Movement Ecology

To achieve a comprehensive understanding of magnetoreception and vertebrate navigation, it is important to consider the consequences that different sensory and behavioural strategies observed in the lab and over tens of kilometres will have on global migration trajectories. Here we will develop mathematical models to predict the large-scale movement of migrating birds and homing fish larvae, based on different compass systems and modes of multisensory integration. These predicted courses will be compared with natural migration trajectories in relation to topographic information, sensory cues, and geomagnetic conditions en route.

This project is subproject Nav04 within the collaborative research group Magnetoreception and navigation in vertebrates: from biophysics to brain and behaviour (CRC 1372) funded by German DFG.

News: in Dec 2022, the second funding phase of the CRC has been approved.

Our team is composed of Heiko Schmaljohann, James McLaren and me.