Sensitivity to dimethyl sulphide suggests a mechanism for olfactory navigation by seabirds
Petrels, albatrosses and other procellariiform seabirds have an excellent sense of smell, and routinely navigate over the world's oceans by mechanisms that are not well understood. These birds travel thousands of kilometres to forage on ephemeral prey patches at variable locations, yet they can...
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crroyalsociety:10.1098/rsbl.2005.0350 2024-06-23T07:47:35+00:00 Sensitivity to dimethyl sulphide suggests a mechanism for olfactory navigation by seabirds Nevitt, Gabrielle A Bonadonna, Francesco 2005 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2005.0350 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsbl.2005.0350 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rsbl.2005.0350 en eng The Royal Society https://royalsociety.org/journals/ethics-policies/data-sharing-mining/ Biology Letters volume 1, issue 3, page 303-305 ISSN 1744-9561 1744-957X journal-article 2005 crroyalsociety https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2005.0350 2024-06-04T06:23:04Z Petrels, albatrosses and other procellariiform seabirds have an excellent sense of smell, and routinely navigate over the world's oceans by mechanisms that are not well understood. These birds travel thousands of kilometres to forage on ephemeral prey patches at variable locations, yet they can quickly and efficiently find their way back to their nests on remote islands to provision chicks, even with magnetic senses experimentally disrupted. Over the seemingly featureless ocean environment, local emissions of scents released by phytoplankton reflect bathymetric features such as shelf breaks and seamounts. These features suggest an odour landscape that may provide birds with orientation cues. We have previously shown that concentrated experimental deployments of one such compound, dimethyl sulphide (DMS), attracts procellariiforms at sea, suggesting that some species can use it as a foraging cue. Here we present the first physiological demonstration that an Antarctic seabird can detect DMS at biogenic levels. We further show that birds can use DMS as an orientation cue in a non-foraging context within a concentration range that they might naturally encounter over the ocean. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic The Royal Society Antarctic Biology Letters 1 3 303 305 |
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Open Polar |
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The Royal Society |
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crroyalsociety |
language |
English |
description |
Petrels, albatrosses and other procellariiform seabirds have an excellent sense of smell, and routinely navigate over the world's oceans by mechanisms that are not well understood. These birds travel thousands of kilometres to forage on ephemeral prey patches at variable locations, yet they can quickly and efficiently find their way back to their nests on remote islands to provision chicks, even with magnetic senses experimentally disrupted. Over the seemingly featureless ocean environment, local emissions of scents released by phytoplankton reflect bathymetric features such as shelf breaks and seamounts. These features suggest an odour landscape that may provide birds with orientation cues. We have previously shown that concentrated experimental deployments of one such compound, dimethyl sulphide (DMS), attracts procellariiforms at sea, suggesting that some species can use it as a foraging cue. Here we present the first physiological demonstration that an Antarctic seabird can detect DMS at biogenic levels. We further show that birds can use DMS as an orientation cue in a non-foraging context within a concentration range that they might naturally encounter over the ocean. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Nevitt, Gabrielle A Bonadonna, Francesco |
spellingShingle |
Nevitt, Gabrielle A Bonadonna, Francesco Sensitivity to dimethyl sulphide suggests a mechanism for olfactory navigation by seabirds |
author_facet |
Nevitt, Gabrielle A Bonadonna, Francesco |
author_sort |
Nevitt, Gabrielle A |
title |
Sensitivity to dimethyl sulphide suggests a mechanism for olfactory navigation by seabirds |
title_short |
Sensitivity to dimethyl sulphide suggests a mechanism for olfactory navigation by seabirds |
title_full |
Sensitivity to dimethyl sulphide suggests a mechanism for olfactory navigation by seabirds |
title_fullStr |
Sensitivity to dimethyl sulphide suggests a mechanism for olfactory navigation by seabirds |
title_full_unstemmed |
Sensitivity to dimethyl sulphide suggests a mechanism for olfactory navigation by seabirds |
title_sort |
sensitivity to dimethyl sulphide suggests a mechanism for olfactory navigation by seabirds |
publisher |
The Royal Society |
publishDate |
2005 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2005.0350 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsbl.2005.0350 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rsbl.2005.0350 |
geographic |
Antarctic |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic |
op_source |
Biology Letters volume 1, issue 3, page 303-305 ISSN 1744-9561 1744-957X |
op_rights |
https://royalsociety.org/journals/ethics-policies/data-sharing-mining/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2005.0350 |
container_title |
Biology Letters |
container_volume |
1 |
container_issue |
3 |
container_start_page |
303 |
op_container_end_page |
305 |
_version_ |
1802651710779293696 |