The effects of geolocators on return rates, condition, and breeding success in Common Sandpipers Actitis hypoleucos

Capsule : Fitting geolocators to Common Sandpipers Actitis hypoleucos did not affect their return rates, return dates, body condition or reproductive success, but did cause leg injuries in some individuals. Aims : To investigate the effect of fitting geolocators to Common Sandpipers on their return rates and timing, the condition in which they return and their subsequent breeding success. Methods : We fitted geolocators to colour-ringed Common Sandpipers and monitored them throughout the breeding seasons prior to migration and following return from their wintering grounds. We then compared return rate, return date, change in body condition, hatching success, and fledging success between birds with and without the tags. We also fitted a number of smaller geolocators to wintering individuals in Africa and compared their return rates with a control group. Results : We found no significant differences between birds with and without geolocators in any of the variables measured. However, several individuals fitted with the larger tags were found to have incurred leg injuries. Conclusion : Our study highlights the need for complete transparency when reporting the effects of geolocators and shows the importance of continuous monitoring of individuals when carrying out tracking studies

Climatic conditions during migration affect population size and arrival dates in an Afro-Palaearctic migrant:Climate and demography in sand martins

Long-distance migrants are particularly susceptible to climate change because of their multi-stage life-cycle, but understanding how climatic conditions at each of these stages influence population dynamics remains a key challenge. Here, we use long-term data from a UK population of Sand Martins Riparia riparia, a declining Afro-Palaearctic migrant, to investigate how weather on the wintering grounds and at passage sites impacts population size and arrival date. General linear models revealed that population size increased and arrival date advanced over the study period, and both were predicted by regional climatic variables in the previous winter and on passage. These results add to a growing body of evidence showing that population change in migrant birds is influenced by climatic conditions at all stages of the life cycle

Forces between elongated particles in a nematic colloid

Using molecular dynamics simulations we study the interactions between elongated colloidal particles (length to breath ratio ≫1) in a nematic host. The simulation results are compared to the results of a Landau–de Gennes elastic free energy. We find that depletion forces dominate for the sizes of the colloidal particles studied. The tangential component of the force, however, allows us to resolve the elastic contribution to the total interaction. We find that this contribution differs from the quadrupolar interaction predicted at large separations. The difference is due to the presence of nonlinear effects, namely, the change in the positions and structure of the defects and their annihilation at small separations

A Smooth Interface Method for Simulating Liquid Crystal Colloid Dispersions

A new method is presented for mesoscopic simulations of particle dispersions in liquid crystal solvents. It allows efficient first-principle simulations of the dispersions involving many particles with many-body interactions mediated by the solvents. Demonstrations have been performed for the aggregation of colloid dispersions in two-dimensional nematic and smectic-C* solvents neglecting hydrodynamic effects, which will be taken into account in the near future.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figure

Defect structures and torque on an elongated colloidal particle immersed in a liquid crystal host

Combining molecular dynamics and Monte Carlo simulation we study defect structures around an elongated colloidal particle embedded in a nematic liquid crystal host. By studying nematic ordering near the particle and the disclination core region we are able to examine the defect core structure and the difference between two simulation techniques. In addition, we also study the torque on a particle tilted with respect to the director, and modification of this torque when the particle is close to the cell wall

Simulating Particle Dispersions in Nematic Liquid-Crystal Solvents

A new method is presented for mesoscopic simulations of particle dispersions in nematic liquid crystal solvents. It allows efficient first-principle simulations of the dispersions involving many particles with many-body interactions mediated by the solvents. A simple demonstration is shown for the aggregation process of a two dimentional dispersion.Comment: 5 pages, 5 figure

Effective forces in colloidal mixtures: from depletion attraction to accumulation repulsion

Computer simulations and theory are used to systematically investigate how the effective force between two big colloidal spheres in a sea of small spheres depends on the basic (big-small and small-small) interactions. The latter are modeled as hard-core pair potentials with a Yukawa tail which can be both repulsive or attractive. For a repulsive small-small interaction, the effective force follows the trends as predicted by a mapping onto an effective non-additive hard-core mixture: both a depletion attraction and an accumulation repulsion caused by small spheres adsorbing onto the big ones can be obtained depending on the sign of the big-small interaction. For repulsive big-small interactions, the effect of adding a small-small attraction also follows the trends predicted by the mapping. But a more subtle ``repulsion through attraction'' effect arises when both big-small and small-small attractions occur: upon increasing the strength of the small-small interaction, the effective potential becomes more repulsive. We have further tested several theoretical methods against our computer simulations: The superposition approximation works best for an added big-small repulsion, and breaks down for a strong big-small attraction, while density functional theory is very accurate for any big-small interaction when the small particles are pure hard-spheres. The theoretical methods perform most poorly for small-small attractions.Comment: submitted to PRE; New version includes an important quantitative correction to several of the simulations. The main conclusions remain unchanged thoug

The role of storms in shaping the journeys of migrating whimbrels across the Atlantic

Part of the 'Wading through Literature' series where invited authors discuss themes in wader/shorebird biology, ecology or conservation that arise from publications other than Wader Study

Photonic Control of Surface Anchoring on Solid Colloids Dispersed in Liquid Crystals

International audienceThe anchoring of liquid-crystal (LC) mesogens to the surfaces of colloids is an important factor in determining intercolloidal interactions and the symmetry of the ensuing colloidal assembly in nematic colloids. The dynamic control of surface anchoring could therefore provide a handle to tune the colloidal organization and resulting properties in these systems. In this article, we report our results on the study of thermotropic nematic LC (E7) dispersions of silica and glass microcolloids bearing photosensitive surface azobenzene groups. By the photoinduced modulation of the colloidal-LC interfacial properties, due to the trans-cis isomerization of azobenzene units, we tune the anchoring on silica colloids from homeotropic (trans-azobenzene) to homogeneous planar (cis-azobenzene) reversibly. In tune with the change in surface anchoring, the interparticle interactions were also dictated by dipolar and quadrupolar symmetries for homeotropic and homogeneous planar anchoring, respectively. In our experiments, we find that, in addition to the isomerization state of the surface-bound azobenzene units, the nature of the colloid plays a crucial role in determining the anchoring state obtained on applying photostimuli. We also study the LC anchoring on colloids as a function of the azobenzene surface density and find that beyond a threshold value the anchoring properties remain invariant