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Linking Small-Scale Flight Manoeuvers and Density Profiles to the Vertical Movement of Insects in the Nocturnal Stable Boundary Layer

Huge numbers of insects migrate over considerable distances in the stably-stratified night-time atmosphere with great consequences for ecological processes, biodiversity, ecosystem services and pest management. We used a combination of meteorological radar and lidar instrumentation at a site in Okla...

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Autores principales: Wainwright, Charlotte E., Reynolds, Don R., Reynolds, Andy M.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6978332/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31974508
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-57779-0
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author Wainwright, Charlotte E.
Reynolds, Don R.
Reynolds, Andy M.
author_facet Wainwright, Charlotte E.
Reynolds, Don R.
Reynolds, Andy M.
author_sort Wainwright, Charlotte E.
collection PubMed
description Huge numbers of insects migrate over considerable distances in the stably-stratified night-time atmosphere with great consequences for ecological processes, biodiversity, ecosystem services and pest management. We used a combination of meteorological radar and lidar instrumentation at a site in Oklahoma, USA, to take a new look at the general assistance migrants receive from both vertical and horizontal airstreams during their long-distance flights. Movement in the nocturnal boundary layer (NBL) presents very different challenges for migrants compared to those prevailing in the daytime convective boundary layer, but we found that Lagrangian stochastic modelling is effective at predicting flight manoeuvers in both cases. A key feature for insect transport in the NBL is the frequent formation of a thin layer of fast-moving air – the low-level jet. Modelling suggests that insects can react rapidly to counteract vertical air movements and this mechanism explains how migrants are retained in the jet for long periods (e.g. overnight, and perhaps for several hours early in the morning). This results in movements over much longer distances than are likely in convective conditions, and is particularly significant for the reintroduction of pests to northern regions where they are seasonally absent due to low winter temperatures.
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spelling pubmed-69783322020-01-30 Linking Small-Scale Flight Manoeuvers and Density Profiles to the Vertical Movement of Insects in the Nocturnal Stable Boundary Layer Wainwright, Charlotte E. Reynolds, Don R. Reynolds, Andy M. Sci Rep Article Huge numbers of insects migrate over considerable distances in the stably-stratified night-time atmosphere with great consequences for ecological processes, biodiversity, ecosystem services and pest management. We used a combination of meteorological radar and lidar instrumentation at a site in Oklahoma, USA, to take a new look at the general assistance migrants receive from both vertical and horizontal airstreams during their long-distance flights. Movement in the nocturnal boundary layer (NBL) presents very different challenges for migrants compared to those prevailing in the daytime convective boundary layer, but we found that Lagrangian stochastic modelling is effective at predicting flight manoeuvers in both cases. A key feature for insect transport in the NBL is the frequent formation of a thin layer of fast-moving air – the low-level jet. Modelling suggests that insects can react rapidly to counteract vertical air movements and this mechanism explains how migrants are retained in the jet for long periods (e.g. overnight, and perhaps for several hours early in the morning). This results in movements over much longer distances than are likely in convective conditions, and is particularly significant for the reintroduction of pests to northern regions where they are seasonally absent due to low winter temperatures. Nature Publishing Group UK 2020-01-23 /pmc/articles/PMC6978332/ /pubmed/31974508 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-57779-0 Text en © The Author(s) 2020 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as 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 images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
spellingShingle Article
Wainwright, Charlotte E.
Reynolds, Don R.
Reynolds, Andy M.
Linking Small-Scale Flight Manoeuvers and Density Profiles to the Vertical Movement of Insects in the Nocturnal Stable Boundary Layer
title Linking Small-Scale Flight Manoeuvers and Density Profiles to the Vertical Movement of Insects in the Nocturnal Stable Boundary Layer
title_full Linking Small-Scale Flight Manoeuvers and Density Profiles to the Vertical Movement of Insects in the Nocturnal Stable Boundary Layer
title_fullStr Linking Small-Scale Flight Manoeuvers and Density Profiles to the Vertical Movement of Insects in the Nocturnal Stable Boundary Layer
title_full_unstemmed Linking Small-Scale Flight Manoeuvers and Density Profiles to the Vertical Movement of Insects in the Nocturnal Stable Boundary Layer
title_short Linking Small-Scale Flight Manoeuvers and Density Profiles to the Vertical Movement of Insects in the Nocturnal Stable Boundary Layer
title_sort linking small-scale flight manoeuvers and density profiles to the vertical movement of insects in the nocturnal stable boundary layer
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6978332/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31974508
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-57779-0
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