Dataset Information

Ontogeny of lift and drag production in ground birds.

ABSTRACT: The juvenile period is often a crucial interval for selective pressure on locomotor ability. Although flight is central to avian biology, little is known about factors that limit flight performance during development. To improve understanding of flight ontogeny, we used a propeller (revolving wing) model to test how wing shape and feather structure influence aerodynamic performance during development in the precocial chukar partridge (Alectoris chukar, 4 to >100 days post hatching). We spun wings in mid-downstroke posture and measured lift (L) and drag (D) using a force plate upon which the propeller assembly was mounted. Our findings demonstrate a clear relationship between feather morphology and aerodynamic performance. Independent of size and velocity, older wings with stiffer and more asymmetrical feathers, high numbers of barbicels and a high degree of overlap between barbules generate greater L and L:D ratios than younger wings with flexible, relatively symmetrical and less cohesive feathers. The gradual transition from immature feathers and drag-based performance to more mature feathers and lift-based performance appears to coincide with ontogenetic transitions in locomotor capacity. Younger birds engage in behaviors that require little aerodynamic force and that allow D to contribute to weight support, whereas older birds may expand their behavioral repertoire by flapping with higher tip velocities and generating greater L. Incipient wings are, therefore, uniquely but immediately functional and provide flight-incapable juveniles with access to three-dimensional environments and refugia. Such access may have conferred selective advantages to theropods with protowings during the evolution of avian flight.

SUBMITTER: Heers AM

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3036546 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Ontogeny of lift and drag production in ground birds.

Heers Ashley M AM Tobalske Bret W BW Dial Kenneth P KP

The Journal of experimental biology 20110301 Pt 5

The juvenile period is often a crucial interval for selective pressure on locomotor ability. Although flight is central to avian biology, little is known about factors that limit flight performance during development. To improve understanding of flight ontogeny, we used a propeller (revolving wing) model to test how wing shape and feather structure influence aerodynamic performance during development in the precocial chukar partridge (Alectoris chukar, 4 to >100 days post hatching). We spun wing ...[more]

PMID: 21307057

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Project description:The habitat selection choices that individuals make in response to thermal environments influence both survival and reproduction. Importantly, the way that organisms behaviorally respond to thermal environments depends on the availability and juxtaposition of sites affording tolerable or preferred microclimates. Although, ground nesting birds are especially susceptible to heat extremes across many reproductive stages (i.e., breeding, nesting, brood rearing), the mechanistic drivers of nest site selection for these species are not well established from a thermal perspective. Our goal was to assess nest site selection relative to the configuration of the thermal landscape by quantifying thermal environments available to a ground-nesting bird species inhabiting a climatically stressful environment. Using northern bobwhite (Colinus virginanus) as a model species, we measured black bulb temperature (Tbb) and vegetation parameters at 87 nests, 87 paired sites and 205 random landscape sites in Western Oklahoma during spring and summer 2013 and 2014. We found that thermal space within the study area exhibited differences in Tbb of up to 40°C during peak diurnal heating, resulting in a diverse thermal landscape available to ground-nesting birds. Within this thermally heterogeneous landscape, nest sites moderated Tbb by more than 12°C compared to random landscape sites. Furthermore, successful nests remained on average 6°C cooler than unsuccessful nests on days experiencing ambient temperatures ? 39°C. Models of future Tbb associated with 2080 climate change projections indicate that nesting bobwhites will face substantially greater Tbb throughout the landscape for longer durations, placing an even greater importance on thermal choices for nest sites in the future. These results highlight the capacity of landscape features to act as moderators of thermal extremes and demonstrate how thermal complexity at organism-specific scales can dictate habitat selection.

Dataset Information

Ontogeny of lift and drag production in ground birds.

Publications

Ontogeny of lift and drag production in ground birds.

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