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"Cooper, Jeff"
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Flight response of slope-soaring birds to seasonal variation in thermal generation
Summary
Animals respond to a variety of environmental cues, including weather conditions, when migrating. Understanding the relationship between weather and migration behaviour is vital to assessing time‐ and energy limitations of soaring birds. Different soaring modes have different efficiencies, are dependent upon different types of subsidized lift and are weather dependent.
We collected GPS locations from 47 known‐age golden eagles that moved along 83 migration tracks. We paired each location with weather to determine meteorological correlates of migration during spring and fall as birds crossed three distinct ecoregions in north‐east North America.
Golden eagle migration was associated with weather conditions that promoted thermal development, regardless of season, ecoregion or age. Eagle migration showed age‐ and season‐specific responses to weather conditions that promoted orographic lift.
In spring, adult eagles migrated earlier, over fewer days, and under more variable weather conditions than did pre‐adults, suggesting that adults were time limited and pre‐adults made choices to conserve energy. In fall, we found no difference in the time span of migration or when each age class migrates; however, we saw evidence that pre‐adults were less efficient migrants than adults.
The decision by soaring birds to migrate when thermals developed allowed individuals to manage trade‐offs between migratory speed and migratory efficiency. When time was limited (i.e. spring movement of adults speeding towards nesting territories), use of whatever lift was available decreased the time span of migration. When migration was not time limited (e.g. spring movements by pre‐adults, all movements in fall), eagles avoided suboptimal flight conditions by pausing migration, thus increasing the time span of migration while reducing energetic costs.
Lay Summary
Journal Article
Experiential, autonomic, and neural responses during threat anticipation vary as a function of threat intensity and neuroticism
Anticipatory emotional responses play a crucial role in preparing individuals for impending challenges. They do this by triggering a coordinated set of changes in behavioral, autonomic, and neural response systems. In the present study, we examined the biobehavioral impact of varying levels of anticipatory anxiety, using a shock anticipation task in which unpredictable electric shocks were threatened and delivered to the wrist at variable intervals and intensities (safe, medium, strong). This permitted investigation of a dynamic range of anticipatory anxiety responses. In two studies, 95 and 51 healthy female participants, respectively, underwent this shock anticipation task while providing continuous ratings of anxiety experience and electrodermal responding (Study 1) and during fMRI BOLD neuroimaging (Study 2). Results indicated a step-wise pattern of responding in anxiety experience and electrodermal responses. Several brain regions showed robust responses to shock anticipation relative to safe trials, including the hypothalamus, periaqueductal gray, caudate, precentral gyrus, thalamus, insula, ventrolateral PFC, dorsomedial PFC, and ACC. A subset of these regions demonstrated a linear pattern of increased responding from safe to medium to strong trials, including the bilateral insula, ACC, and inferior frontal gyrus. These responses were modulated by individual differences in neuroticism, such that those high in neuroticism showed exaggerated anxiety experience across the entire task, and reduced brain activation from medium to strong trials in a subset of brain regions. These findings suggest that individual differences in neuroticism may influence sensitivity to anticipatory threat and provide new insights into the mechanism through which neuroticism may confer risk for developing anxiety disorders via dysregulated anticipatory responses.
► A shock anticipation task was designed to maximally drive anticipatory anxiety. ► Results indicated a clear dose–response pattern across multiple emotion “output” channels. ► Specifically, increased anxiety experience, SCR, and brain activation. ► High neuroticism was related to increased anxiety and decreased brain activation. ► Neuroticism related risk for developing anxiety disorders via dysregulated anticipatory responses.
Journal Article
Testing an Emerging Paradigm in Migration Ecology Shows Surprising Differences in Efficiency between Flight Modes
To maximize fitness, flying animals should maximize flight speed while minimizing energetic expenditure. Soaring speeds of large-bodied birds are determined by flight routes and tradeoffs between minimizing time and energetic costs. Large raptors migrating in eastern North America predominantly glide between thermals that provide lift or soar along slopes or ridgelines using orographic lift (slope soaring). It is usually assumed that slope soaring is faster than thermal gliding because forward progress is constant compared to interrupted progress when birds pause to regain altitude in thermals. We tested this slope-soaring hypothesis using high-frequency GPS-GSM telemetry devices to track golden eagles during northbound migration. In contrast to expectations, flight speed was slower when slope soaring and eagles also were diverted from their migratory path, incurring possible energetic costs and reducing speed of progress towards a migratory endpoint. When gliding between thermals, eagles stayed on track and fast gliding speeds compensated for lack of progress during thermal soaring. When thermals were not available, eagles minimized migration time, not energy, by choosing energetically expensive slope soaring instead of waiting for thermals to develop. Sites suited to slope soaring include ridges preferred for wind-energy generation, thus avian risk of collision with wind turbines is associated with evolutionary trade-offs required to maximize fitness of time-minimizing migratory raptors.
