CBC - Warming Arctic Will Likely Produce Interlocking Negative Pressures On Seabirds

[hatrack]

Warmer, wetter weather in Canada's North could have a devastating impact on nesting seabirds, says a biologist with the Canadian Wildlife Service in Iqaluit. Mark Mallory says he and his colleagues have examined research data on seabirds collected over the past 33 years and have tracked the unusual ways they die. They predict a warming climate, including more frequent and severe storms, will have serious implications.

"It's not really a surprise," says Mallory. "If a bird is adapted to cold conditions and you make things warmer, predictably they'll find things harder."

The birds he and his colleagues studied died most often as a result of violent storms, crashing into each other or into cliffs during heavy fog. They also died after being slammed into the ocean by strong winds or from a combination of heat stress and blood loss due to mosquito attacks.

The scientists' research was published earlier this month in the peer-reviewed journal, Arctic. Their study is based on the observation of six species of birds in 11 seabird colonies in the Eastern Arctic from northern Hudson Bay to Devon Island. Few birds spend their winters in the Arctic's harsh climate, but come spring they arrive in large numbers to nest, spending the summer on cliff faces.

EDIT

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/north/story/2010/03/29/north-seabirds-climate-change-deaths.html

[amborin]

1. gruesome; and ny times art today spoke of tv meterologists discrediting science on global climate

change

they're the front line in influencing the tv-viewing masses, and they're exacerbating the growing anti-science, anti-"elitism" spread by deniers

[arachadillo]

2. Birds and Climate Change

Spring migration is here, so it's always good to read some bird news.

Warmer, wetter weather in Canada's North could have a devastating impact on nesting seabirds, says a biologist with the Canadian Wildlife Service in Iqaluit. Mark Mallory says he and his colleagues have examined research data on seabirds collected over the past 33 years and have tracked the unusual ways they die. They predict a warming climate, including more frequent and severe storms, will have serious implications.

The 2010 State of the Birds reports similar findings.
http://www.stateofthebirds.org/

Key findings from the “State of the Birds” climate change report include:

Oceanic birds are among the most vulnerable species because they don’t raise many young each year; they face challenges from a rapidly changing marine ecosystem; and they nest on islands that may be flooded as sea levels rise. All 67 oceanic bird species, such as petrels and albatrosses, are among the most vulnerable birds on Earth to climate change.

Birds in coastal, arctic/alpine, and grassland habitats, as well as those on Caribbean and other Pacific islands show intermediate levels of vulnerability; most birds in arid lands, wetlands, and forests show relatively low vulnerability to climate change.

Additionally, the Forest Service has updated its Climate Change Bird Atlas to reflect potential changes in inland bird populations.
http://www.nrs.fs.fed.us/atlas/bird/index.html

It's fairly easy to use. Press a couple of buttons and see maps indicating current and potential bird population levels under different climate scenarios.