Conversion efficiency of flight power is low, but increases with flight speed in the migratory bat Pipistrellus nathusii
The efficiency with which flying animals convert metabolic power to mechanical power dictates an individual's flight behaviour and energy requirements. Despite the significance of this parameter, we lack empirical data on conversion efficiency for most species as in vivo measurements are notori...
Published in: | Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , , , , |
Format: | Text |
Language: | English |
Published: |
The Royal Society
2023
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10154928/ https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2023.0045 |
id |
ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:10154928 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:10154928 2023-06-11T04:16:02+02:00 Conversion efficiency of flight power is low, but increases with flight speed in the migratory bat Pipistrellus nathusii Currie, Shannon E. Johansson, L. Christoffer Aumont, Cedric Voigt, Christian C. Hedenström, Anders 2023-05-10 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10154928/ https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2023.0045 en eng The Royal Society http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10154928/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2023.0045 © 2023 The Authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited. Proc Biol Sci Development and Physiology Text 2023 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2023.0045 2023-05-07T01:22:53Z The efficiency with which flying animals convert metabolic power to mechanical power dictates an individual's flight behaviour and energy requirements. Despite the significance of this parameter, we lack empirical data on conversion efficiency for most species as in vivo measurements are notoriously difficult to obtain. Furthermore, conversion efficiency is often assumed to be constant across flight speeds, even though the components driving flight power are speed-dependent. We show, through direct measurements of metabolic and aerodynamic power, that conversion efficiency in the migratory bat (Pipistrellus nathusii) increases from 7.0 to 10.4% with flight speed. Our findings suggest that peak conversion efficiency in this species occurs near maximum range speed, where the cost of transport is minimized. A meta-analysis of 16 bird and 8 bat species revealed a positive scaling relationship between estimated conversion efficiency and body mass, with no discernible differences between bats and birds. This has profound consequences for modelling flight behaviour as estimates assuming 23% efficiency underestimate metabolic costs for P. nathusii by almost 50% on average (36–62%). Our findings suggest that conversion efficiency may vary around an ecologically relevant optimum speed and provide a crucial baseline for investigating whether this drives variation in conversion efficiency between species. Text Pipistrellus nathusii PubMed Central (PMC) Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 290 1998 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
PubMed Central (PMC) |
op_collection_id |
ftpubmed |
language |
English |
topic |
Development and Physiology |
spellingShingle |
Development and Physiology Currie, Shannon E. Johansson, L. Christoffer Aumont, Cedric Voigt, Christian C. Hedenström, Anders Conversion efficiency of flight power is low, but increases with flight speed in the migratory bat Pipistrellus nathusii |
topic_facet |
Development and Physiology |
description |
The efficiency with which flying animals convert metabolic power to mechanical power dictates an individual's flight behaviour and energy requirements. Despite the significance of this parameter, we lack empirical data on conversion efficiency for most species as in vivo measurements are notoriously difficult to obtain. Furthermore, conversion efficiency is often assumed to be constant across flight speeds, even though the components driving flight power are speed-dependent. We show, through direct measurements of metabolic and aerodynamic power, that conversion efficiency in the migratory bat (Pipistrellus nathusii) increases from 7.0 to 10.4% with flight speed. Our findings suggest that peak conversion efficiency in this species occurs near maximum range speed, where the cost of transport is minimized. A meta-analysis of 16 bird and 8 bat species revealed a positive scaling relationship between estimated conversion efficiency and body mass, with no discernible differences between bats and birds. This has profound consequences for modelling flight behaviour as estimates assuming 23% efficiency underestimate metabolic costs for P. nathusii by almost 50% on average (36–62%). Our findings suggest that conversion efficiency may vary around an ecologically relevant optimum speed and provide a crucial baseline for investigating whether this drives variation in conversion efficiency between species. |
format |
Text |
author |
Currie, Shannon E. Johansson, L. Christoffer Aumont, Cedric Voigt, Christian C. Hedenström, Anders |
author_facet |
Currie, Shannon E. Johansson, L. Christoffer Aumont, Cedric Voigt, Christian C. Hedenström, Anders |
author_sort |
Currie, Shannon E. |
title |
Conversion efficiency of flight power is low, but increases with flight speed in the migratory bat Pipistrellus nathusii |
title_short |
Conversion efficiency of flight power is low, but increases with flight speed in the migratory bat Pipistrellus nathusii |
title_full |
Conversion efficiency of flight power is low, but increases with flight speed in the migratory bat Pipistrellus nathusii |
title_fullStr |
Conversion efficiency of flight power is low, but increases with flight speed in the migratory bat Pipistrellus nathusii |
title_full_unstemmed |
Conversion efficiency of flight power is low, but increases with flight speed in the migratory bat Pipistrellus nathusii |
title_sort |
conversion efficiency of flight power is low, but increases with flight speed in the migratory bat pipistrellus nathusii |
publisher |
The Royal Society |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10154928/ https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2023.0045 |
genre |
Pipistrellus nathusii |
genre_facet |
Pipistrellus nathusii |
op_source |
Proc Biol Sci |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10154928/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2023.0045 |
op_rights |
© 2023 The Authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited. |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2023.0045 |
container_title |
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences |
container_volume |
290 |
container_issue |
1998 |
_version_ |
1768373392280387584 |