Airflow modelling predicts seabird breeding habitat across islands
Wind is fundamentally related to shelter and flight performance: two factors that are critical for birds at their nest sites. Despite this, airflows have never been fully integrated into models of breeding habitat selection, even for well-studied seabirds. Here, we use computational fluid dynamics t...
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ftleedsuniv:oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:180730 2023-05-15T18:41:31+02:00 Airflow modelling predicts seabird breeding habitat across islands Lempidakis, E Ross, AN Borger, L Shepard, ELC 2021-11-21 text https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/180730/ https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/180730/1/ecog.05733.pdf en eng Wiley https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/180730/1/ecog.05733.pdf Lempidakis, E, Ross, AN orcid.org/0000-0002-8631-3512 , Borger, L et al. (1 more author) (2021) Airflow modelling predicts seabird breeding habitat across islands. Ecography: pattern and diversity in ecology. ISSN 0906-7590 cc_by_3 CC-BY Article NonPeerReviewed 2021 ftleedsuniv 2023-01-30T22:42:51Z Wind is fundamentally related to shelter and flight performance: two factors that are critical for birds at their nest sites. Despite this, airflows have never been fully integrated into models of breeding habitat selection, even for well-studied seabirds. Here, we use computational fluid dynamics to provide the first assessment of whether flow characteristics (including wind speed and turbulence) predict the distribution of seabird colonies, taking common guillemots Uria aalge breeding on Skomer Island as our study system. This demonstrates that occupancy is driven by the need to shelter from both wind and rain/wave action, rather than airflow characteristics alone. Models of airflows and cliff orientation both performed well in predicting high-quality habitat in our study site, identifying 80% of colonies and 93% of avoided sites, as well as 73% of the largest colonies on a neighbouring island. This suggests generality in the mechanisms driving breeding distributions and provides an approach for identifying habitat for seabird reintroductions considering current and projected wind speeds and directions. Article in Journal/Newspaper Uria aalge uria White Rose Research Online (Universities of Leeds, Sheffield & York) |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
White Rose Research Online (Universities of Leeds, Sheffield & York) |
op_collection_id |
ftleedsuniv |
language |
English |
description |
Wind is fundamentally related to shelter and flight performance: two factors that are critical for birds at their nest sites. Despite this, airflows have never been fully integrated into models of breeding habitat selection, even for well-studied seabirds. Here, we use computational fluid dynamics to provide the first assessment of whether flow characteristics (including wind speed and turbulence) predict the distribution of seabird colonies, taking common guillemots Uria aalge breeding on Skomer Island as our study system. This demonstrates that occupancy is driven by the need to shelter from both wind and rain/wave action, rather than airflow characteristics alone. Models of airflows and cliff orientation both performed well in predicting high-quality habitat in our study site, identifying 80% of colonies and 93% of avoided sites, as well as 73% of the largest colonies on a neighbouring island. This suggests generality in the mechanisms driving breeding distributions and provides an approach for identifying habitat for seabird reintroductions considering current and projected wind speeds and directions. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Lempidakis, E Ross, AN Borger, L Shepard, ELC |
spellingShingle |
Lempidakis, E Ross, AN Borger, L Shepard, ELC Airflow modelling predicts seabird breeding habitat across islands |
author_facet |
Lempidakis, E Ross, AN Borger, L Shepard, ELC |
author_sort |
Lempidakis, E |
title |
Airflow modelling predicts seabird breeding habitat across islands |
title_short |
Airflow modelling predicts seabird breeding habitat across islands |
title_full |
Airflow modelling predicts seabird breeding habitat across islands |
title_fullStr |
Airflow modelling predicts seabird breeding habitat across islands |
title_full_unstemmed |
Airflow modelling predicts seabird breeding habitat across islands |
title_sort |
airflow modelling predicts seabird breeding habitat across islands |
publisher |
Wiley |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/180730/ https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/180730/1/ecog.05733.pdf |
genre |
Uria aalge uria |
genre_facet |
Uria aalge uria |
op_relation |
https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/180730/1/ecog.05733.pdf Lempidakis, E, Ross, AN orcid.org/0000-0002-8631-3512 , Borger, L et al. (1 more author) (2021) Airflow modelling predicts seabird breeding habitat across islands. Ecography: pattern and diversity in ecology. ISSN 0906-7590 |
op_rights |
cc_by_3 |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
_version_ |
1766231054654373888 |