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PONE-D-24-12019

Do Magnetic Murmurs Guide Birds? A Directional Statistical Investigation for Influence of Earth’s Magnetic Field on Bird Navigation

PLOS ONE

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Comments to the Author

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Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Partly

Reviewer #3: Yes

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2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: No

Reviewer #3: Yes

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Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

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Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

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5. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: 1. In the Introduction (lines 29-33), you mention a lack of literature addressing the directional distribution pattern of bird migratory paths using directional statistics. Could you elaborate on why existing literature is insufficient and how your approach using directional statistics offers a novel perspective?

2. Regarding the dataset (line 276-278), could you provide more details on the sources, time period covered, and any potential biases or limitations in the data?

3. In the Materials and Methods section (lines 70-77), you state a novel hypothesis about the influence of changes in the earth's magnetic field on bird migration paths. Could you clarify the rationale behind this hypothesis and any previous studies that support or contradict it?

4. The World Magnetic Model (WMM) is a crucial component of your analysis (lines 78-124). Could you explain the potential limitations or uncertainties associated with the WMM and how they might impact your results?

5. In the Haversine method (lines 125-142), you calculate the directional change in bird paths. Could you explain how you handled potential errors or outliers in the data, and how they might affect the subsequent analysis?

6. The circular-circular regression model (lines 155-183) is a novel approach proposed in your study. Could you provide a more intuitive explanation of the model and its assumptions, particularly for readers less familiar with directional statistics?

7. In the Results section (lines 219-234), you present the values of ρ (correlation coefficient) and p-values for different bird species. Could you elaborate on the interpretation of these values and their implications for your hypothesis?

8. The Discussion section (lines 235-264) highlights the novelty of your approach and the potential influence of other factors on bird migration. Could you suggest ways to incorporate or account for these additional factors in future studies?

9. Figure 1 (line 102) shows the observed bird paths plotted on a world map. Could you comment on any potential geographic or regional patterns or differences in the bird migration paths and their relation to the magnetic field changes?

10. The Conclusions (lines 265-273) emphasize the support for your hypothesis based on the circular-circular regression analysis. Could you discuss the broader implications of your findings for our understanding of bird navigation and potential applications in conservation or migration monitoring?

Reviewer #2: The authors try to investigate if the angular changes in the direction of the flight paths of migrating birds in any way get affected by the earth’s magnetic field or not. They use a circular on circular regression model with the errors distributed as von Mises distribution and use a hypothesis based on the correlation coefficient between change of angles and change in magnetic field.

I have several questions/comments about the paper that I have listed below:

1. Lines 128-131: Is the iid assumption enough here? The migratory path of birds within the same flock are always very similar and very tight. So, even the iid assumption leaves room for a lot of variability. You either need to have an additional assumption of very low variability or ideally, you should model it as an agent based model.

2. Equation 2:

a. The second sum over m should go upto n and not M

b. The last term should not have a (t), and should only be p_m (sin⁡ϕ')

3. Equations 1 and 7 (and other instances) have phi’ written instead of ϕ'. Please correct them.

4. I understand using a von Mises distribution for modeling angles. However, we are dealing with bird migration across continents here, so we should be taking into account the spherical nature of the earth. In that case, why not model the (appropriately computed) directional change as a von Mises-Fisher distribution instead?

5. Equations 19 and 20 and subsequently lines 181-195:

a. Are both the responses same? Or is this a typo?

b. Why are both the error terms same?

c. There is no M_(S.A),M_(S.Z.) or M_(M.A.) in the model. How are they related to M_(M.I.),M_(M.D.) or ρ_SA,ρ_MA?

d. You use A_1,A_2 in model and use A_1,B_1 in line 188. Are the A_1’s same? Where is B_1 in the model? How are these related to M_(M.I.) or M_(M.D.)?

e.Where and how do MSL and the angular frequency fit into this model?

f. Overall, this is the heart of the modeling and this is not all explained properly. Please explain this thoroughly.

6. What are M_1,M_2,M_11,M_21?

Reviewer #3: Thank you for inviting me to review the paper entitled “Do Magnetic Murmurs Guide Birds? A Directional Statistical Investigation for Influence of Earth’s Magnetic Field on Bird Navigation”. This paper examines the potential relationship between the directional change in Magnetic inclination and declination at a given location and a bird’s decision to alter its path. I recommend reconsideration of the paper after addressing the following modifications:

• The abstract lacks from quantitative results. Important quantitative results should be added.

• What is the novelty of this manuscript? It should be clearly mentioned in the last paragraph of the introduction.

• It is preferable to add a figure illustrating the study methodology.

• Please, replace all the figures with high resolution ones.

• You should add the limitation of your study at the end of the paper before the conclusion section.

• What is your recommendation for future studies to enhance the applied methodology?

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

Reviewer #3: No

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Do Magnetic Murmurs Guide Birds? A Directional Statistical Investigation for Influence of Earth’s Magnetic Field on Bird Navigation

PONE-D-24-12019R1

Dear Dr. Ghosh,

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

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Kind regards,

Ahmed M. Saqr, Ph.D.

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE