Remotely sensed wind speed predicts soaring behaviour in a wide-ranging pelagic seabird

Global wind patterns affect flight strategies in many birds, including pelagic seabirds, many of which use wind-powered soaring to reduce energy costs during at-sea foraging trips and migration. Such long-distance movement patterns are underpinned by local interactions between wind conditions and flight behaviour, but these fine-scale relationships are far less well understood. Here we show that remotely sensed ocean wind speed and direction are highly significant predictors of soaring behaviour in a migratory pelagic seabird, the Manx shearwater ( Puffinus puffinus ). We used high-frequency GPS tracking data (10 Hz) and statistical behaviour state classification to identify two energetic modes in at-sea flight, corresponding to flap-like and soar-like flight. We show that soaring is significantly more likely to occur in tailwinds and crosswinds above a wind speed threshold of around 8 m s −1 , suggesting that these conditions enable birds to reduce metabolic costs by preferentially soaring over flapping. Our results suggest a behavioural mechanism by which wind conditions may shape foraging and migration ecology in pelagic seabirds, and thus indicate that shifts in wind patterns driven by climate change could impact this and other species. They also emphasize the emerging potential of high-frequency GPS biologgers to provide detailed quantitative insights into fine-scale flight behaviour in free-living animals.

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Systematics, Biogeography, and Morphological Character Evolution of the Hemiepiphytic Subfamily Monsteroideae (Araceae)

Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden ◽

10.3417/2018269 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 104 (1) ◽

pp. 33-48 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Alejandro Zuluaga ◽

Martin Llano ◽

Ken Cameron

Keyword(s):

Dna Sequences ◽

Pacific Islands ◽

R Package ◽

Morphological Characters ◽

Ancestral State ◽

Seed Shape ◽

Long Distance ◽

The Pacific ◽

And Migration ◽

The Tropics

The subfamily Monsteroideae (Araceae) is the third richest clade in the family, with ca. 369 described species and ca. 700 estimated. It comprises mostly hemiepiphytic or epiphytic plants restricted to the tropics, with three intercontinental disjunctions. Using a dataset representing all 12 genera in Monsteroideae (126 taxa), and five plastid and two nuclear markers, we studied the systematics and historical biogeography of the group. We found high support for the monophyly of the three major clades (Spathiphylleae sister to Heteropsis Kunth and Rhaphidophora Hassk. clades), and for six of the genera within Monsteroideae. However, we found low rates of variation in the DNA sequences used and a lack of molecular markers suitable for species-level phylogenies in the group. We also performed ancestral state reconstruction of some morphological characters traditionally used for genera delimitation. Only seed shape and size, number of seeds, number of locules, and presence of endosperm showed utility in the classification of genera in Monsteroideae. We estimated ancestral ranges using a dispersal-extinction-cladogenesis model as implemented in the R package BioGeoBEARS and found evidence for a Gondwanan origin of the clade. One tropical disjunction (Monstera Adans. sister to Amydrium Schott–Epipremnum Schott) was found to be the product of a previous Boreotropical distribution. Two other disjunctions are more recent and likely due to long-distance dispersal: Spathiphyllum Schott (with Holochlamys Engl. nested within) represents a dispersal from South America to the Pacific Islands in Southeast Asia, and Rhaphidophora represents a dispersal from Asia to Africa. Future studies based on stronger phylogenetic reconstructions and complete morphological datasets are needed to explore the details of speciation and migration within and among areas in Asia.

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War Captives, Left-Behind Wives, and Buddhist Nuns: Female Migrants in Early Medieval China (4th–6th Century CE)

Journal of Chinese History ◽

10.1017/jch.2021.1 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-18

Author(s):

Wen-Yi Huang

Keyword(s):

Fourth Century ◽

Early Medieval ◽

Long Distance ◽

Textual Representations ◽

Medieval China ◽

Gender And Migration ◽

Early Medieval China ◽

And Migration ◽

Northern Wei ◽

Distance Travel

Abstract Using received texts and excavated funerary epitaphs, this article examines the intricacies of gender and migration in early medieval China by exploring women's long-distance mobility from the fourth century to the sixth century, when what is now known as China was divided by the Northern Wei and a succession of four southern states—the Eastern Jin, Liu-Song, Southern Qi, and Liang. I focus on three types of migration in which women participated during this period: war-induced migration, family reunification, and religious journeys. Based on this analysis, I propose answers to two important questions: the connection between migration and the state, and textual representations of migrants. Though the texts under consideration are usually written in an anecdotal manner, the references to women, I argue, both reveals nuances in perceptions of womanhood at the time and elucidates the contexts within—and through—which long-distance travel became possible for women.

