Absolute Consistency:Individual versus Population Variation in Annual-Cycle Schedules of a Long-Distance Migrant Bird

<p>Flexibility in scheduling varies throughout an organism's annual cycle, reflecting relative temporal constraints and fitness consequences among life-history stages. Time-selection can act at different scales, either by limiting the range of alternative strategies in the population, or by increasing the precision of individual performance. We tracked individual bar-tailed godwits Limosa lapponica baueri for two full years (including direct observation during non-breeding seasons in New Zealand and geolocator tracking of round-trip migrations to Alaska) to present a full annual-cycle view of molt, breeding, and migration schedules. At both population and individual scales, temporal variation was greater in post-breeding than pre-breeding stages, and greater in molts than in movements, but schedules did not tighten across successive stages of migration toward the breeding grounds. In general, individual godwits were quite consistent in timing of events throughout the year, and repeatability of pre-breeding movements was particularly high (r = 0.82-0.92). However, we demonstrate that r values misrepresent absolute consistency by confounding inter- and intra-individual variation; the biological significance of r values can only be understood when these are considered separately. By doing so, we show that some stages have considerable tolerance for alternative strategies within the population, whereas scheduling of northbound migratory movements was similar for all individuals. How time-selection simultaneously shapes both individual and population variation is central to understanding and predicting adaptive phenological responses to environmental change.</p>

Effect of endurance flight on haematocrit in migrating birds

The effects of an endurance flight on the haematocrit, the percentage of packed red blood cells per blood volume, were examined within the framework of six possible factors explaining possible changes in the haematocrit. Two approaches were adopted: (1) the haematocrit was studied in four species of passerine birds which landed on an Italian island after having crossed the Mediterranean Sea on their spring migration in a non-stop flight; (2) the haematocrit was evaluated in six individual red knots after a flight of 1, 2, 4 and 10 h in a wind tunnel and the data thus obtained compared with data on resting birds with or without food. In the four passerine species, the haematocrit decreased from 51% in fat birds to 48% in lean birds. In lean birds, the haematocrit dropped from 48% in birds with well-developed breast muscles to 36% in birds with emaciated breast muscles. In the red knots, the haematocrit was dependent on body mass in flying and resting birds. The haematocrit decreased from about 51% pre-flight to about 49% within 1 h of flight and remained at this level for up to 10 h of flight. Taking the results from the passerines and the red knots together, it seems that the haematocrit drops by a few percentage points within 1 h after the onset of flight, decreases very slowly with decreasing body mass and decreases more steeply in very lean birds having entered stage III of fasting. This indicates that dehydration is not an underlying factor in decreased haematocrit because if this were the case we would expect an increase with endurance flight. We found no effect of the presence of blood parasites on haematocrit. With the onset of flight, haemodilution may be adaptive, because it reduces blood viscosity and, thereby, energy expenditure by the heart, or it may be a sign of water conservation as an insurance against the risk of dehydration during long non-stop flights. During endurance flight, a reduction in the haematocrit may be adaptive, in that oxygen delivery capacity is adjusted to the decreased oxygen needs as body mass decreases. A decreasing haematocrit would also allow birds to reduce heart beat frequency and/or heart size, because blood viscosity decreases disproportionally with decreasing haematocrit. However, when energy stores are about to come to an end and birds increase protein breakdown, the haematocrit decreases even further, and birds probably become anaemic due to a reduced erythropoiesis

