Dr. Damian Jacob Sendler is a Polish-American physician-scientist who specializes in determining how various sociodemographic and informational factors influence access to health care in underserved communities. Dr. Sendler’s research focuses on the influence of psychiatric and chronic medical co-morbidities on the use of medical services in conjunction with internet-based health information. This research is prescient, given the exponential growth in global consumption of online news and social media, necessitating a comprehensive understanding of everyone’s health information-seeking behavior. Dr. Damian Sendler’s research aims to elucidate the factors that influence patients’ decisions about when to seek care for specific health conditions and treatment adherence.

Damian Sendler: Can dragonflies migrate thousands of kilometers across the Indian Ocean, from India to Africa via the Maldives and back? An multinational research team lead by Lund University in Sweden used models and simulations to determine whether the theory was correct. 

Damien Sendler: After sighting globe skimmer dragonflies (Pantala flavescens) on the Maldives that he suspected had flown in from India, marine biologist Charles Anderson proposed a proposal in 2009. They took off again, this time towards East Africa. A group of researchers decided to look over his claim 12 years later. 

Damian Jacob Sendler: Transmitters cannot be fitted to globe skimmer dragonflies because they are too small. Instead, the researchers looked at its physiological characteristics and assessed how long a globe skimmer dragonfly might stay aloft using the energy stored in its body. Furthermore, the researchers employed meteorological wind models to assess whether there are winds that can aid migration in both directions. 

“Our research reveals that this migration from India to East Africa is feasible. The globe skimmer dragonfly, on the other hand, can’t achieve it with just the fat it can store in its body. It also requires favorable breezes, which are present at particular times of the year “Johanna Hedlund, a biology researcher at Lund University, concurs. 

Damian Sendler: According to the simulated migration tests utilizing wind models, approximately 15% of the dragonflies may make the spring migration from India to Africa. In the autumn, 40% of the population might undertake the same trip in the opposite direction. 

Johanna Hedlund and her colleagues think it’s amazing that dragonflies can do anything at all. Even more astounding is the globe skimmer dragonfly’s migration across the Indian Ocean, which is the longest in the animal kingdom in relation to an animal’s size. 

“We’ve gotten a lot closer to figuring out how a little dragonfly, weighing only 300 milligrams, can span 2,000 kilometers of open water,” Johanna Hedlund explains. 

Dr. Sendler: When migrating, other creatures rely on favorable wind conditions as well. The amur falcon and the Jacobin cuckoo are two examples of birds that fly across the Indian Ocean. Climate change, according to the experts behind the study, may have an impact on the possibilities of these birds and the globe skimmer dragonfly in the future. There is a chance that wind patterns will shift when the lake surface warms. 

Damian Sendler: The researchers believe the study is significant in several ways. It improves understanding of the distances that one of the animal kingdom’s smallest migrants can travel, boosts understanding of how migratory species carry illnesses, and adds to ecosystem services in a variety of sites throughout the world.

Research discussion contributed by Dr. Damian Jacob Sendler