The annual cycle of a trans-equatorial Eurasian-African passerine migrant: different spatio-temporal strategies for autumn and spring migration

The small size of the billions of migrating songbirds commuting between temperate breeding sites and the tropics has long prevented the study of the largest part of their annual cycle outside the breeding grounds. Using light-level loggers (geolocators), we recorded the entire annual migratory cycle of the red-backed shrike Lanius collurio, a trans-equatorial Eurasian-African passerine migrant. We tested differences between autumn and spring migration for nine individuals. Duration of migration between breeding and winter sites was significantly longer in autumn (average 96 days) when compared with spring (63 days). This difference was explained by much longer staging periods during autumn (71 days) than spring (9 days). Between staging periods, the birds travelled faster during autumn (356 km d(-1)) than during spring (233 km d(-1)). All birds made a protracted stop (53 days) in Sahelian sub-Sahara on southbound migration. The birds performed a distinct loop migration (22 000 km) where spring distance, including a detour across the Arabian Peninsula, exceeded the autumn distance by 22 per cent. Geographical scatter between routes was particularly narrow in spring, with navigational convergence towards the crossing point from Africa to the Arabian Peninsula. Temporal variation between individuals was relatively constant, while different individuals tended to be consistently early or late at different departure/arrival occasions during the annual cycle. These results demonstrate the existence of fundamentally different spatio-temporal migration strategies used by the birds during autumn and spring migration, and that songbirds may rely on distinct staging areas for completion of their annual cycle, suggesting more sophisticated endogenous control mechanisms than merely clock-and-compass guidance among terrestrial solitary migrants. After a century with metal-ringing, year-round tracking of long-distance migratory songbirds promises further insights into bird migration.     

Songbird migration across the Sahara: the non-stop hypothesis rejected!

Billions of songbirds breeding in the Western Palaearctic cross the largest desert of the world, the Sahara, twice a year. While crossing Europe, the vast majority use an intermittent flight strategy, i.e. fly at night and rest or feed during the day. However, it was long assumed that they overcome the Sahara in a 40 h non-stop flight. In this study, we observed bird migration with radar in the plain sand desert of the Western Sahara (Mauritania) during autumn and spring migration and revealed a clear prevalence of intermittent migration. Massive departures of songbirds just after sunset independent of site and season suggests strongly that songbirds spent the day in the plain desert. Thus, most songbirds cross the Sahara predominantely by the intermittent flight strategy. Autumn migration took place mainly at low altitudes with high temperatures, its density decreased abruptly before sunrise, followed by very little daytime migration. Migration was highly restricted to night-time and matched perfectly the intermittent flight strategy. However, in spring, when migratory flights occurred at much higher altitudes than in autumn, in cool air, about 17% of the songbird migration occurred during the day. This suggests that flying in high temperatures and turbulent air, as is the case in autumn, may lead to an increase in water and/or energy loss and may prevent songbirds from prolonged flights into the day.     

The role of wind in passerine autumn migration between Europe and Africa

Large ecological barriers such as oceans and deserts have considerablyshaped the migratory strategies of birds. The ecological barriersposed by the Alps, the Mediterranean Sea, and the Sahara seemto prevent most long-distance migrants from flying on a directsouthward course from Europe to Africa. Migratory routes towardsouthwest and southeast prevail. These two flyways differ withrespect to topography, refueling possibilities, and wind conditions.Aiming at a better understanding of the evolution of both flywaysin spite of differing conditions, we studied potential survivalof passerine birds on their first autumn migration from northernEurope to tropical Africa by means of a computer simulation.Considering real wind conditions at 850 mb (approximately 1500m above sea level), the survival rates of birds with southeasterly(SE) migratory directions were much higher than those of birdswith southwesterly (SW) directions. With the possibility tochoose the altitude (from four levels) with the most favorablewind, both SE and SW migrants had similar high survival, butonly with refueling opportunities in northwest (NW) Africa forSW migrants. Our results suggest that the southwestern flywaydepends on the selection of days, but especially altitudes,with favorable wind conditions and on refueling opportunitiesin NW Africa. The SE flyway is privileged by the frequent favorablewind conditions for crossing the eastern Mediterranean Sea andthe Egyptian desert, where refueling sites are almost absent.Both autumn migration routes would be unlikely without windassistance.     

Monoepoxy octadecadienoates and monoepoxy octadecatrienoates 2: mass spectral characterization

Methyl esters of C18 polyunsaturated fatty acids, including gamma-linolenic acid, alpha-linolenic acid and stearidonic acid, were epoxidised using m-chloroperbenzoic acid. Nine monoepoxides were obtained by normal-phase HPLC, identified using LC-MS and NMR, and characterized by NMR spectroscopy and mass spectrometry. This study is focused on structural characterization using LC-MS and LC/APCI/MS/MS. The elution profiles of these monoepoxides in RP-HPLC are determined as 12,13->9,10->6,7-epoxy, 9,10->15,16->12,13-epoxy and 15,16->12,13->9,10-epoxy derivatives of gamma-linolenic, alpha-linolenic and stearidonic acid methyl esters, respectively. The major diagnostic fragmentations in MS/MS identified are postulated to be induced by cleavages of the epoxide ring and alpha-bond cleavage to the epoxy group from [M+H]+ and/or [M+H-MeOH]+.     

