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October 6, 2008
Migrant birds in hot water
Climate change is a major threat to migratory waterbirds, according to a new report by the British Trust for Ornithology and Wetlands International. Of 235 species of migratory waterbird occurring in Europe and Africa, all except one are experiencing some threat from climate change, and nine species face severe threats that could cause extinction.
The world climate is changing as a result of human activities. In Britain, during the 20th Century, annual average temperatures rose by almost 1 ºC. By 2080, temperature is expected to rise by 2 to 3.5ºC and sea-level by between –2 and 86 cm. The fingerprints of climate change are visible throughout the world.
Sanderling © Steve Round, from the surfbirds galleries
The report, launched today in Madagascar at the 4th Meeting of the Parties of the African-Eurasian Waterbird Agreement, highlights the need for international co-operation when it comes to helping migratory species cope with climate change and other environmental problems. When animals migrate, they often traverse political boundaries that have no inherent meaning to them, but which dramatically influence them due to the great differences that exist between countries in conservation policy. International co-operation is often required to reduce the many pressures they face.
With warmer temperatures, many birds are finding their current living conditions increasingly unsuitable. Some are shifting their ranges towards cooler climates. However, species such as the Crowned Cormorant, confined to the extreme southern coast of Africa, need land to nest on and are prevented from moving poleward by the presence of the sea. A similar situation exists for those species that breed in the high Arctic, such as the Sanderling.
Changing wader distributions
Since the mid-1980s seven of nine species of wader occurring in internationally important numbers have moved in an eastwards direction along the winter isotherms with increasing mean winter temperature (Austin & Rehfisch 2005). Between 1980 and 2001, the weighted centres of the over-wintering populations of seven species of wader in north-west Europe have undergone marked shifts in a northerly or north-easterly direction. Species such as Curlew, Grey Plover, Dunlin and Black-tailed Godwit have shifted their distributions by more than 50 miles (Maclean et al. in review).
For the full report click here
Posted by Surfbirds at October 6, 2008 7:05 AM
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