Spatial gradients in ratios of atmospheric trace gases : a study stimulated by experiments on bird navigation

IF 2.3 4区地球科学 Q3 METEOROLOGY & ATMOSPHERIC SCIENCES

Tellus Series B-Chemical and Physical Meteorology Pub Date : 2000-09-01 DOI:10.1034/J.1600-0889.2000.00099.X

H. G. Wallraff, M. Andreae

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引用次数: 65

Abstract

Numerous experiments with homing pigeons and other birds strongly suggest that birds displaced to unfamiliar remote areas are able to determine their position relative to home by deducing relevant information from atmospheric trace gases perceived by olfaction. These findings induced the hypothesis that ratios between several airborne compounds show roughly monotonic spatial gradients, differently in different directions, over distances of some hundreds of kilometres. To test this hypothesis, 192 air samples were collected, successively in 3 summers, at 96 sites regularly distributed over an area covering a radius of 200 km around Wurzburg, Germany. Statistical analysis of the gas chromatographic measurements on these samples revealed that such gradients in the ratios between a number of omnipresent hydrocarbons do in fact exist. The gradients are noisy, but not beyond the range that is compatible with the homing behaviour of pigeons which is noisy as well. The directions of the gradients are remarkably robust against changes of weather, especially of winds. Winds, however, shift the levels of ratios in the whole area without dramatically changing the directional relationships. A systematic angular correlation between variations in space and variations caused by winds could theoretically be utilized by birds for navigational purposes. Our analysis dealt mainly with the most abundant anthropogenic hydrocarbons, which are the best-suited tracers to detect spatio-temporal distribution patterns. It is very likely that equivalent patterns exist in naturally emitted volatile compounds as well, given that they are subject to similar variability in the distribution of sources and sinks and similar transport patterns. DOI: 10.1034/j.1600-0889.2000.00099.x

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大气中微量气体比例的空间梯度:一项由鸟类导航实验激发的研究

对信鸽和其他鸟类进行的大量实验强烈表明，迁徙到不熟悉的偏远地区的鸟类能够通过嗅觉从大气中感知到的微量气体中推断出相关信息，从而确定它们相对于家园的位置。这些发现引发了一种假设，即在数百公里的距离内，几种空气中化合物之间的比率大致呈现单调的空间梯度，在不同方向上有所不同。为了验证这一假设，在三个夏季，在德国维尔茨堡周围200公里半径范围内规律分布的96个地点，连续收集了192份空气样本。对这些样品进行气相色谱测量的统计分析表明，在许多无处不在的碳氢化合物之间的比率中确实存在这种梯度。这些梯度是嘈杂的，但没有超出与鸽子的归巢行为相适应的范围，鸽子的归巢行为也很嘈杂。坡度的方向对天气的变化，尤其是风的变化具有很强的抵抗力。然而，风会改变整个地区的比率水平，而不会显著改变方向关系。空间变化与风引起的变化之间的系统角度相关性理论上可以被鸟类用于导航目的。我们的分析主要涉及最丰富的人为碳氢化合物，它们是检测时空分布模式的最合适的示踪剂。很可能在自然排放的挥发性化合物中也存在类似的模式，因为它们在源和汇的分布以及类似的运输模式方面也有类似的变化。DOI: 10.1034 / j.1600-0889.2000.00099.x

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来源期刊

Tellus Series B-Chemical and Physical Meteorology 地学-气象与大气科学

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期刊介绍： Tellus B: Chemical and Physical Meteorology along with its sister journal Tellus A: Dynamic Meteorology and Oceanography, are the international, peer-reviewed journals of the International Meteorological Institute in Stockholm, an independent non-for-profit body integrated into the Department of Meteorology at the Faculty of Sciences of Stockholm University, Sweden. Aiming to promote the exchange of knowledge about meteorology from across a range of scientific sub-disciplines, the two journals serve an international community of researchers, policy makers, managers, media and the general public.