Fuelling decisions in migratory birds: geomagnetic cues override the seasonal effect

Recent evaluations of both temporal and spatial precision in bird migration have called for external cues in addition to the inherited programme defining the migratory journey in terms of direction, distance and fuelling behaviour along the route. We used juvenile European robins (Erithacus rubecula) to study whether geomagnetic cues affect fuel deposition in a medium-distance migrant by simulating a migratory journey from southeast Sweden to the wintering area in southern Spain. In the late phase of the onset of autumn migration, robins exposed to the magnetic treatment attained a lower fuel load than control birds exposed to the ambient magnetic field of southeast Sweden. In contrast, robins captured in the early phase of the onset of autumn migration all showed low fuel deposition irrespective of experimental treatment. These results are, as expected, the inverse of what we have found in similar studies in a long-distance migrant, the thrush nightingale (Luscinia luscinia), indicating that the reaction in terms of fuelling behaviour to a simulated southward migration varies depending on the relevance for the species. Furthermore, we suggest that information from the geomagnetic field act as an important external cue overriding the seasonal effect on fuelling behaviour in migratory birds.     

Metabolic products of soluble epoxide hydrolase are essential for monocyte chemotaxis to MCP-1 in vitro and in vivo

Monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1)-induced monocyte chemotaxis is a major event in inflammatory disease. Our prior studies have demonstrated that MCP-1-dependent chemotaxis requires release of arachidonic acid (AA) by activated cytosolic phospholipase A₂ (cPLA₂). Here we investigated the involvement of AA metabolites in chemotaxis. Neither cyclooxygenase nor lipoxygenase pathways were required, whereas pharmacologic inhibitors of both the cytochrome-P450 (CYP) and the soluble epoxide hydrolase (sEH) pathways blocked monocyte chemotaxis to MCP-1. To verify specificity, we demonstrated that the CYP and sEH products epoxyeiscosatrienoic acids (EETs) and dihydroxyeicosatrienoic acids (DHETs), respectively, restored chemotaxis in the presence of the inhibitors, indicating that sEH-derived products are essential for MCP-1-driven chemotaxis. Importantly, DHETs also rescued chemotaxis in cPLA₂-deficient monocytes and monocytes with blocked Erk1/2 activity, because Erk controls cPLA₂ activation. The in vitro findings regarding the involvement of CYP/sEH pathways were further validated in vivo using two complementary approaches measuring MCP-1-dependent chemotaxis in mice. These observations reveal the importance of sEH in MCP-1-regulated monocyte chemotaxis and may explain the observed therapeutic value of sEH inhibitors in treatment of inflammatory diseases, cardiovascular diseases, pain, and even carcinogenesis. Their effectiveness, often attributed to increasing EET levels, is probably influenced by the impairment of DHET formation and inhibition of chemotaxis.     

Feather mites and birds: an interaction mediated by uropygial gland size?

Feather mites (Arachnida: Acari: Astigmata) feed mainly on secretions of the uropygial gland of birds. Here, we use analyses corrected for phylogeny and body size to show that there is a positive correlation between the size of this gland and mite abundance in passerine birds at an interspecific level during the breeding season, suggesting that the gland mediates interactions between mites and birds. As predicted on the basis of hypothesized waterproofing and antibiotic functions of uropygial gland secretions, riparian/marsh bird species had larger glands and higher mite loads than birds living in less mesic terrestrial environments. An unexpected pattern was a steeper relationship between mite load and gland size in migratory birds than in residents. If moderate mite loads are beneficial to a host but high loads detrimental, this could create complex selection regimes in which gland size influences mite load and vice versa. Mites may exert selective pressures on gland size of their hosts that has resulted in smaller glands among migratory bird species, suggesting that smaller glands may have evolved in these birds to attenuate a possible detrimental effect of feather mites when present in large numbers.     

Variable shifts in spring and autumn migration phenology in North American songbirds associated with climate change

Monitoring studies find that the timing of spring bird migration has advanced in recent decades, especially in Europe. Results for autumn migration have been mixed. Using data from Powdermill Nature Reserve, a banding station in western Pennsylvania, USA, we report an analysis of migratory timing in 78 songbird species from 1961 to 2006. Spring migration became significantly earlier over the 46-year period, and autumn migration showed no overall change. There was much variation among species in phenological change, especially in autumn. Change in timing was unrelated to summer range (local vs. northern breeders) or the number of broods per year, but autumn migration became earlier in neotropical migrants and later in short-distance migrants. The migratory period for many species lengthened because late phases of migration remained unchanged or grew later as early phases became earlier. There was a negative correlation between spring and autumn in long-term change, and this caused dramatic adjustments in the amount of time between migrations: the intermigratory periods of 10 species increased or decreased by > 15 days. Year-to-year changes in timing were correlated with local temperature (detrended) and, in autumn, with a regional climate index (detrended North Atlantic Oscillation). These results illustrate a complex and dynamic annual cycle in songbirds, with responses to climate change differing among species and migration seasons.     

Production of dicarboxylic acids from novel unsaturated fatty acids by laccase-catalyzed oxidative cleavage

The establishment of renewable biofuel and chemical production is desirable because of global warming and the exhaustion of petroleum reserves. Sebacic acid (decanedioic acid), the material of 6,10-nylon, is produced from ricinoleic acid, a carbon-neutral material, but the process is not eco-friendly because of its energy requirements. Laccase-catalyzing oxidative cleavage of fatty acid was applied to the production of dicarboxylic acids using hydroxy and oxo fatty acids involved in the saturation metabolism of unsaturated fatty acids in Lactobacillus plantarum as substrates. Hydroxy or oxo fatty acids with a functional group near the carbon–carbon double bond were cleaved at the carbon–carbon double bond, hydroxy group, or carbonyl group by laccase and transformed into dicarboxylic acids. After 8 h, 0.58 mM of sebacic acid was produced from 1.6 mM of 10-oxo-cis-12,cis-15-octadecadienoic acid (αKetoA) with a conversion rate of 35% (mol/mol). This laccase-catalyzed enzymatic process is a promising method to produce dicarboxylic acids from biomass-derived fatty acids.