NGTS-30b/TOI-4862b: An ~1 Gyr old 98-day transiting warm Jupiter

Context. Long-period transiting exoplanets bridge the gap between the bulk of transit- and Doppler-based exoplanet discoveries, providing key insights into the formation and evolution of planetary systems. The wider separation between these planets and their host stars results in the exoplanets typically experiencing less radiation from their host stars; hence, they should maintain more of their original atmospheres, which can be probed during transit via transmission spectroscopy. Although the known population of long-period transiting exoplanets is relatively sparse, surveys performed by the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and the Next Generation Transit Survey (NGTS) are now discovering new exoplanets to fill in this crucial region of the exoplanetary parameter space. Aims. This study aims to characterise a new long-period transiting exoplanet by following up on a single-transit candidate found in the TESS mission. Methods. The TOI-4862 system was monitored using a combination of photometric instruments (TESS, NGTS, and EulerCam) and spectroscopic instruments (CORALIE, FEROS, HARPS, and PFS) in order to determine the period, radius, and mass of the long-period transiting exoplanet NGTS-30 b/TOI-4862 b. These observations were then fitted simultaneously to determine precise values for the properties and orbital parameters of the exoplanet, as well as the refined stellar parameters of the host star. Results. We present the discovery of a long-period (P = 98.29838 ± 0.00010 day) Jupiter-sized (0.928 ± 0.032 RJ; 0.960 ± 0.056 MJ) planet transiting a 1.1 Gyr old G-type star, one of the youngest warm Jupiters discovered to date. NGTS-30 b/TOI-4862 b has a moderate eccentricity (0.294−0.010+0.014), meaning that its equilibrium temperature can be expected to vary from 274−46+30 K to 500−84+55 K over the course of its orbit. Through interior modelling, NGTS-30 b/TOI-4862b was found to have a heavy element mass fraction of 0.23−0.06+0.05 and a heavy element enrichment (Zp/Z★) of 20−6+5, making it metal-enriched compared to its host star. Conclusions. NGTS-30 b/TOI-4862 b is one of the youngest well-characterised long-period exoplanets found to date and will therefore be important in the quest to understanding the formation and evolution of exoplanets across the full range of orbital separations and ages.</p

Early release science of the exoplanet WASP-39b with JWST NIRCam

This is the author accepted manuscriptData Availability: The data used in this paper are associated with JWST program ERS 1366 (observation #2) and are available from the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (https://mast.stsci.edu). We used calibration data from program 1076. All the data and models presented in this publication can be found at https://doi.10.5281/zenodo.7101283.Code Availability: The codes used in this publication to extract, reduce and analyse the data are as follows: Batman, emcee, Eureka!, jwst, chromatic, chromatic-fitting, PyMC359, Exoplanet, gCMCRT, CONAN, ExoTiC-LD, LACOSMIC, PICASO, Virga, VULCANMeasuring the metallicity and carbon-to-oxygen (C/O) ratio in exoplanet atmospheres is a fundamental step towards constraining the dominant chemical processes at work and, if in equilibrium, revealing planet formation histories. Transmission spectroscopy provides the necessary means by constraining the abundances of oxygen- and carbon-bearing species; however, this requires broad wavelength coverage, moderate spectral resolution, and high precision that, together, are not achievable with previous observatories. Now that JWST has commenced science operations, we are able to observe exoplanets at previously uncharted wavelengths and spectral resolutions. Here we report time-series observations of the transiting exoplanet WASP-39b using JWST’s Near InfraRed Camera (NIRCam). The long-wavelength spectroscopic and short-wavelength photometric light curves span 2.0 – 4.0 µm, exhibit minimal systematics, and reveal well-defined molecular absorption features in the planet’s spectrum. Specifically, we detect gaseous H O in the atmosphere and place an upper limit on the abundance of CH . The otherwise prominent CO feature at 2.8 µm is largely masked by H O. The best-fit chemical equilibrium models favour an atmospheric metallicity of 1–100× solar (i.e., an enrichment of elements heavier than helium relative to the Sun) and a sub-stellar carbon-to-oxygen (C/O) ratio. The inferred high metallicity and low C/O ratio may indicate significant accretion of solid materials during planet formation or disequilibrium processes in the upper atmosphere.UK Research and InnovationInstitute of PhysicsLeverhulme TrustScience and Technology Facilities Counci