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Factors of boreal summer latent heat flux variations over the tropical western North Pacific

Climate Dynamics ◽

10.1007/s00382-021-05835-4 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Yuqi Wang ◽

Renguang Wu

Keyword(s):

Heat Flux ◽

Wind Speed ◽

North Pacific ◽

High Frequency ◽

Western North Pacific ◽

Surface Wind ◽

Low Frequency ◽

Boreal Summer ◽

Wind Intensity ◽

Tropical Western North Pacific

AbstractSurface latent heat flux (LHF) is an important component in the heat exchange between the ocean and atmosphere over the tropical western North Pacific (WNP). The present study investigates the factors of seasonal mean LHF variations in boreal summer over the tropical WNP. Seasonal mean LHF is separated into two parts that are associated with low-frequency (> 90-day) and high-frequency (≤ 90-day) atmospheric variability, respectively. It is shown that low-frequency LHF variations are attributed to low-frequency surface wind and sea-air humidity difference, whereas high-frequency LHF variations are associated with both low-frequency surface wind speed and high-frequency wind intensity. A series of conceptual cases are constructed using different combinations of low- and high-frequency winds to inspect the respective effects of low-frequency wind and high-frequency wind amplitude to seasonal mean LHF variations. It is illustrated that high-frequency wind fluctuations contribute to seasonal high-frequency LHF only when their intensity exceeds the low-frequency wind speed under which there is seasonal accumulation of high-frequency LHF. When high-frequency wind intensity is smaller than the low-frequency wind speed, seasonal mean high-frequency LHF is negligible. Total seasonal mean LHF anomalies depend on relative contributions of low- and high-frequency atmospheric variations and have weak interannual variance over the tropical WNP due to cancellation of low- and high-frequency LHF anomalies.

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The dematerialization of telecommunication: communication centres and peripheries in Europe and the world, 1850–1920

Journal of Global History ◽

10.1017/s174002280700232x ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 2 (3) ◽

pp. 345-372 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Roland Wenzlhuemer

Keyword(s):

Telecommunication Network ◽

Local Development ◽

Global Communication ◽

Communication Structure ◽

Long Distance ◽

Interregional Trade ◽

Distance Information ◽

History Information ◽

And Migration ◽

Global Data

AbstractInterregional communication has been a key constituent of the process of globalization since its very origins. For most of its history, information has moved between world regions and along the routes according to the rationales established by interregional trade and migration. The dematerialization of telecommunication in the late eighteenth and nineteenth century eventually detached long-distance information transmission from transport and transformed the global communication structure. New communication centres (and new peripheries) emerged. Some regions moved closer to the global data stream than others. It is still unclear how such different degrees of global connectivity impacted on local development. This essay contributes to the identification and valuation of global communication centres and peripheries in order to provide suitable candidates for future case studies. To this end, statistical data on the development of domestic telegraph networks in selected countries has been analysed and interpreted. In a second step, Social Network Analysis methods have been employed to measure the centrality of almost three hundred cities and towns in the European telecommunication network of the early twentieth century.‘You cannot not communicate.’Paul Watzlawick

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Upscale or downscale: applications of fine scale remotely sensed data to Chagas disease in Argentina and schistosomiasis in Kenya

Geospatial health ◽

10.4081/gh.2006.280 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 1 (1) ◽

pp. 49 ◽

Cited By ~ 29

Author(s):

Uriel Kitron ◽

Julie A. Clennon ◽

M. Carla Cecere ◽

Ricardo E. Gürtler ◽

Charles H. King ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Chagas Disease ◽

Remotely Sensed ◽

Fine Scale ◽

Remotely Sensed Data

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On the interrelations between migration and commuting

Stanovnistvo ◽

10.2298/stnv1301069l ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 51 (1) ◽

pp. 69-90 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Vesna Lukic

Keyword(s):

Real Estate ◽

Labour Market ◽

Real Estate Market ◽

Modern Trend ◽

Population Mobility ◽

Rural Settlements ◽

Long Distance ◽

And Migration ◽

Vojvodina Province

In this paper, we emphasise the significance of studying the interrelations between commuting and migration. The aim of the paper is to point out the factors which affect these interrelations (demographic and socio-economic characteristics of migrants and commuters, labour market, real estate market, information, life style, etc.), with the special emphasis on the role of commuting distance onto the chosen mobility type. Besides theorethical frameworks and results of the selected foreign researches up to date, the overview of research of interrelations between migration and commuting in Serbia has also been presented. While earlier studies conducted by Gawryszenski (1978), Termote (1980) and Reitsma&Vergoossen (1987) pointed to the replacement of migration types between each other within country, in recent literature the interaction between migration and commuting has been studied in a trans-boundary context of the contemporary EU. Modern trend of long distance commuting instead of migration and the concept of substitution/replacement regarding migration and commuting have also been discussed. In Serbia, there is a positive correlation between commuting outflows and immigration in rural settlements of Vojvodina province. Namely, commuting and migration are complement, which is the characteristic of both processes sub-urbanisation and ex-urbanisation (Lukic, 2012). In addition to ownership of real estate and previous migration experience, marital status influenced the chosen mobility type in Serbia as well. Adjustment to changes of Serbian labour market is mostly conducted via migration (Miletic, Lukic, Miljanovic, 2011). Interrelations between migration and commuting are very significant due to the tendency of transformation of some commuters into migrants. This process has its consequences, both on demographic as well as the overall socio-economic development of the area of commuters? origin and destination. However, even though the surveys conducted in Serbia during the 1980s showed that around 30 per cent of commuters expressed desire to move to their place of work, the degree of realization of these intentions remained unknown. While in some countries traffic studies and data from the management of the enterprises are used as sources of data on commuting, the studies on the commuter population in Serbia are based solely onto two types of data sources. These are census and poll surveys. Although they have more potential than the official statistics for the analysis of the links between migration and commuting and other characteristics of commuters, poll surveys on this topic in Serbia are relatively rare due to financial and organizational obstacles. Indeed, the last major survey was conducted in the 1980s. Therefore, even though the interrelations between migration and commuting have been confirmed, there is still a lot of space for their research indicating the need for further methodology developments in researching these types of population mobility.

