Avian UV vision enhances leaf surface contrasts in forest environments.
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Tedore C
PROVIDER: S-EPMC6342963 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jan
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Publications
Avian UV vision enhances leaf surface contrasts in forest environments.
Tedore Cynthia C Nilsson Dan-Eric DE
Nature communications 20190122 1
UV vision is prevalent, but we know little about its utility in common general tasks, as in resolving habitat structure. Here we visualize vegetated habitats using a multispectral camera with channels mimicking bird photoreceptor sensitivities across the UV-visible spectrum. We find that the contrast between upper and lower leaf surfaces is higher in a UV channel than in any visible channel, and that this makes leaf position and orientation stand out clearly. This was unexpected since both leaf ...[more]
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