N. European Bird Species Shifting Northward, But Not Quickly Enough To Match Pace Of Warming

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Now a pioneering study has been carried out in France on local birds by Dr Vincent Devictor of the Universite' Montpellier II, Romain Julliard and Denis Couvet of the Museum of Natural History, along with Fre'de'ric Jiguet of the European Bird Census Council, Paris.

Over the past two decades they found that a 50 mile northward shift in bird communities, using data on more than 100 species reported by hundreds of volunteer birdwatchers. However the zone where the temperature range is the same as two decades ago had shifted by 170 miles, so the birds are lagging approximately 120 miles behind.

"This change is not occurring fast enough," said Dr Devictor, though he emphasised that the result will probably fall short of causing extinctions because the study is based on common species.

"This discrepancy may have profound consequences on the ability of species to cope with climate change in the long run," the team concludes in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, Biological Sciences.

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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/earth/2008/08/20/scibirds120.xml