Optimization of dynamic soaring in a flap-gliding seabird affects its large-scale distribution at sea

Autor: James A. Kempton, Joe Wynn, Sarah Bond, James Evry, Annette L. Fayet, Natasha Gillies, Tim Guilford, Marwa Kavelaars, Ignacio Juarez-Martinez, Oliver Padget, Christian Rutz, Akiko Shoji, Martyna Syposz, Graham K. Taylor
Přispěvatelé: BBSRC, University of St Andrews. Institute of Behavioural and Neural Sciences, University of St Andrews. Centre for Biological Diversity, University of St Andrews. Centre for Social Learning & Cognitive Evolution, University of St Andrews. School of Biology, University of St Andrews. Biomedical Sciences Research Complex
Rok vydání: 2022
Předmět:
Zdroj: Science advances
Science Advances
ISSN: 2375-2548
Popis: Funding: This work was supported by the University of Oxford Christopher Welch Scholarship (to J.A.K.); ASAB Undergraduate Project Scholarship (to J.A.K.); UKRI BBSRC scholarship grant number BB/M011224/1 (to J.W. and N.G.); The Queen’s College, University of Oxford (to A.L.F.); Junior Research Fellowship at St. John’s College, University of Oxford (to O.P.); Merton College, University of Oxford (to T.G.); Mary Griffiths Award (to T.G.); BBSRC David Phillips Fellowship grant numbers BB/G023913/1 and BB/ G023913/2 (to C.R.); and Jesus College, University of Oxford (to G.K.T.). This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement no. 682501) (to G.K.T.) Dynamic soaring harvests energy from a spatiotemporal wind gradient, allowing albatrosses to glide over vast distances. However, its use is challenging to demonstrate empirically and has yet to be confirmed in other seabirds. Here, we investigate how flap-gliding Manx shearwaters optimize their flight for dynamic soaring. We do so by deriving a new metric, the horizontal wind effectiveness, that quantifies how effectively flight harvests energy from a shear layer. We evaluate this metric empirically for fine-scale trajectories reconstructed from bird-borne video data using a simplified flight dynamics model. We find that the birds' undulations are phased with their horizontal turning to optimize energy harvesting. We also assess the opportunity for energy harvesting in long-range, GPS-logged foraging trajectories and find that Manx shearwaters optimize their flight to increase the opportunity for dynamic soaring during favorable wind conditions. Our results show how small-scale dynamic soaring affects large-scale Manx shearwater distribution at sea. Publisher PDF
Databáze: OpenAIRE