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ABSTRACT Foraging insects fly over long distances through complex aerial environments, and many can maintain constant ground speeds in wind, allowing them to gauge flight distance. Although insects encounter winds from all directions in the wild, most lab-based studies have employed still air or headwinds (i.e. upwind flight); additionally, insects are typically compelled to fly in a single, fixed environment, so we know little about their preferences for different flight conditions. We used automated video collection and analysis methods and a two-choice flight tunnel paradigm to examine thousands of foraging flights performed by hundreds of bumblebees flying upwind and downwind. In contrast to the preference for flying with a tailwind (i.e. downwind) displayed by migrating insects, we found that bees prefer to fly upwind. Bees maintained constant ground speeds when flying upwind or downwind in flow velocities from 0 to 2 m s−1 by adjusting their body angle, pitching down to raise their air speed above flow velocity when flying upwind, and pitching up to slow down to negative air speeds (flying backwards relative to the flow) when flying downwind. Bees flying downwind displayed higher variability in body angle, air speed and ground speed. Taken together, bees' preference for upwind flight and their increased kinematic variability when flying downwind suggest that tailwinds may impose a significant, underexplored flight challenge to bees. Our study demonstrates the types of questions that can be addressed with newer approaches to biomechanics research; by allowing bees to choose the conditions they prefer to traverse and automating filming and analysis to examine massive amounts of data, we were able to identify significant patterns emerging from variable locomotory behaviors, and gain valuable insight into the biomechanics of flight in natural environments.
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Investigating Possible Urban-Induced Precipitation Variations around Louisville, Kentucky
Abstract This study examines ground-based precipitation observations recorded by a high-density gauge network located within approximately 40 km of the urban center of Louisville, Kentucky. An analysis of April–October events reveals that precipitation is significantly greater on the downwind side of Louisville than on the upwind side, particularly when precipitation systems have a westerly component to their motion. The mean difference between downwind and upwind precipitation across all events is 20%. This value is smaller for widespread precipitation events (i.e., most or all gauges detect precipitation) and is larger for isolated events (i.e., rain detected by one-half of the gauges or fewer). The largest and most significant differences between upwind and downwind precipitation amounts occur in association with moist moderate, moist tropical, and transitional air masses.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1953791
- PAR ID:
- 10492582
- Publisher / Repository:
- American Meteorological Society
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology
- Volume:
- 63
- Issue:
- 3
- ISSN:
- 1558-8424
- Format(s):
- Medium: X Size: p. 425-436
- Size(s):
- p. 425-436
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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