What can seabirds tell us about the tide?
Small global positioning system (GPS) trackers are now routinely used to study the movement and behaviour of birds at sea. If the birds rest on the water they become “drifters of opportunity” and can be used to give information about surface currents. In this paper, we use a small data set from sate...
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Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.5194/os-14-1483-2018 https://doaj.org/article/a5c1b408323349fbbfaeabe568b706a1 |
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:a5c1b408323349fbbfaeabe568b706a1 2023-05-15T13:12:17+02:00 What can seabirds tell us about the tide? M. Cooper C. Bishop M. Lewis D. Bowers M. Bolton E. Owen S. Dodd 2018-11-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.5194/os-14-1483-2018 https://doaj.org/article/a5c1b408323349fbbfaeabe568b706a1 EN eng Copernicus Publications https://www.ocean-sci.net/14/1483/2018/os-14-1483-2018.pdf https://doaj.org/toc/1812-0784 https://doaj.org/toc/1812-0792 doi:10.5194/os-14-1483-2018 1812-0784 1812-0792 https://doaj.org/article/a5c1b408323349fbbfaeabe568b706a1 Ocean Science, Vol 14, Pp 1483-1490 (2018) Geography. Anthropology. Recreation G Environmental sciences GE1-350 article 2018 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.5194/os-14-1483-2018 2022-12-31T14:36:22Z Small global positioning system (GPS) trackers are now routinely used to study the movement and behaviour of birds at sea. If the birds rest on the water they become “drifters of opportunity” and can be used to give information about surface currents. In this paper, we use a small data set from satellite-tracked razorbills ( Alca torda ) in the Irish Sea to test the potential of this idea for measuring tidal currents. Razorbills regularly rest on the sea overnight and their tracks at this time are consistent with their drifting with the tidal flows and changing direction as the flood turns to ebb and vice versa. Data from 4 years (2011–2014) have been binned in a geographical grid and analysed to give the variation of current over a mean tidal cycle in each grid element. A map of maximum current speed is consistent with a numerical model of the tidal currents in the region. The root mean square difference between observed maximum speed and that predicted by the model is 0.15 m s −1 , about 15 % of typical current speeds in the area. The divergence between bird-track speed and model prediction increases in regions of the fastest tidal currents. The method clearly has its limitations, but the results of this study show that tagged birds resting on the sea have potential to provide relatively inexpensive quantitative information about surface tidal currents over an extended geographical area. Article in Journal/Newspaper Alca torda Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Ocean Science 14 6 1483 1490 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Geography. Anthropology. Recreation G Environmental sciences GE1-350 |
spellingShingle |
Geography. Anthropology. Recreation G Environmental sciences GE1-350 M. Cooper C. Bishop M. Lewis D. Bowers M. Bolton E. Owen S. Dodd What can seabirds tell us about the tide? |
topic_facet |
Geography. Anthropology. Recreation G Environmental sciences GE1-350 |
description |
Small global positioning system (GPS) trackers are now routinely used to study the movement and behaviour of birds at sea. If the birds rest on the water they become “drifters of opportunity” and can be used to give information about surface currents. In this paper, we use a small data set from satellite-tracked razorbills ( Alca torda ) in the Irish Sea to test the potential of this idea for measuring tidal currents. Razorbills regularly rest on the sea overnight and their tracks at this time are consistent with their drifting with the tidal flows and changing direction as the flood turns to ebb and vice versa. Data from 4 years (2011–2014) have been binned in a geographical grid and analysed to give the variation of current over a mean tidal cycle in each grid element. A map of maximum current speed is consistent with a numerical model of the tidal currents in the region. The root mean square difference between observed maximum speed and that predicted by the model is 0.15 m s −1 , about 15 % of typical current speeds in the area. The divergence between bird-track speed and model prediction increases in regions of the fastest tidal currents. The method clearly has its limitations, but the results of this study show that tagged birds resting on the sea have potential to provide relatively inexpensive quantitative information about surface tidal currents over an extended geographical area. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
M. Cooper C. Bishop M. Lewis D. Bowers M. Bolton E. Owen S. Dodd |
author_facet |
M. Cooper C. Bishop M. Lewis D. Bowers M. Bolton E. Owen S. Dodd |
author_sort |
M. Cooper |
title |
What can seabirds tell us about the tide? |
title_short |
What can seabirds tell us about the tide? |
title_full |
What can seabirds tell us about the tide? |
title_fullStr |
What can seabirds tell us about the tide? |
title_full_unstemmed |
What can seabirds tell us about the tide? |
title_sort |
what can seabirds tell us about the tide? |
publisher |
Copernicus Publications |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/os-14-1483-2018 https://doaj.org/article/a5c1b408323349fbbfaeabe568b706a1 |
genre |
Alca torda |
genre_facet |
Alca torda |
op_source |
Ocean Science, Vol 14, Pp 1483-1490 (2018) |
op_relation |
https://www.ocean-sci.net/14/1483/2018/os-14-1483-2018.pdf https://doaj.org/toc/1812-0784 https://doaj.org/toc/1812-0792 doi:10.5194/os-14-1483-2018 1812-0784 1812-0792 https://doaj.org/article/a5c1b408323349fbbfaeabe568b706a1 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/os-14-1483-2018 |
container_title |
Ocean Science |
container_volume |
14 |
container_issue |
6 |
container_start_page |
1483 |
op_container_end_page |
1490 |
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1766251217730666496 |