Projektbeschreibung
Neue Multisensorsysteme zur Verfolgung von Zugvögeln
Der Vogelzug ist bemerkenswert. Zugvögel fliegen Hunderte und Tausende Kilometer, um Futter zu finden, zu brüten und ihre Jungen aufzuziehen. Die in den vergangenen zehn Jahren entwickelte Ortungstechnologie zeigt, dass Zugvögel länger und schneller fliegen können als bisher für möglich gehalten. Es ist jedoch immer noch nicht klar, wie Vögel diese scheinbar unmöglichen Reisen durchführen. Das vom Europäischen Forschungsrat (ERC) finanzierte Projekt MigPerform wird die Zwänge und die verhaltensbezogenen und physiologischen Anpassungen erforschen, die sich entwickelt haben, um sie zu überwinden und die die extremen Leistungen der Zugvögel begünstigen. Zum Einsatz kommen neuartige Ortungssysteme, Multisensor-Datenlogger, die raum-zeitliche Muster und Verhaltensweisen aufzeichnen können, darunter Flughöhen, Temperatur und detaillierte Zeitangaben zu Flügen und Zwischenlandungen während des gesamten Zyklus der Vogelwanderung.
Ziel
Advances in tracking technology during the last decade have shown that migratory birds have the capacity to fly longer and faster than we previously thought was possible. Yet, we do not know how birds perform these seemingly impossible travels as it previously only was possible to record spatiotemporal patterns.
The overall aim of this project is to reveal constraints and the behavioural and physiological adaptations that has evolved to overcome them, thus making the extreme performances of migratory birds possible. This goal will be met by using novel tracking devices, multisensor data loggers, that in addition to spatiotemporal patterns also record behaviour, including flight altitudes, temperature and detailed timing of flights and stopovers during the entire migration cycle. The few multisensor tracking studies carried out to date have provided hints of stunning new insights, and seriously challenged previously assumed limits on peak flight altitudes, in-flight changes of altitudes, and duration of individual flights. In particular, I have together with colleagues discovered a totally unexpected altitudinal behaviour: some bird species change their flight altitude between night and day, and fly at extremely high altitudes during the day (up to 6000-8000 m). But what makes a migratory bird fly as high as Mount Everest, even when there are no mountains to cross?
By launching an extensive multisensor data logging programme, combined with wind tunnel experiments and field studies, the proposed project will change our understanding of the possibilities and limitations of bird migration. This will be done by disentangling the causes and consequences of bird’s altitudinal behaviour, the flexibility, timing and duration of migratory flights (if birds only use diurnal or nocturnal flights, if they prolong flights to last both day and night or even fly nonstop between wintering and breeding grounds), and the costs and consequences of these seemingly extreme behaviours.
Wissenschaftliches Gebiet
Programm/Programme
- HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme
Thema/Themen
Finanzierungsplan
ERC - Support for frontier research (ERC)Gastgebende Einrichtung
22100 Lund
Schweden