Moving in a Moving Medium: New Perspectives on Flight

Overview

Journal Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci

Specialty Biology

Date 2016 Aug 17

PMID 27528772

Citations 12

Authors

Emily L C Shepard

Andrew N Ross

Steven J Portugal

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

One of the defining features of the aerial environment is its variability; air is almost never still. This has profound consequences for flying animals, affecting their flight stability, speed selection, energy expenditure and choice of flight path. All these factors have important implications for the ecology of flying animals, and the ecosystems they interact with, as well as providing bio-inspiration for the development of unmanned aerial vehicles. In this introduction, we touch on the factors that drive the variability in airflows, the scales of variability and the degree to which given airflows may be predictable. We then summarize how papers in this volume advance our understanding of the sensory, biomechanical, physiological and behavioural responses of animals to air flows. Overall, this provides insight into how flying animals can be so successful in this most fickle of environments.This article is part of the themed issue 'Moving in a moving medium: new perspectives on flight'.

Citing Articles

A three-dimensional model of terrain-induced updrafts for movement ecology studies.

Thedin R, Brandes D, Quon E, Sandhu R, Tripp C Mov Ecol. 2024; 12(1):25.

PMID: 38549152 PMC: 10976793. DOI: 10.1186/s40462-024-00457-x.

Bumblebees compensate for the adverse effects of sidewind during visually guided landings.

Goyal P, van Leeuwen J, Muijres F J Exp Biol. 2024; 227(8).

PMID: 38506223 PMC: 11112349. DOI: 10.1242/jeb.245432.

Compensation for wind drift during raptor migration improves with age through mortality selection.

Sergio F, Barbosa J, Tanferna A, Silva R, Blas J, Hiraldo F Nat Ecol Evol. 2022; 6(7):989-997.

PMID: 35680999 DOI: 10.1038/s41559-022-01776-1.

Physical limits of flight performance in the heaviest soaring bird.

Williams H, Shepard E, Holton M, Alarcon P, Wilson R, Lambertucci S Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2020; 117(30):17884-17890.

PMID: 32661147 PMC: 7395523. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1907360117.

Wind prevents cliff-breeding birds from accessing nests through loss of flight control.

Shepard E, Cole E, Neate A, Lempidakis E, Ross A Elife. 2019; 8.

PMID: 31188128 PMC: 6561702. DOI: 10.7554/eLife.43842.

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