A central place foraging seabird flies at right angles to the wind to jointly optimize locomotor and olfactory search efficiency

Ventura, Francesco; Catry, Paulo; Dias, Maria P.; Breed, Greg A.; Folch, Arnau; Granadeiro, José Pedro

doi:10.1098/rspb.2022.0895

Cited by 14 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…During the breeding season, the high spatial overlap may be mediated by the wind direction, which is similar between the two seasons. Consistent wind patterns during each breeding season may result in a similar foraging direction of each population as individuals seek to avoid headwinds and take advantage of crosswinds (Spear and Ainley, 2008;Paiva et al, 2010;Ventura et al, 2022). We also observed similar space use during the non-breeding seasons and posit this may be due to food availability in that area, although the current data are insufficient to assess this hypothesis.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 52%

Phenological divergence, population connectivity and ecological differentiation in two allochronic seabird populations

et al. 2022

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Phenological divergence between conspecific populations breeding sympatrically is increasingly recognized as an important evolutionary process that may lead to allochronic speciation. However, the extent to which adaptation to differences in the timing of breeding may contribute to this process remains unclear. In this study, we assessed breeding phenology, population connectivity, and niche differentiation of two allochronic populations we of the Cape Verde Storm-petrel (Hydrobates jabejabe). We monitored nesting activity, marked individuals, tracked individuals during both the breeding and nonbreeding periods, and determined the trophic niche during both the breeding and nonbreeding periods. Timing of breeding for the two allochronic populations segregated into a hot (March-August) and cool (September-February) season (hereafter, hot and cool populations). These periods matched the two annual pulses of oceanic productivity around Cabo Verde, suggesting allochrony was primarily driven by a biannual cyclicity in food availability. Despite their allochronic breeding, there was, however, low differentiation between the hot and cool populations in spatial use, daily activity patterns, and trophic niche during both the breeding and nonbreeding periods. Further, the exchange of breeders between seasons, as documented through the recapture of marked individuals, may hinder seasonal adaptation by each population and ultimately, allochronic speciation. Consequently, allochrony alone may not be sufficient to drive speciation unless reproductive isolation between populations is complete or populations become strongly adapted to the environmental conditions associated with their timing of breeding.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 52%

Phenological divergence, population connectivity and ecological differentiation in two allochronic seabird populations

et al. 2022

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“…It follows that the opportunity for gradient soaring is greatest when the overall direction of travel is across the wind, because then the kinetic energy that is gained on the upwind and downwind legs can be used to enable crosswind progression. Gradient-soaring Manx shearwater Puffinus puffinus have been found to bias their outbound foraging journeys in a crosswind direction [ 19 ], and Bulwer's petrels Bulweria bulwerii have also been found to have a strong preference for crosswind progression when foraging in North Atlantic trade winds [ 116 ]. The utility of gradient soaring to marine sUAS will therefore depend upon the extent to which progress must be made in other directions relative to the wind.…”

Section: Dynamic Soaring: Exploiting Gradients and Gustsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Opportunistic soaring by birds suggests new opportunities for atmospheric energy harvesting by flying robots

Abdel‐Rohman

Taylor

Watkins

et al. 2022

J. R. Soc. Interface.

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The use of flying robots (drones) is increasing rapidly, but their utility is limited by high power demand, low specific energy storage and poor gust tolerance. By contrast, birds demonstrate long endurance, harvesting atmospheric energy in environments ranging from cluttered cityscapes to open landscapes, coasts and oceans. Here, we identify new opportunities for flying robots, drawing upon the soaring flight of birds. We evaluate mechanical energy transfer in soaring from first principles and review soaring strategies encompassing the use of updrafts (thermal or orographic) and wind gradients (spatial or temporal). We examine the extent to which state-of-the-art flying robots currently use each strategy and identify several untapped opportunities including slope soaring over built environments, thermal soaring over oceans and opportunistic gust soaring. In principle, the energetic benefits of soaring are accessible to flying robots of all kinds, given atmospherically aware sensor systems, guidance strategies and gust tolerance. Hence, while there is clear scope for specialist robots that soar like albatrosses, or which use persistent thermals like vultures, the greatest untapped potential may lie in non-specialist vehicles that make flexible use of atmospheric energy through path planning and flight control, as demonstrated by generalist flyers such as gulls, kites and crows.

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“…Kacelnik et al 1986), or during the breeding period, such as birds (e.g. Ventura et al 2022) and wolves (e.g. Ylitalo et al 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Accounting for central place foraging constraints in habitat selection studies

Benhamou¹,

Courbin²

2022

Preprint

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Habitat selection studies contrast the actual space use with the expected use under the null hypothesis of no preference (hereafter neutral use). Neutral use is most often assimilated to the relative abundance of the different habitat types. This generates a considerable bias when studying habitat selection by foragers that perform numerous back and forth to a central place (CP). Indeed, the increased space use close to the CP with respect to distant places reflects a mechanical effect rather than a true preference for the closest habitats. Yet, correctly estimating habitat selection by CP foragers is of paramount importance for a better understanding of their ecology and efficiency of conservation actions. We show that (1) including the distance to the CP as a covariate in unconditional Resource Selection Functions (RSFs), as did in several studies, is quite inefficient to correct for the bias. Bias can be eliminated only by contrasting the actual use distribution to an appropriate neutral distribution that takes the CP forager behavior into account. (2) The need to specify such an appropriate neutral use distribution can be bypassed by relying on a conditional RSF, where the neutral use is assessed locally without reference to the CP.

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A central place foraging seabird flies at right angles to the wind to jointly optimize locomotor and olfactory search efficiency

Cited by 14 publications

References 51 publications

Phenological divergence, population connectivity and ecological differentiation in two allochronic seabird populations

Phenological divergence, population connectivity and ecological differentiation in two allochronic seabird populations

Opportunistic soaring by birds suggests new opportunities for atmospheric energy harvesting by flying robots

Accounting for central place foraging constraints in habitat selection studies

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