Journal Article
Implications for Bird Aircraft Strike Hazard by Bald Eagles
Bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) aircraft strikes have increased since 1998 because their populations have recovered to near historical sizes. Their attraction to airfields and their large body size makes them a danger to aircraft and therefore important to airfield managers. However, bald eagle management is complicated by their special protected status and the place they hold in the eyes of the public. To help airfield managers plan monitoring efforts and make informed management decisions, we studied the movements of 32 bald eagles telemetered as nestlings in the Chesapeake Bay, Virginia, USA, 2013–2018. Managers often need to know when fledged eagles are most likely to move enough to encounter airfields near nests. As fledglings aged, they moved progressively farther from the nest and spent more time away from the nest. Twenty-eight days after fledging, eagles spent most of the day (81 ± 10% [95% CI]) near the nest (<500 m) and only 7 ± 7% of the daytime away from the nest (>1 km). By day 55 fledglings ventured beyond 2.5 km from the nest and spent 32 ± 15% the day >1 km away from their nest. Distances moved, however, were influenced by proximity of the nest to water, the salinity of that water, and human population density. Eagles left their natal nests and generally migrated out of the Chesapeake Bay 60.5 ± 7.7 days (4 Aug) after fledging and returned to the Chesapeake Bay approximately 220 days later (Mar–Apr). Eighty-four percent (27 of 32) of the eagles that we tracked encountered 164 airfields across the east coast with 91% of those airfields located within 10 km of the Chesapeake Bay. Encounters with airfields outside the Chesapeake Bay occurred mainly during the first 1.5 years of life, peaking in late fall and early spring. We recorded eagles on Chesapeake Bay airfields during each year, but encounters peaked in April of the first year of the bird’s life. April coincides with the height of reported strikes of eagles by aircraft in the region. Our results suggest that eagles fledging from the Chesapeake Bay are an issue for airports near the Chesapeake Bay and for airports across the east coast. Given the continued growth of the population, this issue is likely to continue and grow in significance.
Journal Article
Use of Lateral Flow Immunoassay to Characterize SARS-CoV-2 RBD-Specific Antibodies and Their Ability to React with the UK, SA and BR P.1 Variant RBDs
Identifying anti-spike antibodies that exhibit strong neutralizing activity against current dominant circulating variants, and antibodies that are escaped by these variants, has important implications in the development of therapeutic and diagnostic solutions and in improving understanding of the humoral response to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. We characterized seven anti-SARS-CoV-2 receptor binding domain (RBD) antibodies for binding activity, pairing capability, and neutralization activity to SARS-CoV-2 and three variant RBDs via lateral flow immunoassays. The results allowed us to group these antibodies into three distinct epitope bins. Our studies showed that two antibodies had broadly potent neutralizing activity against SARS-CoV-2 and these variant RBDs and that one antibody did not neutralize the South African (SA) and Brazilian P.1 (BR P.1) RBDs. The antibody escaped by the SA and BR P.1 RBDs retained binding activity to SA and BR P.1 RBDs but was unable to induce neutralization. We demonstrated that lateral flow immunoassay could be a rapid and effective tool for antibody characterization, including epitope classification and antibody neutralization kinetics. The potential contributions of the mutations (N501Y, E484K, and K417N/T) contained in these variants’ RBDs to the antibody pairing capability, neutralization activity, and therapeutic antibody targeting strategy are discussed.
