Course in R

The 12–16 December 2011, there will be a course in R, available for all CAnMovians. Read more and register: http://www.geneco.se/Courses/Autumn-2011/Introduction-to-using-R.

Workshop on Climate Change

10-12 October there will be a workshop called "Beyond the Climate Envelope" and there will be talks and discussions about how to find new approaches for detecting climate impacts and predicting the future. The workshop is a cooperation between CAnMove and BECC (Biodiversity and Ecosystem services in a Changing Climate).
This workshop is open for registration until friday (23 September) and more information about the workshop and how to register you can find here.

Moon watching has begun

Patrik talks about LIDAR

The start of the ”Moon watch” project was celebrated on the roof of the Ecology Building Friday 9 September. A group of ca 30 interested students, scientists and personnel visited the event, which started by a short walk to the Atomic Physics Department where Patrik Lundin and Mikkel Brydegaard demonstrated the Florescence LIDAR and the principles behind optic remote detection of insects and birds.










Thereafter the group joined the rest of the team on the roof of the Ecology Building where the tracking radar was demonstrated by Johan Bäckman and hotdogs and drinks were served to the interested audience.

Johan demonstrates the radar

Some clouds were covering the moon, but now and then the moon could be observed by telescopes and successfully at least one bird passing the moon was detected.

Waiting for the moon to show

Apart from that a few echoes of migrating songbirds, including a common swift was recorded by the tracking radar, confirming that migration was taking action. In the end of the evening the sky over LTH was filled with fireworks (as if ordered for the event…) making a very memorable exclamation to the first night of the moon watch project. 

The radar "saw" a lot more birds than we did this night

The CAnMove personnel lead by Helena and Johan made the evening a very pleasant and exciting event! Thank you!

Susanne

CAnMove at Innovation in Mind 2011

Lund University at night. 

CAnMove coordinator will participate in the opening of the 2011 Innovation in Mind conference at Lund University covering the topic: Is innovation what you think it is? The conference will open to the music of Björn J:son Lind and at the same time a preview of the film production “Fåglarnas svarta låda” covering new tracking technology to study bird movements by journalist Joakim Lindhé will be shown. The conference will be held at a temporary conference venue at the University building 14-15 September. This years conference focus on social innovations and alternative views of the concept of innovation. Participants may expect a spectacular event.

Susanne

Remote nocturnal bird classification by spectroscopy

The LIDAR bus at the field site during the Kullaberg campaign May 2010.
Photo: Mikkel Brygdegaard. 

In a recent paper by P. Lundin et al. (2011; doi:10.1364/AO.50.003396) published in the July issue of Applied Optics a team of scientists from two of the Linnaeus environments at Lund University, Lund Laser Centre and CAnMove, report on new optical methods at a wide range of wavelengths used for remote bird classification. The team applied a variety of methods including eye-safe fluorescence and depolarization lidar techniques, passive scattering spectroscopy, and infrared (IR) spectroscopy in the field campaign at Kullaberg spring 2010. In this paper the team has refined the previously presented method of remotely classifying birds by using laser-induced beta-keratin fluorescence. Phenomena of excitation quenching were studied in the laboratory and were theoretically discussed in detail in the paper. It is shown how the ordered microstructures in bird feathers induce structural "colours" in the IR region with wavelengths of around 3-6 mu m. We show that transmittance in this region depends on the angle of incidence of the transmitted light in a species-specific way and that the transmittance exhibits a close correlation to the spatial periodicity in the arrangement of the feather barbules. Furthermore, we present a method by which the microstructure of feathers can be monitored in a remote fashion by utilization of thermal radiation and the wing beating of the bird.

The application of these remote techniques in bird migration studies is novel and shows a high potential to finally resolve the question what bird species are flying above in a pitch dark night sky. I find it exciting to see how CAnMove in this innovative way can contribute to development and application of new technology and how the field of animal movement research may benefit from these findings.  

Susanne