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Seasonal Trends in Movement Patterns of Birds and Insects Aloft Simultaneously Recorded by Radar

Seasonal Trends in Movement Patterns of Birds and Insects Aloft Simultaneously Recorded by Radar

Authors :
Philippe Tschanz
Baptiste Schmid
Xu Shi
Gernot Segelbacher
Felix Liechti
Source :
Remote Sensing, Vol 13, Iss 1839, p 1839 (2021), Remote Sensing, 13 (9)
Publication Year :
2021
Publisher :
Zenodo, 2021.

Abstract

Airspace is a key but not well-understood habitat for many animal species. Enormous amounts of insects and birds use the airspace to forage, disperse, and migrate. Despite numerous studies on migration, the year-round flight activities of both birds and insects are still poorly studied. We used a 2 year dataset from a vertical-looking radar in Central Europe and developed an iterative hypothesis-testing algorithm to investigate the general temporal pattern of migratory and local movements. We estimated at least 3 million bird and 20 million insect passages over a 1 km transect annually. Most surprisingly, peak non-directional bird movement intensities during summer were of the same magnitude as seasonal directional movement peaks. Birds showed clear peaks in seasonally directional movements during day and night, coinciding well with the main migration period documented in this region. Directional insect movements occurred throughout the year, paralleling non-directional movements. In spring and summer, insect movements were non-directional; in autumn, their movements concentrated toward the southwest, similar to birds. Notably, the nocturnal movements of insects did not appear until April, while directional movements mainly occurred in autumn. This simple monitoring reveals how little we still know about the movement of biomass through airspace.<br />Remote Sensing, 13 (9)<br />ISSN:2072-4292

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
20724292
Database :
OpenAIRE
Journal :
Remote Sensing, Vol 13, Iss 1839, p 1839 (2021), Remote Sensing, 13 (9)
Accession number :
edsair.doi.dedup.....8b81f66c12a0ab4b6b132ababe9c57c9
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4776162