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Groping in the fog: soaring migrants exhibit wider scatter and do not properly adjust their flight in response to wind under low visibility conditions

10.1101/2021.07.22.453357 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Paolo Becciu ◽

Michele Panuccio ◽

Giacomo Dell'Omo ◽

Nir Sapir

Keyword(s):

Flight Speed ◽

Migration Route ◽

Atmospheric Conditions ◽

Flight Behaviour ◽

Cost Of Transport ◽

Migration Direction ◽

Low Visibility ◽

And Migration ◽

Migrating Birds ◽

Behaviour Changes

Atmospheric conditions are known to affect flight propensity, behaviour during flight, and migration route in birds. Yet, the effects of fog have only been rarely studied, although they could disrupt orientation and hamper the accomplishment of the journey. Soaring migrants modulate their flight speed and direction in relation to the wind vector to optimize the cost of transport. Fog could limit the visibility of migrating birds such that they might not be able to detect landmarks that guide them during their journey. Consequently, landmark-based orientation, as well as adjustments of flight speed and direction in relation to wind conditions, could be jeopardized when flying in fog. Using a radar system that operated in a migration bottleneck (Strait of Messina, Italy), we studied the behaviour of soaring birds under variable wind and fog conditions over two consecutive springs (2016 and 2017), discovering that migrating birds exhibited a wider scatter of flight directions and responded differently to wind conditions under fog conditions. Birds flying through fog deviated more from the mean migration direction and increased their speed with increasing crosswinds. In addition, airspeed and groundspeed increased in the direction of the crosswind, causing a lateral drift of the individuals. Furthermore, the response to tailwind was opposite to that predicted by optimal migration theory. Our findings represent the first quantitative empirical evidence of flight behaviour changes when birds migrate through fog and explain why low visibility conditions could risk their migration journey.

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Fast reconfiguration of high-frequency brain networks in response to surprising changes in auditory input

Journal of Neurophysiology ◽

10.1152/jn.00817.2011 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 107 (5) ◽

pp. 1421-1430 ◽

Cited By ~ 28

Author(s):

Ruth M. Nicol ◽

Sandra C. Chapman ◽

Petra E. Vértes ◽

Pradeep J. Nathan ◽

Marie L. Smith ◽

...

Keyword(s):

High Frequency ◽

Brain Networks ◽

Small World ◽

Brain Network ◽

Auditory Presentation ◽

Long Distance ◽

Sensory Environment ◽

Response Network ◽

Rapid Changes ◽

Measure Synchronization

How do human brain networks react to dynamic changes in the sensory environment? We measured rapid changes in brain network organization in response to brief, discrete, salient auditory stimuli. We estimated network topology and distance parameters in the immediate central response period, <1 s following auditory presentation of standard tones interspersed with occasional deviant tones in a mismatch-negativity (MMN) paradigm, using magnetoencephalography (MEG) to measure synchronization of high-frequency (gamma band; 33–64 Hz) oscillations in healthy volunteers. We found that global small-world parameters of the networks were conserved between the standard and deviant stimuli. However, surprising or unexpected auditory changes were associated with local changes in clustering of connections between temporal and frontal cortical areas and with increased interlobar, long-distance synchronization during the 120- to 250-ms epoch (coinciding with the MMN-evoked response). Network analysis of human MEG data can resolve fast local topological reconfiguration and more long-range synchronization of high-frequency networks as a systems-level representation of the brain's immediate response to salient stimuli in the dynamically changing sensory environment.

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North European Rock Art

The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology and Anthropology of Rock Art ◽

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190607357.013.1 ◽

2017 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Joakim Goldhahn

Keyword(s):

Bronze Age ◽

Iron Age ◽

Rock Art ◽

Northern Europe ◽

Long Distance ◽

Migration Period ◽

Farming Communities ◽

And Migration ◽

The Bronze Age

This chapter offers a long-term perspective on rock art in northern Europe. It first provides an overview of research on the rock art traditions of northern Europe before discussing the societies and cultures that created such traditions. It then considers examples of rock art made by hunter-gatherer societies in northern Europe, focusing on the first rock art boom related to Neolithization. It also examines the second rock art boom, which was associated with social and religious changes within farming communities that took place around 1600–1400 bc. The chapter concludes by analysing the breakdown of long-distance networks in the transition from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age and its consequences for the making of rock art within the southern traditions, as well as the use of rock art sites during the Pre-Roman Iron Age, Roman Iron Age, and Migration Period.

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