Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Detection of flow direction in high-flying insect and songbird migrants

Chapman, Jason W. ; Nilsson, Cecilia LU orcid ; Lim, Ka S. ; Bäckman, Johan LU orcid ; Reynolds, Don R. ; Alerstam, Thomas LU and Reynolds, Andy M. (2015) In Current Biology 25(17). p.751-752
Abstract
Goal-oriented migrants travelling through the sea or air must cope with the effect of cross-flows during their journeys if they are to reach their destination [1–3] . In order to counteract flow-induced drift from their preferred course, migrants must detect the mean flow direction, and integrate this information with output from their internal compass, to compensate for the deflection. Animals can potentially sense flow direction by two nonexclusive mechanisms: either indirectly, by visually assessing the effect of the current on their movement direction relative to the ground; or directly, via intrinsic properties of the current [4] . Here, we report the first evidence that nocturnal compass-guided insect migrants use a... (More)
Goal-oriented migrants travelling through the sea or air must cope with the effect of cross-flows during their journeys if they are to reach their destination [1–3] . In order to counteract flow-induced drift from their preferred course, migrants must detect the mean flow direction, and integrate this information with output from their internal compass, to compensate for the deflection. Animals can potentially sense flow direction by two nonexclusive mechanisms: either indirectly, by visually assessing the effect of the current on their movement direction relative to the ground; or directly, via intrinsic properties of the current [4] . Here, we report the first evidence that nocturnal compass-guided insect migrants use a turbulence-mediated mechanism for directly assessing the wind direction hundreds of metres above the ground. By comparison, we find that nocturnally-migrating songbirds do not use turbulence to detect the flow; instead they rely on visual assessment of wind-induced drift to indirectly infer the flow direction. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; ; ; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Current Biology
volume
25
issue
17
pages
751 - 752
publisher
Elsevier
external identifiers
  • pmid:26325133
  • wos:000360711700007
  • scopus:84940509836
  • pmid:26325133
ISSN
1879-0445
DOI
10.1016/j.cub.2015.07.074
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
f4cbda6b-b4f5-4772-97bb-9d3e0be9f5d8 (old id 7994425)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 09:48:57
date last changed
2023-09-01 11:53:17
@article{f4cbda6b-b4f5-4772-97bb-9d3e0be9f5d8,
  abstract     = {{Goal-oriented migrants travelling through the sea or air must cope with the effect of cross-flows during their journeys if they are to reach their destination [1–3] . In order to counteract flow-induced drift from their preferred course, migrants must detect the mean flow direction, and integrate this information with output from their internal compass, to compensate for the deflection. Animals can potentially sense flow direction by two nonexclusive mechanisms: either indirectly, by visually assessing the effect of the current on their movement direction relative to the ground; or directly, via intrinsic properties of the current [4] . Here, we report the first evidence that nocturnal compass-guided insect migrants use a turbulence-mediated mechanism for directly assessing the wind direction hundreds of metres above the ground. By comparison, we find that nocturnally-migrating songbirds do not use turbulence to detect the flow; instead they rely on visual assessment of wind-induced drift to indirectly infer the flow direction.}},
  author       = {{Chapman, Jason W. and Nilsson, Cecilia and Lim, Ka S. and Bäckman, Johan and Reynolds, Don R. and Alerstam, Thomas and Reynolds, Andy M.}},
  issn         = {{1879-0445}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{17}},
  pages        = {{751--752}},
  publisher    = {{Elsevier}},
  series       = {{Current Biology}},
  title        = {{Detection of flow direction in high-flying insect and songbird migrants}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2015.07.074}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.cub.2015.07.074}},
  volume       = {{25}},
  year         = {{2015}},
}