Optimal orientation in flows: providing a benchmark for animal movement strategies

Animal movements in air and water can be strongly affected by experienced flow. While various flow-orientation strategies have been proposed and observed, their performance in variable flow conditions remains unclear. We apply control theory to establish a benchmark for time-minimizing (optimal) ori...

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Main Authors:	McLaren, James D., Shamoun-Baranes, Judy, Dokter, Adriaan M., Klaassen, Raymond H. G., Bouten, Willem
Format:	Online
Language:	English
Published:	The Royal Society 2014
Online Access:	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4233736/

id	pubmed-4233736
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	pubmed-42337362014-11-24 Optimal orientation in flows: providing a benchmark for animal movement strategies McLaren, James D. Shamoun-Baranes, Judy Dokter, Adriaan M. Klaassen, Raymond H. G. Bouten, Willem Research Articles Animal movements in air and water can be strongly affected by experienced flow. While various flow-orientation strategies have been proposed and observed, their performance in variable flow conditions remains unclear. We apply control theory to establish a benchmark for time-minimizing (optimal) orientation. We then define optimal orientation for movement in steady flow patterns and, using dynamic wind data, for short-distance mass movements of thrushes (Turdus sp.) and 6000 km non-stop migratory flights by great snipes, Gallinago media. Relative to the optimal benchmark, we assess the efficiency (travel speed) and reliability (success rate) of three generic orientation strategies: full compensation for lateral drift, vector orientation (single-heading movement) and goal orientation (continually heading towards the goal). Optimal orientation is characterized by detours to regions of high flow support, especially when flow speeds approach and exceed the animal's self-propelled speed. In strong predictable flow (short distance thrush flights), vector orientation adjusted to flow on departure is nearly optimal, whereas for unpredictable flow (inter-continental snipe flights), only goal orientation was near-optimally reliable and efficient. Optimal orientation provides a benchmark for assessing efficiency of responses to complex flow conditions, thereby offering insight into adaptive flow-orientation across taxa in the light of flow strength, predictability and navigation capacity. The Royal Society 2014-10-06 /pmc/articles/PMC4233736/ /pubmed/25056213 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2014.0588 Text en http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ © 2014 The Authors. Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.
repository_type	Open Access Journal
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	US National Center for Biotechnology Information
building	NCBI PubMed
collection	Online Access
language	English
format	Online
author	McLaren, James D. Shamoun-Baranes, Judy Dokter, Adriaan M. Klaassen, Raymond H. G. Bouten, Willem
spellingShingle	McLaren, James D. Shamoun-Baranes, Judy Dokter, Adriaan M. Klaassen, Raymond H. G. Bouten, Willem Optimal orientation in flows: providing a benchmark for animal movement strategies
author_facet	McLaren, James D. Shamoun-Baranes, Judy Dokter, Adriaan M. Klaassen, Raymond H. G. Bouten, Willem
author_sort	McLaren, James D.
title	Optimal orientation in flows: providing a benchmark for animal movement strategies
title_short	Optimal orientation in flows: providing a benchmark for animal movement strategies
title_full	Optimal orientation in flows: providing a benchmark for animal movement strategies
title_fullStr	Optimal orientation in flows: providing a benchmark for animal movement strategies
title_full_unstemmed	Optimal orientation in flows: providing a benchmark for animal movement strategies
title_sort	optimal orientation in flows: providing a benchmark for animal movement strategies
description	Animal movements in air and water can be strongly affected by experienced flow. While various flow-orientation strategies have been proposed and observed, their performance in variable flow conditions remains unclear. We apply control theory to establish a benchmark for time-minimizing (optimal) orientation. We then define optimal orientation for movement in steady flow patterns and, using dynamic wind data, for short-distance mass movements of thrushes (Turdus sp.) and 6000 km non-stop migratory flights by great snipes, Gallinago media. Relative to the optimal benchmark, we assess the efficiency (travel speed) and reliability (success rate) of three generic orientation strategies: full compensation for lateral drift, vector orientation (single-heading movement) and goal orientation (continually heading towards the goal). Optimal orientation is characterized by detours to regions of high flow support, especially when flow speeds approach and exceed the animal's self-propelled speed. In strong predictable flow (short distance thrush flights), vector orientation adjusted to flow on departure is nearly optimal, whereas for unpredictable flow (inter-continental snipe flights), only goal orientation was near-optimally reliable and efficient. Optimal orientation provides a benchmark for assessing efficiency of responses to complex flow conditions, thereby offering insight into adaptive flow-orientation across taxa in the light of flow strength, predictability and navigation capacity.
publisher	The Royal Society
publishDate	2014
url	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4233736/
_version_	1613157273705644032

Optimal orientation in flows: providing a benchmark for animal movement strategies

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