{"title":"Material Type and Position Determines the Insulative Properties of Simulated Nest Walls","authors":"D. Deeming, J. Griffiths, L. Biddle","doi":"10.13157/arla.67.1.2020.sc7","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Incubation in birds takes place within a nest that is often assumed to confer a degree of thermal insulation. The range, amounts and organisation of materials used to construct nest walls hampers our understanding of the degree to which they provide insulation during incubation. This experimental study used temperature loggers in a model system to test the insulative properties of materials extracted from bird nests to determine: 1) whether differences existed in terms of insulation, and 2) if the position of a material mattered when two materials were tested in combination. Animal-derived materials offered better insulation than plant-derived materials, whether tested singly or in combination. Halving the mass of each material did not affect insulation conferred by the material proximal to the temperature logger. Differing thermal conductivities of the materials in contact with the temperature logger may explain these results. If a bird strategically places an animal-derived material only into a nest cup lining then it may be sufficient to provide good insulation for the whole nest. More research is needed to generate thermal conductivity data for commonly used nest materials to test this idea more rigorously in finite element heat transfer models.—Deeming, D.C., Griffiths, J.D. & Biddle, L.E. (2020). Material type and position determines the insulative properties of simulated nest walls. Ardeola, 67: 127-136.","PeriodicalId":55571,"journal":{"name":"Ardeola-International Journal of Ornithology","volume":"3 1","pages":"127-136"},"PeriodicalIF":1.4000,"publicationDate":"2020-01-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"12","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Ardeola-International Journal of Ornithology","FirstCategoryId":"99","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.13157/arla.67.1.2020.sc7","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"ORNITHOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 12
Abstract
Incubation in birds takes place within a nest that is often assumed to confer a degree of thermal insulation. The range, amounts and organisation of materials used to construct nest walls hampers our understanding of the degree to which they provide insulation during incubation. This experimental study used temperature loggers in a model system to test the insulative properties of materials extracted from bird nests to determine: 1) whether differences existed in terms of insulation, and 2) if the position of a material mattered when two materials were tested in combination. Animal-derived materials offered better insulation than plant-derived materials, whether tested singly or in combination. Halving the mass of each material did not affect insulation conferred by the material proximal to the temperature logger. Differing thermal conductivities of the materials in contact with the temperature logger may explain these results. If a bird strategically places an animal-derived material only into a nest cup lining then it may be sufficient to provide good insulation for the whole nest. More research is needed to generate thermal conductivity data for commonly used nest materials to test this idea more rigorously in finite element heat transfer models.—Deeming, D.C., Griffiths, J.D. & Biddle, L.E. (2020). Material type and position determines the insulative properties of simulated nest walls. Ardeola, 67: 127-136.
期刊介绍:
Ardeola: International Journal of Ornithology is the scientific journal of SEO/BirdLife, the Spanish Ornithological Society. The journal had a regional focus when it was first published, in 1954. Since then, and particular during the past two decades, the journal has expanded its thematic and geographical scope. It is now a fully international forum for research on all aspects of ornithology. We thus welcome studies within the fields of basic biology, ecology, behaviour, conservation and biogeography, especially those arising from hypothesis-based research. Although we have a long publication history of Mediterranean and Neotropical studies, we accept papers on investigations worldwide.
Each volume of Ardeola has two parts, published annually in January and July. The main body of each issue comprises full-length original articles (Papersand Review articles) and shorter notes on methodology or stimulating findings (Short Communications). The publication language is English, with summaries, figure legends and table captions also in Spanish. Ardeolaalso publishes critical Book Reviewsand PhD-Dissertation Summaries; summarising ornithological theses defended in Spain. Finally there are two Spanish-language sections, Ornithological News; summarising significant recent observations of birds in Spain, and Observations of Rare Birds in Spain, the annual reports of the Spanish Rarities Committee.