My favourite of those mapped illustrations tracks the trail of a storm-chasing seabird, the Desertas petrel. The Desertas petrel spends nearly all its life far out at sea, hardly ever coming to land besides to breed on the Desertas Islands close to Madeira. Out at sea, storms fire up the ocean floor and convey prey akin to squid and fish nearer to the highest. The Desertas petrel subsequently follows these climate programs with a purpose to discover richer feeding zones.
This habits is splendidly visualized within the article by overlaying the GPS observe of the Desertas petrel with a dynamic wind velocity layer that makes use of coloration to disclose the trail and depth of a passing cyclone over the Atlantic Ocean. The animation vividly captures how the fowl seems to “chase” the storm, providing a hanging illustration of how intimately these seabirds are related to the planet’s shifting local weather programs.
The entire article is neatly launched with an animated world map that visualizes a few of the epic migratory journeys undertaken by fowl species across the globe. As The Guardian explains, these pure migratory routes exist “due to a fragile steadiness of things, akin to beneficial winds and stopover websites wealthy in meals.” They’re subsequently notably weak to the disruptions brought on by world local weather change.
