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(Cover story) Flying high: limits to flight performance by sparrows on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

发布时间：2017-05-10

Yan-Feng Sun, Zhi-Peng Ren, Yue-Feng Wu, Fu-Min Lei, Robert Dudley,* and Dong-Ming Li,*

Journal of Experimental Biology

2016, 219: 3642-3648

DOI: 10.1242/jeb.142216

Abstract

Limits to flight performance at high altitude potentially reflect variable constraints deriving from the simultaneous challenges of hypobaric, hypodense and cold air. Differences in flightrelated morphology and maximum lifting capacity have been well characterized for different hummingbird species across elevational gradients, but relevant withinspecies variation has not yet been identified in any bird species. Herewe evaluate loadlifting capacity for Eurasian tree sparrow (Passer montanus) populations at three different elevations in China, and correlate maximum lifted loads with relevant anatomical features including wing shape, wing size, and heart and lung masses. Sparrows were heavier and possessed more rounded and longer wings at higher elevations; relative heart and lung masses were also greater with altitude, although relative flight muscle mass remained constant. By contrast, maximum lifting capacity relative to body weight declined over the same elevational range, while the effective wing loading in flight (i.e. the ratio of body weight and maximum lifted weight to total wing area) remained constant, suggesting aerodynamic constraints on performance in parallel with enhanced heart and lung masses to offset hypoxic challenge. Mechanical limits to takeoff performance may thus be exacerbated at higher elevations, which may in turn result in behavioral differences in escape responses among populations.

链接：http://jeb.biologists.org/content/219/22/3642.long