Sensory mechanisms of animal orientation and navigation

Muheim, Rachel; Boström, Jannika E.; Åkesson, Susanne; Liedvogel, Miriam

doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199677184.003.0010

Cited by 16 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 99 publications

(121 reference statements)

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“…The magnetic compass is expressed relative to the angle of inclination providing directions along a northsouth axis toward and away from the poles without direct diel time input for its functionality (Wiltschko and Wiltschko, 1972), but changes of courses are expressed at relevant times of year (e.g., Gwinner and Wiltschko, 1978;Wiltschko and Wiltschko, 1992). Perception of the magnetic field seems dependent on specialized photoreceptors activated by a limited range of wavelengths of light involving cryptochrome molecules (Ritz et al, 2009;Muheim et al, 2014). Compass interactions may further lead to recalibrations during migration (e.g., Cochran et al, 2004;Muheim et al, 2006;cf.…”

Section: Spacementioning

confidence: 99%

“…For individual variation in orientation capacity and compass route-following, the underlying reasons may be related to the perception of the celestial and geomagnetic cues themselves (Muheim et al, 2014), as well as how these cues are encoded in the endogenous migration program. However, we still need to understand exactly how the endogenous migration program interacts with external information, and how birds keep track of space during long migrations throughout the annual cycle.…”

Section: Variation In Migration Programsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Endogenous Programs and Flexibility in Bird Migration

Åkesson

Helm

2020

Front. Ecol. Evol.

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Endogenous programs that regulate annual cycles have been shown for many taxa, including protists, arthropods, fish, mammals and birds. In migration biology, these programs are best known in songbirds. The majority of songbirds rely on a genetic program inherited from their parents that will guide them during their first solo-migration. The phenotypic components of the program are crucial for their individual fitness and survival, and include time components, direction, and distance. This program is constructed to both guide behavior and to regulate flexible responses to the environment at different stages of the annual cycle. The migration program is driven by a circannual rhythm, allowing for, and resetting, carry-over effects. With experience, the migration decisions of individual migrants may be based on information learnt on breeding sites, wintering sites, and en route. At the population level, substantial variation in route choice and timing of migration may be explained by inherited variation of program components, by interactions with environmental and social factors, and by individual learning. In this review we will explore the components of endogenous migration programs and discuss in what ways they can lead to flexibility and variation in migration behavior.

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Section: Spacementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Variation In Migration Programsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Endogenous Programs and Flexibility in Bird Migration

Åkesson

Helm

2020

Front. Ecol. Evol.

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“…This cue can help birds to recalibrate their compass orientation (Muheim et al 2006 ). Also, the bird’s sensor to detect the Earth magnetic field is probably light-dependent (Muheim et al 2002 ; Mouritsen and Ritz 2005 ) and likely to have increased sensitivity at intensities of crepuscular light (Cochran et al 2004 ; Muheim et al 2014 ). Therefore, we could speculate that birds ascending at twilight might have a maximum set of cues available to recalibrate their sense of orientation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What makes Alpine swift ascend at twilight? Novel geolocators reveal year-round flight behaviour

Meier

Karaardıç

Aymí

et al. 2018

Behav Ecol Sociobiol

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Studying individual flight behaviour throughout the year is indispensable to understand the ecology of a bird species. Recent development in technology allows now to track flight behaviour of small long-distance bird migrants throughout its annual cycle. The specific flight behaviour of twilight ascents in birds has been documented in a few studies, but only during a short period of the year, and never quantified on the individual level. It has been suggested that twilight ascents might be a role in orientation and navigation. Previous studies had reported the behaviour only near the breeding site and during migration. We investigated year-round flight behaviour of 34 individual Alpine swifts (Apus melba) of four different populations in relation to twilight ascents. We recorded twilight ascents all around the year and found a twofold higher frequency in ascents during the non-breeding residence phase in Africa compared to all other phases of the year. Dawn ascents were twice as common as dusk ascents and occurred mainly when atmospheric conditions remained stable over a 24-h period. We found no conclusive support that twilight ascents are essential for recalibration of compass cues and landmarks. Data on the wing flapping intensity revealed that high activity at twilight occurred more regularly than the ascents. We therefore conclude that alpine swift generally increase flight activity—also horizontal flight—during the twilight period and we suppose that this increased flight activity, including ascents, might be part of social interactions between individuals.Significance statementYear-round flight altitude tracking with a light-weight multi-sensor tag reveals that Alpine swifts ascend several hundred meters high at twilight regularly. The reason for this behaviour remains unclear and the low-light conditions at this time of the day preclude foraging as a possibility. The frequency and altitude of twilight ascents were highest during the non-breeding period, intermediate during migration and low for active breeders during the breeding phase. We discuss our findings in the context of existing hypotheses on twilight ascent and we propose an additional hypothesis which links twilight ascent with social interaction between flock members. Our study highlights how flight behaviour of individuals of a migratory bird species can be studied even during the sparsely documented non-breeding period.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1007/s00265-017-2438-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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“…Ritz, Adem and Schulten were the first to speculate that the underlying radical pair could be formed by photo-excitation in the animals' eyes in cryptochromes [7], a class of blue-light sensitive flavo-proteins that shares some similarity with photolyases [8]; this supposition still applies; to date, cryptochromes are the only vertebrate proteins known to form radical pairs in a physiologically significant photoreaction and their relevancy to magnetoreception has indeed been implicated in a multitude of studies [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24]. The reader is referred to the many reviews on this subject for a more detailed exposition [6,23,[25][26].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Molecular dynamics simulations disclose early stages of the photo-activation of cryptochrome 4

Kattnig¹,

Nielsen²,

Solov’yov³

2018

Preprint

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Birds appear to be equipped with a light-dependent, radical-pair-based magnetic compass that relies on truly quantum processes. While the identity of the sensory protein has remained speculative, cryptochrome 4 has recently been identified as the most auspicious candidate. Here, we report on allatom molecular dynamics (MD) simulations addressing the structural reorganisations that accompany the photoreduction of the flavin cofactor in a model of the European robin cryptochrome 4 (ErCry4). Extensive MD simulations reveal that the photo-activation of ErCry4 induces large-scale conformational changes on short (hundreds of nanoseconds) timescales. Specifically, the photo-reduction is accompanied with the release of the C-terminal tail, structural rearrangements in the vicinity of the FAD-binding site, and the noteworthy formation of an -helical segment at the N-terminal part. Some of these rearrangements appear to expose potential phosphorylation sites. We describe the conformational dynamics of the protein using a graph-based approach that is informed by the adjacency of residues and the correlation of their local motions. This approach reveals densely coupled reorganisation communities, which facilitate an efficient signal transduction due to a high density of hubs. These communities are interconnected by a small number of highly important residues characterized by high betweenness centrality. The network approach clearly identifies the sites restructuring upon photoactivation, which appear as protrusions or delicate bridges in the reorganisation network. We also find that, unlike in the homologous cryptochrome from D. melanogaster, the release of the C-terminal domain does not appear to be correlated with the transposition of a histidine residue close to the FAD cofactor.

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Sensory mechanisms of animal orientation and navigation

Abstract: Behavioural and physiological evidence for ferromineral-based magnetoreception Despite numerous reports of ferromagnetic material in invertebrates, there is little direct behavioural

Cited by 16 publications

References 99 publications

Endogenous Programs and Flexibility in Bird Migration

Endogenous Programs and Flexibility in Bird Migration

What makes Alpine swift ascend at twilight? Novel geolocators reveal year-round flight behaviour

Molecular dynamics simulations disclose early stages of the photo-activation of cryptochrome 4

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