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Feasibility of sun and magnetic compass mechanisms in avian long-distance migration

Birds use different compass mechanisms based on celestial (stars, sun, skylight polarization pattern) and geomagnetic cues for orientation. Yet, much remains to be understood how birds actually use these compass mechanisms on their long-distance migratory journeys. Here, we assess in more detail the...

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Autores principales: Muheim, Rachel, Schmaljohann, Heiko, Alerstam, Thomas
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5989362/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29992024
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40462-018-0126-4
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author Muheim, Rachel
Schmaljohann, Heiko
Alerstam, Thomas
author_facet Muheim, Rachel
Schmaljohann, Heiko
Alerstam, Thomas
author_sort Muheim, Rachel
collection PubMed
description Birds use different compass mechanisms based on celestial (stars, sun, skylight polarization pattern) and geomagnetic cues for orientation. Yet, much remains to be understood how birds actually use these compass mechanisms on their long-distance migratory journeys. Here, we assess in more detail the consequences of using different sun and magnetic compass mechanisms for the resulting bird migration routes during both autumn and spring migration. First, we calculated predicted flight routes to determine which of the compasses mechanisms lead to realistic and feasible migration routes starting at different latitudes during autumn and spring migration. We then compared the adaptive values of the different compass mechanisms by calculating distance ratios in relation to the shortest possible trajectory for three populations of nocturnal passerine migrants: northern wheatear Oenanthe oenanthe, pied flycatcher Ficedula hypoleuca, and willow warbler Phylloscopus trochilus. Finally, we compared the predicted trajectories for different compass strategies with observed routes based on recent light-level geolocation tracking results for five individuals of northern wheatears migrating between Alaska and tropical Africa. We conclude that the feasibility of different compass routes varies greatly with latitude, migratory direction, migration season, and geographic location. Routes following a single compass course throughout the migratory journey are feasible for many bird populations, but the underlying compass mechanisms likely differ between populations. In many cases, however, the birds likely have to reorient once to a few times along the migration route and/or use map information to successfully reach their migratory destination. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s40462-018-0126-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
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spelling pubmed-59893622018-07-10 Feasibility of sun and magnetic compass mechanisms in avian long-distance migration Muheim, Rachel Schmaljohann, Heiko Alerstam, Thomas Mov Ecol Review Birds use different compass mechanisms based on celestial (stars, sun, skylight polarization pattern) and geomagnetic cues for orientation. Yet, much remains to be understood how birds actually use these compass mechanisms on their long-distance migratory journeys. Here, we assess in more detail the consequences of using different sun and magnetic compass mechanisms for the resulting bird migration routes during both autumn and spring migration. First, we calculated predicted flight routes to determine which of the compasses mechanisms lead to realistic and feasible migration routes starting at different latitudes during autumn and spring migration. We then compared the adaptive values of the different compass mechanisms by calculating distance ratios in relation to the shortest possible trajectory for three populations of nocturnal passerine migrants: northern wheatear Oenanthe oenanthe, pied flycatcher Ficedula hypoleuca, and willow warbler Phylloscopus trochilus. Finally, we compared the predicted trajectories for different compass strategies with observed routes based on recent light-level geolocation tracking results for five individuals of northern wheatears migrating between Alaska and tropical Africa. We conclude that the feasibility of different compass routes varies greatly with latitude, migratory direction, migration season, and geographic location. Routes following a single compass course throughout the migratory journey are feasible for many bird populations, but the underlying compass mechanisms likely differ between populations. In many cases, however, the birds likely have to reorient once to a few times along the migration route and/or use map information to successfully reach their migratory destination. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s40462-018-0126-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. BioMed Central 2018-06-06 /pmc/articles/PMC5989362/ /pubmed/29992024 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40462-018-0126-4 Text en © The Author(s). 2018 Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Review
Muheim, Rachel
Schmaljohann, Heiko
Alerstam, Thomas
Feasibility of sun and magnetic compass mechanisms in avian long-distance migration
title Feasibility of sun and magnetic compass mechanisms in avian long-distance migration
title_full Feasibility of sun and magnetic compass mechanisms in avian long-distance migration
title_fullStr Feasibility of sun and magnetic compass mechanisms in avian long-distance migration
title_full_unstemmed Feasibility of sun and magnetic compass mechanisms in avian long-distance migration
title_short Feasibility of sun and magnetic compass mechanisms in avian long-distance migration
title_sort feasibility of sun and magnetic compass mechanisms in avian long-distance migration
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5989362/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29992024
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40462-018-0126-4
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