DOI: 10.5061/dryad.6djh9w19s
title: Oxidative state is associated with migration distance, but not traits linked to flight energetics

description: Flight can be highly energy demanding, but its efficiency depends largely
 on flight style, wing shape and loading, and a range of morphological and
 lifestyle adaptations that can modify the cost of sustained flight. Such
 behavioural and morphological adaptations can also influence the
 physiological costs associated with migration. For instance, during
 intense flight and catabolism of reserves, lipid damage induced by
 pro-oxidants increases, and to keep oxidative physiological homeostasis
 under control, the antioxidant machinery can be upregulated. Studies on
 the oxidative physiology of endurance flight have produced contradictory
 results, making generalization difficult, especially because multispecies
 studies are missing. Therefore, to explore the oxidative cost of flight
 and migration, we used samples collected during the breeding season from
 113 European bird species and explored the associations of measures of
 antioxidant capacity (total antioxidant status, uric acid and glutathione
 concentration) and oxidative damage of lipids (malondialdehyde) with
 variables reflecting flight energetics (year-round or specifically during
 migration) using a phylogenetic framework. We found that none of the
 traits predicting year-round flight energy expenditure (flight style, wing
 morphology and flight muscle morphology) explained any measures of
 oxidative state. Our results suggest that birds endure their everyday
 flight exercise without or low oxidative cost. However, oxidative damage
 to lipids and one component of the endogenous antioxidant system (uric
 acid), measured after the end of spring migration on breeding adult birds,
 increased with migration distance. Our results suggest that migration
 could have oxidative consequences that might be carried over to subsequent
 life-history stages (breeding).
description: The blood samples for physiological measures were collected from
 wild birds captured during the breeding season. For all physiological
 traits species-specific average physiology measures as best linear
 unbiased estimates (BLUEs) are provided. All other parameters used in the
 analyses were extracted from published articles as stated in the
 Methods. 
description: # Oxidative state is associated with migration distance, but not traits
 linked to flight energetics
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.6djh9w19s](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.6djh9w19s) ### Description of the data and file structure The dataset contains species-specific average physiology measures (TAS, UA, tGSH, MDA) provided as best linear unbiased estimates (BLUEs), sample sizes for each measured physiological parameters, body mass, flight type (CF – continuous flapping, FS-FG – flapping and soaring combined with and flapping and gliding, PT – passerine type), wing morphology (wing area, wing aspect ratio), migration distance, diet, pectoralis major to supracoracoid muscle ratio, fat load, clutch size and number of broods per year. Note that cells with NA represent missing values. Physiological measures were collected from 113 European wild adult birds captured at various sites across Romania during the breeding season between 2011 and 2013, and between 2016 and 2019. The sources of all morphological, behavioural, ecological and life history traits from Table 2 are provided in the Methods and in case of the body mass in a separate column. ### Files and variables #### File: dryadJAB2024\_table1.csv **Column names** TAS: BLUE scores for total antioxidant status n_TAS: sample size for total antioxidant status UA: BLUE scores for uric acid n_UA: sample size for uric acid tGSH: BLUE scores for total glutathione n_tGSH: sample size for total glutathione MDA: BLUE scores for malondialdehide n_MDA: sample size for malondialdehide ### #### File: dryadJAB2024\_table2.csv **Column names** Body mass (g): species specific mean body mass in g Body mass_source: bibliographic source of species specific body mass Flight_style: flight style classification of species (CF – continuous flapping, FS-FG – flapping and soaring combined with flapping and gliding, PT – passerine type) Wing_area (cm^2): mean wing area without body between the wings in cm^2 Wing_aspect_ratio: mean aspect ratio without body between the wings Wing_loading (Nm^-2): mean wing loading without body between the wings in Nm^-2 n_wing_parameters: sample size for wing area, aspect ratio and wing loading Migration_distance (km): migration distance in km calculated as the geographic distance between the centroids of breeding and wintering ranges of species Diet: diet classification of species (animal - mostly animal-based, plant - mostly plant-based, mixed - quasi equal consumption of animal- and plant-derived food) Pectoralis_major/supracoracoid_muscle mass: pectoral-to-supracoracoid muscle mass ratio Fat_load: accumulated fuel load of migrating birds Clutch_size: mean clutch size No_brood_per_year: mean number of brood per year