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The implications of costly airflows for space-use and movement decisions in birds / EMMANOUIL LEMPIDAKIS

Swansea University Author: EMMANOUIL LEMPIDAKIS

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DOI (Published version): 10.23889/SUthesis.61503

Abstract

The behavioural ecology of flight has largely considered how birds respond to mean flow conditions, but it is the gusty or extreme airflows that are likely to be particularly challenging. This thesis addresses this, examining the strategies birds use to negotiate turbulence over land, and exceedingl...

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Published: Swansea 2022
Institution: Swansea University
Degree level: Doctoral
Degree name: Ph.D
Supervisor: Shepard, Emily L.C. ; Ross, Andrew N. ; Wilson, Rory P. ; Luckman, Adrian
URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa61503
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first_indexed 2022-10-10T14:02:24Z
last_indexed 2023-01-13T19:22:17Z
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spelling 2022-10-10T15:14:14.1523618 v2 61503 2022-10-10 The implications of costly airflows for space-use and movement decisions in birds e632a6716f49fcfb82a2de5747045849 EMMANOUIL LEMPIDAKIS EMMANOUIL LEMPIDAKIS true false 2022-10-10 The behavioural ecology of flight has largely considered how birds respond to mean flow conditions, but it is the gusty or extreme airflows that are likely to be particularly challenging. This thesis addresses this, examining the strategies birds use to negotiate turbulence over land, and exceedingly strong winds at sea. I first develop a method for sensing turbulence at fine scales using data collected onboard the animals themselves, taking homing pigeons (Columba livia) as model flapping fliers. Fine scale variation in the flight altitude and body displacement emerged as effective proxies of turbulence. I then assess the impact of freestream turbulence on flapping fliers and find that pigeons adapted their wingbeat kinematics (frequency and amplitude) to increase their flight stability in response to turbulence, but did so without a clear increase in flight effort. In my final two chapters I examine the responses of two seabird species to strong winds, first at sea, and then on land. Specifically, I investigate how streaked shearwaters (Calonectris leucomelas) respond to tropical cyclones, and how common guillemots (Uria aalge) select their breeding cliffs in relation to airflow conditions. I find that shearwaters fly towards the eye of the storm. This tendency increases with cyclone intensity and may enable birds to avoid strong onshore winds and reduce the associated risks of forced landings and/ or injury. Finally, computational fluid dynamics models reveal that guillemots select breeding cliffs that are sheltered from wind and storm conditions, rather than from the mean wind alone, or heat stress. This model of habitat selection could also predict habitat use across islands. Overall, this highlights the varied and sometimes surprising capacities of birds to cope with extreme and variable airflows and operate in areas that are, as yet, inaccessible to aircraft. E-Thesis Swansea Turbulence, storms, cyclones, airflows, computational fluid dynamics, pigeons, shearwaters, species distribution models, movement ecology, animal movement 27 9 2022 2022-09-27 10.23889/SUthesis.61503 ORCiD identifier: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2384-9093 COLLEGE NANME COLLEGE CODE Swansea University Shepard, Emily L.C. ; Ross, Andrew N. ; Wilson, Rory P. ; Luckman, Adrian Doctoral Ph.D European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program, grant No. 715874 2022-10-10T15:14:14.1523618 2022-10-10T14:57:54.6708377 Faculty of Science and Engineering School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Biosciences EMMANOUIL LEMPIDAKIS 1 61503__25386__5b77155f6d5947fe8bd5145ff32b52cf.pdf Lempidakis_Emmanouil_PhD_Thesis_Final_Redacted_Signature.pdf 2022-10-10T15:10:58.5705083 Output 5586351 application/pdf E-Thesis – open access true Copyright: The author, Emmanouil Lempidakis, 2022. true eng
title The implications of costly airflows for space-use and movement decisions in birds
spellingShingle The implications of costly airflows for space-use and movement decisions in birds
EMMANOUIL LEMPIDAKIS
title_short The implications of costly airflows for space-use and movement decisions in birds
title_full The implications of costly airflows for space-use and movement decisions in birds
title_fullStr The implications of costly airflows for space-use and movement decisions in birds
title_full_unstemmed The implications of costly airflows for space-use and movement decisions in birds
title_sort The implications of costly airflows for space-use and movement decisions in birds
author_id_str_mv e632a6716f49fcfb82a2de5747045849
author_id_fullname_str_mv e632a6716f49fcfb82a2de5747045849_***_EMMANOUIL LEMPIDAKIS
author EMMANOUIL LEMPIDAKIS
author2 EMMANOUIL LEMPIDAKIS
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publishDate 2022
institution Swansea University
doi_str_mv 10.23889/SUthesis.61503
college_str Faculty of Science and Engineering
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hierarchy_top_id facultyofscienceandengineering
hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Science and Engineering
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofscienceandengineering
hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Science and Engineering
department_str School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Biosciences{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Science and Engineering{{{_:::_}}}School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Biosciences
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description The behavioural ecology of flight has largely considered how birds respond to mean flow conditions, but it is the gusty or extreme airflows that are likely to be particularly challenging. This thesis addresses this, examining the strategies birds use to negotiate turbulence over land, and exceedingly strong winds at sea. I first develop a method for sensing turbulence at fine scales using data collected onboard the animals themselves, taking homing pigeons (Columba livia) as model flapping fliers. Fine scale variation in the flight altitude and body displacement emerged as effective proxies of turbulence. I then assess the impact of freestream turbulence on flapping fliers and find that pigeons adapted their wingbeat kinematics (frequency and amplitude) to increase their flight stability in response to turbulence, but did so without a clear increase in flight effort. In my final two chapters I examine the responses of two seabird species to strong winds, first at sea, and then on land. Specifically, I investigate how streaked shearwaters (Calonectris leucomelas) respond to tropical cyclones, and how common guillemots (Uria aalge) select their breeding cliffs in relation to airflow conditions. I find that shearwaters fly towards the eye of the storm. This tendency increases with cyclone intensity and may enable birds to avoid strong onshore winds and reduce the associated risks of forced landings and/ or injury. Finally, computational fluid dynamics models reveal that guillemots select breeding cliffs that are sheltered from wind and storm conditions, rather than from the mean wind alone, or heat stress. This model of habitat selection could also predict habitat use across islands. Overall, this highlights the varied and sometimes surprising capacities of birds to cope with extreme and variable airflows and operate in areas that are, as yet, inaccessible to aircraft.
published_date 2022-09-27T04:20:22Z
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score 11.016213