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“It’s a very interesting and clear drawing that sharks use the Earth’s magnetic field as a map,” says Kenneth Lohmann, a biology professor at the University of North Carolina who didn’t participate in the research. Lohmann has documented similar abilities in salmon and sea turtles. This research suggests that the ability to navigate using magnetic detection may be widespread among marine animals that migrate during the season.
“Lohmann says it’s the equivalent of asking a young child to learn a home address.” When small, sharks learn the magnetic “address” of the original estuary or bay. This information helps them to return later, even after thousands of miles. (They may not respond to magnetic information in Tennessee, presumably because it is outside the realm they know.)
Sthe smell of almonIn addition to magnetic data, they can detect their offspring and sharks can do the same, especially at the end of the trip. “For small-scale movements, I think smell plays a huge role,” Keller says, but he doesn’t think it’s strong enough to focus hundreds of miles.
However exactly how Lohmann says that any animal that perceives magnetic fields remains a “real mystery”. They have a theory magnetite crystals, who sense the real north, somewhere in their brains or nervous systems. Another is that magnetic fields affect their receptors visual they superimpose systems, colors, or light patterns on sight, like augmented reality headphones. Maybe the north appears as a reddish hue and an animal follows that color.
Sharks have pores at the ends filled with Lorenzini’s ampoules, receptors that detect electric currents; sharks find prey by electrically sensing the heartbeat. Perhaps these receptors also sense magnetic fields or pick them up indirectly by noticing how they interact with electric currents. No one can make a definitive claim yet. And, Lohmann says, “there is no reason to think that there is only one mechanism used by all animals.”
Research like Keller’s is important because it helps us understand how sharks achieve large migrations by completing a piece of an ancient puzzle and better understanding how humans affect our marine technologies. “It has really big implications for the management and conservation of these species,” says Kyle Newton, a biologist at the University of Washington in St. Louis, who examines how rough they navigate using magnetic fields.
It is especially important to understand how offshore wind farms are becoming more popular, and can disrupt these countryside. Turbines convert the energy of the wind into energy that they carry to the shore through underwater cables. And just as Keller’s cube used force to mimic the Earth’s magnetic field, so did underwater power cables create their own small magnetic fields in the ocean. These anomalies can confuse animals, leading them to swim in the right direction or to graze in an environment where prey is not suitable.
It is not yet clear whether a break is taking place; these anomalies are small and may not have any effect, Newton says. Or some animals may bother you more than others. But he believes people need to explore the possibility so as not to lose sight of these important migrations. Because people can’t feel magnetic signals, Newton says, “it’s easy for us to forget this thing. It’s not just on our radar. ” But if we understand the stimuli perceived by other animals, we can be careful not to cause permanent damage to these signals.
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