Journal Article
Stable hydrogen isotopes identify leapfrog migration, degree of connectivity, and summer distribution of Golden Eagles in eastern North America
Knowledge of the distribution and movements of populations of migratory birds is useful for the effective conservation and management of biodiversity. However, such information is often unavailable because of the difficulty of tracking sufficient numbers of individuals. We used more easily obtained feather stable hydrogen isotope ratios (δ2H) to predict the summer grounds of the small, threatened, and migratory population of Golden Eagles (Aquila chrysaetos) in eastern North America. We then identified summer locations and the extent of migratory connectivity for this population. We collected δ2H (δ2Hf), stable carbon isotope (δ13C), and stable nitrogen isotope (δ15N) data from the body feathers of 47 juvenile, subadult, and adult Golden Eagles. Values of δ13C and δ15N suggested that all but 2 birds obtained food from terrestrial-based food webs and therefore that δ2H data were appropriate for inferring the geographic region of molt for the majority of birds. There was relatively large interfeather variation in the δ2H values of subadults vs. adults, suggesting that these groups molted at different times and places. The most negative δ2Hf values from birds with known summering grounds exhibited (1) a negative correlation with their summering latitude, and (2) a positive correlation with amount-weighted δ2H values of May–August precipitation at the summer location. These data validate the use of δ2Hf values for inferring the summer locations of Golden Eagles of unknown origin. Likelihood-of-origin maps derived from δ2Hf values revealed that (1) the majority of birds spent the breeding season in central Québec and Labrador, and (2) birds that wintered at southern latitudes, from approximately northern Alabama to southwestern Virginia, migrated about twice the distance of birds that wintered at northern latitudes, from Pennsylvania to New York. We observed a positive relationship between δ2Hf values and the latitude of the wintering location, which, along with the likelihood-of-origin maps, revealed moderate patterns of leapfrog migration and migratory connectivity.
Journal Article
Status, Biology, and Conservation Priorities for North America's Eastern Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) Population
To minimize wildlife-turbine conflict, the USFWS established voluntary National Wind Energy Guidelines (2003) that recommend an Avian or Avian and Bat Protection Plan (ABPP) for compliance with the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. [...]given the historical distribution of Golden Eagles in eastern North America and the potential negative genetic consequences of translocation programs, we recommend that introductions or translocations of western Golden Eagles into states east of the Mississippi be discontinued.
Journal Article
Counting independent sets in triangle-free graphs
Ajtai, Komlós, and Szemerédi proved that for sufficiently large tt every triangle-free graph with nn vertices and average degree tt has an independent set of size at least n100tlogt\\frac {n}{100t}\\log {t}. We extend this by proving that the number of independent sets in such a graph is at least \\[ 212400ntlog2t.2^{\\frac {1}{2400}\\frac {n}{t}\\log ^2{t}}. \\] This result is sharp for infinitely many t,nt,n apart from the constant. An easy consequence of our result is that there exists c′>0c’>0 such that every nn-vertex triangle-free graph has at least \\[ 2c′nlogn2^{c’\\sqrt n \\log n} \\] independent sets. We conjecture that the exponent above can be improved to n(logn)3/2\\sqrt {n}(\\log {n})^{3/2}. This would be sharp by the celebrated result of Kim which shows that the Ramsey number R(3,k)R(3,k) has order of magnitude k2/logkk^2/\\log k.
Journal Article
Key breeding habitats of threatened golden eagles across Eastern Canada identified using a multi-level, multi-scale habitat selection approach
Context
In a conservation context, identifying key habitats suitable for reproduction, foraging, or survival is a useful tool, yet challenging for species with large geographic distributions and/or living in remote regions.
Objectives
The objective of this study is to identify selected habitats at multiple levels and scales of the threatened eastern North American population of golden eagles (
Aquila chrysaetos
). We studied habitat selection at three levels: landscape (second order of selection), foraging (third order of selection), and nesting (fourth order of selection).
Methods
Using tracking data from 30 adults and 366 nest coordinates spanning over a 1.5 million km
2
area in remote boreal and Arctic regions, we modelled the three levels of habitat selection with resource selection functions using seven environmental features (aerial, topographical, and land cover). We then calculated the relative probability of selection in the study area to identify regions with higher probabilities of selection.
Results
Eagles selected more for terrain ruggedness index and relative elevation than land cover (i.e., forest cover, distance to water; mean difference in relative selection strength: 1.2 [0.71; 1.69], 95% CI) at all three levels. We also found that the relative probability of selection at all three levels was ~ 25% higher in the Arctic than in the boreal regions. Eagles breeding in the Arctic travelled shorter foraging distances with greater access to habitat with a high probability of selection than boreal eagles.
Conclusion
Here we found which aerial and topographical features were important for several of the eagles’ life cycle needs. We also identified important areas to monitor and preserve this threatened population. The next step is to quantify the quality of habitat by linking our multi-level, multi-scale approach to population demography and performance such as reproductive success.
Journal Article