are poorly understood. Here, we show the diversity and distribution of microorganisms in air (1.5 m height) and snow/ice down to 4 m depth at three distant latitudes along a 2578 km transect on the East Antarctic Plateau on board an environmentally friendly, mobile platform.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnviron Pollut
February 2025
Department of Evolutionary Ecology & Environmental Toxicology, Faculty Biological Sciences (FB15), Goethe University Frankfurt, Max-von-Laue-Str. 13, 60438, Frankfurt am Main, Germany; Environmental Genomics Group, School of Biosciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK; Department Environmental Media Related Ecotoxicology, Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology IME, Schmallenberg, Germany; LOEWE Centre for Translational Biodiversity Genomics (LOEWE-TBG), Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
Airborne pesticide drift poses a substantial environmental threat in agriculture, affecting ecosystems far from the application sites. This process, in which up to 25% of applied pesticides are carried by air currents, can transport chemicals over hundreds or even thousands of kilometers. Drift rates peak during the summer months, reaching as high as 60%, and are influenced by various factors, including wind speed, temperature, humidity, and soil type.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPhys Rev Lett
November 2024
Swedish Institute of Space Physics, Box 537, 75121, Uppsala, Sweden and Swedish Defence Research Agency, 16490, Stockholm, Sweden.
We use multispacecraft Magnetospheric Multiscale observations to investigate electric fields and ion reflection at a nonstationary collisionless perpendicular plasma shock. We identify subproton scale (5-10 electron inertial lengths) large-amplitude normal electric fields, balanced by the Hall term (J×B/ne), as a transient feature of the shock ramp related to nonstationarity (rippling). The associated electrostatic potential, comparable to the energy of the incident solar wind protons, decelerates incident ions and reflects a significant fraction of protons, resulting in more efficient shock-drift acceleration than a stationary planar shock.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Geophys Res Space Phys
December 2024
MLT Haystack Observatory Westford MA USA.
We use the TIEGCM-NG nudged by MAGIC gravity waves to study the impacts of a severe thunderstorm system, with a hundred tornado touchdowns, on the ionospheric and thermospheric disturbances. The generated waves induce a distinct concentric ring pattern on GNSS TIDs with horizontal scales of 150-400 km and phase speeds of 150-300 m/s, which is well simulated by the model. The waves show substantial vertical evolution in period, initially dominated by 0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFChemosphere
December 2024
Univ Rennes, CHU Rennes, Inserm, EHESP, Irset (Institut de Recherche en Santé, Environnement et Travail), UMR_S 1085, 35000, Rennes, France.
Although public concerns about their exposure to agricultural pesticides and the potential impacts on their health began to gain momentum around the early 2000s, there is limited data on the direct exposure of bystanders to spray drift through the deposition of drift droplets on the skin. To address these knowledge gaps in vineyards, trials were conducted on a test bench using artificial vegetation and wind. Different spraying technologies and drift mitigation measures, such as air-induction nozzles or hedgerows along the vineyard margin, were compared.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!