Nocturnal bird migration at Besh Barmag bottleneck in Azerbaijan as revealed by means of acoustic monitoring

SummaryBird migration studies are sparse in the Caucasus region, but have received more interest in recent years. To date, these studies have focused on diurnal migration and no information about nocturnal bird migration is available from this region. Therefore, nocturnal bird migration in the Besh Barmag bottleneck (Azerbaijan) was acoustically analysed on the basis of 1,464 h 44 min of sound recordings cost-efficiently obtained with an autonomously operating recorder and an omnidirectional microphone between sunset and sunrise on 63 nights in autumn 2011 and 67 nights in spring 2012. In total, 88,455 calls of 106 migrating species were detected. Of these, 2,172 calls could not be identified due to recording deficiencies or imperfect familiarity with some of the vocalisations and may involve as many as 20 species. The calls and songs of another 13 non-migratory species were not counted. Due to organisational or technical constraints some nights in the study periods could not be analysed and so the ensuing data gaps were repaired by interpolation, resulting in an estimated total of 108,986 calls in autumn 2011 and 33,348 calls in spring 2012. In both seasons the most vocally productive and species-rich phase was civil morning twilight, containing as it does the onset of diurnal migration. In autumn 2011, 54.7% of the recorded calls occurred in civil evening and morning twilight and 68.8% in spring 2012. But species and call numbers were also high in the darkest twilight and night phases. The interpretation of the data is, however, partly conjectural and any future access to truly reliable information on migration densities is conceivable only through radar studies.

Diurnal Migration of Zooplankton in Inner Ambon Bay, Indonesia

The study aims to analyze diurnal migration of zooplankton in Ambon Bay. Data sampling method which is conducted stationary utilizes pontoon mooring as floating platform for acoustic data sampling. Based on the analysis, diurnal migration of zooplankton occurs at noon, zooplankton swims in water surface to epipelagic zone (0-20 m) with value of scattering volume value -90.13 dB to -100.30 dB; it indicates sparse and scattered aggregation (N=128). At night, scattering volume of -90.01 dB to -100.30 dB indicates dense and concentrated aggregation (N=75). Scattering volume is numerical expression of zooplankton density. Chlorophyll a concentration in depth of 0-10 meter having the highest value of 5.16 ppb highly affects the existence of zooplankton. It functions for food availability of pelagic fish as its carnivore.

Avian collision risk at an offshore wind farm

We have been the first to investigate whether long-lived geese and ducks can detect and avoid a large offshore wind farm by tracking their diurnal migration patterns with radar. We found that the percentage of flocks entering the wind farm area decreased significantly (by a factor 4.5) from pre-construction to initial operation. At night, migrating flocks were more prone to enter the wind farm but counteracted the higher risk of collision in the dark by increasing their distance from individual turbines and flying in the corridors between turbines. Overall, less than 1% of the ducks and geese migrated close enough to the turbines to be at any risk of collision.