title: Mass seasonal bioflows of high-flying insect migrants.
abstract: Migrating animals have an impact on ecosystems directly via influxes of predators, prey, and competitors and indirectly by vectoring nutrients, energy, and pathogens. Although linkages between vertebrate movements and ecosystem processes have been established, the effects of mass insect "bioflows" have not been described. We quantified biomass flux over the southern United Kingdom for high-flying (>150 meters) insects and show that ~3.5 trillion insects (3200 tons of biomass) migrate above the region annually. These flows are not randomly directed in insects larger than 10 milligrams, which exploit seasonally beneficial tailwinds. Large seasonal differences in the southward versus northward transfer of biomass occur in some years, although flows were balanced over the 10-year period. Our long-term study reveals a major transport process with implications for ecosystem services, processes, and biogeochemistry.
authors.affiliation: College of Plant Protection, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, China. hugao@njau.edu.cn j.chapman2@exeter.ac.uk.|Rothamsted Research, Harpenden, Hertfordshire, UK.|Centre for Ecology and Conservation, and Environment and Sustainability Institute, University of Exeter, Penryn, Cornwall, UK.
authors.forename: Gao
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: Rothamsted Research, Harpenden, Hertfordshire, UK.
authors.forename: Ka S
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Lim
authors.affiliation: Movement Ecology Laboratory, Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel.
authors.forename: Nir
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Horvitz
authors.affiliation: Rothamsted Research, Harpenden, Hertfordshire, UK.
authors.forename: Suzanne J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Clark
authors.affiliation: Natural Resources Institute, University of Greenwich, Chatham, Kent, UK.
authors.forename: Don R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Reynolds
authors.affiliation: Animal Flight Laboratory, Department of Evolutionary and Environmental Biology, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel.
authors.forename: Nir
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Sapir
authors.affiliation: Rothamsted Research, Harpenden, Hertfordshire, UK. hugao@njau.edu.cn j.chapman2@exeter.ac.uk.|Centre for Ecology and Conservation, and Environment and Sustainability Institute, University of Exeter, Penryn, Cornwall, UK.
authors.forename: Jason W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Chapman
mesh_terms: D025041:Animal Migration; D000818:Animals; D018533:Biomass; D005426:Flight, Animal; D007313:Insecta; D012621:Seasons; D006113:United Kingdom