We describe a parsimonious model for calculating the interrelatedness of daily activity, phenology, and spatial location based purely on physical laws. This model was developed from the perspective that the global ecosystem operates in four dimensions -- three spatial dimensions plus time. Considering interactions between all of these dimensions is paramount for developing a full understanding of ecological processes. The ideas of general relativity restrict our ability to experiment on all of these dimensions at the same time without specifying a frame of reference. Acting from a spinning reference frame, ecologists have historically collapsed the time dimension into two standard variables – temperature and day length. Neither of these proxy variables is sufficient to capture the spatio-temporal energy dynamics of the earth, and this missing detail is critical to many species. We constructed an energy model with the sun as the ecological reference point and confronted this model with satellite datasets for a range of vertebrate species.
Results/Conclusions
Our results suggest that migration patterns in many animals are best explained by solar-stationary energy clines shepherding individuals into their energetically optimal habitat. We observe this solar-stationary location as a migratory pattern referenced from our location on a spinning Earth. Time–corrected analyses of satellite data show that the solar current (flowing from the sun to the earth) organizes itself into distinct energy “clines” as it hits the magnetosphere, atmosphere, and spherical earth. These clines stratify into rings of eddy currents radiating out from the center of the planet. Individuals prioritize their daily activity times based on these stratifications, showing activity while in their appropriate cline and inactivity while outside that cline. In conclusion, we are able to show that observational frame of reference is central to a complete understanding of observed ecological patterns. Animal migration provides a key example of this phenomenon, reminding us that we are moving observers.