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Does migratory distance affect fuelling in a medium-distance passerine migrant?: results from direct and step-wise simulated magnetic displacements
- Source :
- Biology Open, Vol 5, Iss 3, Pp 272-278 (2016), Biology Open
- Publication Year :
- 2016
- Publisher :
- The Company of Biologists, 2016.
-
Abstract
- In birds, fat accumulation before and during migration has been shown to be endogenously controlled and tuned by, among other factors, the Earth's magnetic field. However, our knowledge about the influence of the geomagnetic field on the fuelling in migrating birds is still limited to just a few nocturnally migrating passerine species. In order to study if variations of the magnetic field can also influence the fuelling of both day- and night-migrating passerines, we caught first-year dunnocks (Prunella modularis) and subjected them to three magnetic field conditions simulated by a system of magnetic coils: (1) local geomagnetic field of southern Sweden, (2) magnetic field corresponding to the centre of the expected wintering area, and (3) magnetic field met at the northern limit of the species' breeding distribution. We did not find a difference in mass increase between the birds kept in a local magnetic field and a field resembling their wintering area, irrespectively of the mode of magnetic displacement, i.e. direct or step-wise. However, the dunnocks magnetically displaced north showed a lower rate of fuelling in comparison to the control group, probably due to elevated activity. Compared with previous studies, our results suggest that the fuelling response to magnetic displacements during the migration period is specific to the eco-physiological situation. Future studies need to address if there is an effect of magnetic field manipulation on the level of migratory activity in dunnocks and how widespread the influence of local geomagnetic field parameters is on fuelling decisions in different bird species, which have different migratory strategies, distances and migration history.<br />Summary: Fuelling rate in migrating dunnocks, a predominantly diurnal migratory songbird is influenced by a manipulated magnetic field when the birds are magnetically displaced north, but not south, in autumn.
- Subjects :
- 0106 biological sciences
0301 basic medicine
Future studies
Field (physics)
Bird migration
QH301-705.5
Science
Prunella modularis
Atmospheric sciences
010603 evolutionary biology
01 natural sciences
General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
03 medical and health sciences
Diurnal migrant
Fat accumulation
Food intake
biology.animal
Biology (General)
biology
Ecology
biology.organism_classification
equipment and supplies
Passerine
Magnetic field
030104 developmental biology
Earth's magnetic field
General Agricultural and Biological Sciences
human activities
Geomagnetic field
Research Article
Dunnock
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 20466390
- Volume :
- 5
- Issue :
- 3
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Biology Open
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....c145025b7c71ac3b49f2e1bd2b14bed0