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RESPONSES OF AIRBORNE BIOTA TO MICROWAVE TRANSMISSION FROM SATELLITE POWER SYSTEM (SPS)
Citation:
RESPONSES OF AIRBORNE BIOTA TO MICROWAVE TRANSMISSION FROM SATELLITE POWER SYSTEM (SPS). U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., EPA/600/1-84/001.
Description:
The goal of this program is to determine whether microwave irradiation adversely alters a wide-range of complex avian behavior modes that are essential to their survival. Effects of microwaves (2.45 GHz) have been studied extensively in mammalian species, e.g., rats, mice, rabbits and monkeys, but very little information is available for birds. Avian species, generally, have higher rates of metabolism (especially during flight), stand on two feet and have an elongated neck that increases the amount of isolation between the head and thorax. All of these anatomical features can be expected to increase the susceptibility of birds to hyperthermia, vestibular and neuromuscular dysfunction as well as more subtle altered behaviors, e.g., in appropriate migratory behavior due to interference with normal astronomical or geomagnetic clues.