Route simulations, compass mechanisms and long-distance migration flights in birds

Åkesson, Susanne; Bianco, Giuseppe

doi:10.1007/s00359-017-1171-y

Cited by 27 publications

(46 citation statements)

References 106 publications

(281 reference statements)

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“…Especially challenging situations are met by using any of the alternative compasses in high arctic regions (e.g., Åkesson et al, 2001a;Muheim et al, 2003Muheim et al, , 2018. Recently, a comparative study evaluating route simulations demonstrated potential use across the widest latitudinal range for the magnetic compass (i.e., magnetoclinic route; Åkesson and Bianco, 2017).…”

Section: Spacementioning

confidence: 99%

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%

Endogenous Programs and Flexibility in Bird Migration

Åkesson

Helm

2020

Front. Ecol. Evol.

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“…Changes associated with the apparent path of the sun across the sky affect daily and seasonal patterns of behavior for many animal groups, including insects, crustaceans, amphibians, reptiles, mammals, and birds (Duangphakdee et al, 2009;Dingle, 2014;Lebhardt and Ronacher, 2014;Vogt et al, 2014;Mason, 2017;Warren et al, 2019). Cues from the sun, photoperiod and light polarization, for example, are processed along with other environmental characteristics, such as magnetic fields (Dreyer et al, 2018), weather, and biological time-keeping mechanisms to determine migration phenology by a variety of species (Helm et al, 2013;Åkesson and Bianco, 2017;Muheim et al, 2018). In monarchs, an internal circadian timekeeper is combined with a sense of the sun's horizontal (azimuthal) position into a time-compensated sun compass that helps maintain a consistent bearing during the migration (Perez et al, 1997;Mouritsen and Frost, 2002;Reppert and de Roode, 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Is the Timing, Pace, and Success of the Monarch Migration Associated With Sun Angle?

et al. 2019

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A basic question concerning the monarch butterflies' fall migration is which monarchs succeed in reaching overwintering sites in Mexico, which fail-and why. We document the timing and pace of the fall migration, ask whether the sun's position in the sky is associated with the pace of the migration, and ask whether timing affects success in completing the migration. Using data from the Monarch Watch tagging program, we explore whether the fall monarch migration is associated with the daily maximum vertical angle of the sun above the horizon (Sun Angle at Solar Noon, SASN) or whether other processes are more likely to explain the pace of the migration. From 1998 to 2015, more than 1.38 million monarchs were tagged and 13,824 (1%) were recovered in Mexico. The pace of migration was relatively slow early in the migration but increased in late September and declined again later in October as the migrating monarchs approached lower latitudes. This slow-fast-slow pacing in the fall migration is consistent with monarchs reaching latitudes with the same SASN, day after day, as they move south to their overwintering sites. The observed pacing pattern and overall movement rates are also consistent with monarchs migrating at a pace determined by interactions among SASN, temperature, and daylength. The results suggest monarchs successfully reaching the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve (MBBR) migrate within a "migration window" with an SASN of about 57 • at the leading edge of the migration and 46 • at the trailing edge. Ninety percent of the tags recovered in Mexico were from monarchs tagged within this window. Migrants reaching locations along the migration route with SASN outside this migration window may be considered early or late migrants. We noted several years with low overwintering abundance of monarchs, 2004 and 2011-2014, with high percentages of late migrants. This observation suggests a possible effect of migration timing on population size. The migration window defined by SASN can serve as a framework against which to establish the influence of environmental factors on the size, geographic distribution, and timing of past and future fall migrations.

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“…It is likely that different compass systems are prioritised differently depending on environmental circumstances. For example, the sun compass route may explain migration trajectories starting at high latitudes, but in contrast to the magnetoclinic route, it fails to explain routes starting nearer to the equator 52 . A magnetic compass based on magnetoclinic routes 50 , however, seems to function across a larger span of latitudes including starting points nearer to the equator 52 .…”

Section: Departing In Time In Anticipation Of Future Environmental Cmentioning

confidence: 99%

Timing avian long-distance migration: from internal clock mechanisms to global flights

Åkesson

Ilieva

Karagicheva

et al. 2017

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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101

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Please refer to our instructions for authors for full details on manuscript preparation. Please note that this template should act as a guide on content, but doesn't necessarily need to be followed for style and formatting. Our typesetters will set your manuscript into house style after acceptance.*Author for correspondence (Susanne.akesson@biol.lu.se). †Present address: Department of Biology, Lund University, Ecology Building, SE-223 62 Lund, Sweden 2 Summary Migratory birds regularly perform impressive long-distance flights, which are timed relative to the anticipated environmental resources at destination areas that can be several thousand kilometres away. Timely migration requires diverse strategies and adaptations that involve an intricate interplay between internal clock mechanisms and environmental conditions across the annual cycle. Here we review what challenges birds face during long migrations to keep track of time as they exploit geographically distant resources that may vary in availability and predictability, and summarise the clock mechanisms that enable them to succeed. We examine the following challenges: departing in time for spring and autumn migration, in anticipation of future environmental conditions; using clocks on the move, for example for orientation, navigation, and stopover; strategies of adhering to, or adjusting the time program while fitting their activities into an annual cycle; and keeping pace with a world of rapidly changing environments. We then elaborate these themes by case studies representing long-distance migrating birds with different annual movement patterns and associated adaptations of their circannual programs. We discuss the current knowledge on how endogenous migration programs interact with external information across the annual cycle, how components of annual cycle programs encode topography and range expansions, and how fitness may be affected when mismatches between timing and environmental conditions occur. Lastly, we outline open questions and propose future research directions. Non-technical summaryMigratory birds perform impressive long-distance flights, timed relative to the availability of resources in different geographical areas. To manage this birds use different strategies including an interplay between internal clock mechanisms and environmental conditions across the annual cycle. Here we review what challenges birds face during long migrations to keep track of time as they exploit geographically distant resources that may vary in availability and predictability, and summarise the clock mechanisms that enable them to meet these challenges. We discuss how range expansions affect components of annual cycle programs, and how mismatches between timing and environment may affect reproductive success.3

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Route simulations, compass mechanisms and long-distance migration flights in birds

Cited by 27 publications

References 106 publications

Endogenous Programs and Flexibility in Bird Migration

Endogenous Programs and Flexibility in Bird Migration

Is the Timing, Pace, and Success of the Monarch Migration Associated With Sun Angle?

Timing avian long-distance migration: from internal clock mechanisms to global flights

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