Global warming may wipe out most birds

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Global warming may wipe out most birds

Agençe France-Presse

Tuesday, 14 November 2006

 

Nearly three quarters of all bird species in northeast Australia and more

than a third in Europe could become extinct unless efforts to stop global

warming are stepped up, a report says.

 

Up to 72% of bird species in northeastern Australia and 38% of bird species

in Europe could disappear completely if the planet's temperature continues

to rise, according to the international environmental group WWF.

 

" This report finds certain bird groups, such as seabirds and migratory

birds, to be early, very sensitive responders to current levels of climate

change, " says WWF's director of climate change policy Hans Verolme.

 

" Large-scale bird extinctions may occur sooner than we thought, " he says in

Bird species and climate change: the global status report, released today on

the sidelines of the UN climate change conference in Nairobi.

 

" If high rates of extinction are to be avoided, rapid and significant

greenhouse gas emissions cuts must be made, " WWF says.

 

Rising sea levels, changes in vegetation and altered temperatures are among

the effects of climate change linked to greenhouse gas emissions that impact

negatively on bird species worldwide, it says.

 

In the Great Plains of North America, where up to 80% of the continent's

ducks come to breed, three quarters may face extinction because of adverse

global warming-related changes to their habitat, the report says.

 

While the effects would be most significant if the Earth's surface

temperature rises 2°C above its pre-industrial level - it is currently 0.8°C

above - some birds are already feeling the heat.

 

The penguin population of the Galapagos Islands has decreased by half since

the early 1970s, due to starvation and an inability to reproduce resulting

from the effects of the El Niño climate pattern.

 

While migratory, mountain, island, wetland, Arctic, Antarctic and seabirds

are all at high risk from climate change, other species that are able to

move easily to new habitats will not be as badly effected, it says.

 

Scientists also point out that existing conservation programs do not provide

sufficient protection, as bird species often shift into unprotected zones,

the report says.

 

 

Climate change has birds out on a limb

14 Nov 2006

Nairobi, Kenya – A new report released today by WWF finds a clear and

escalating pattern of climate change impacts on bird species around the

world, suggesting a trend towards a major bird extinction from global

warming.

 

The report, Bird Species and Climate Change, reviews more than 200

scientific articles on birds in every continent to build up a global picture

of climate change impacts.

 

“Robust scientific evidence shows that climate change is now affecting birds

’ behaviour,” said Dr Karl Mallon, Scientific Director at Climate Risk Pty

Ltd and one of the authors of the report. “We are seeing migratory birds

failing to migrate, and climate change pushing increasing numbers of birds

out of synchrony with key elements of their ecosystems.”

 

The report, prepared by international climate change specialists, identifies

groups of birds at high risk from climate change: migratory, mountain,

island, wetland, Arctic, Antarctic and seabirds. While bird species that can

move and adapt easily to different habitat are expected to continue to do

well, bird species that thrive only in a narrow environmental range are

expected to decline, and to be outnumbered by invasive species.

 

The report also shows that birds suffer from climate change effects in every

part of the globe. Scientists have found declines of up to 90 per cent in

some bird populations, as well as total and unprecedented reproductive

failure in others.

 

Scientists also analyzed available projections of future impacts, including

bird species extinction. They found that bird extinction rates could be as

high as 38 per cent in Europe, and 72 per cent in northeastern Australia, if

global warming exceeds 2ºC above pre-industrial levels (currently it is

0.8ºC above).

 

“Birds have long been used as indicators of environmental change, and with

this report we see they are the quintessential ‘canaries in the coal mine’

when it comes to climate change,” said Hans Verolme, Director of WWF’s

Global Climate Change Programme.

 

“This report finds certain bird groups, such as seabirds and migratory

birds, to be early, very sensitive, responders to current levels of climate

change. Large-scale bird extinctions may occur sooner than we thought.”

 

If high rates of extinction are to be avoided, rapid and significant

greenhouse gas emission cuts must be made, WWF says.

 

The global conservation organization also believes that the current approach

to bird conservation, focused on protecting specific areas with a high bird

diversity, will fail because climate change will force birds to shift into

unprotected zones. A major change in approach to bird conservation is

required, according to WWF.

 

END NOTES:

 

Examples of how climate change is affecting some bird species around the

world:

 

Africa: The tawny eagle is an arid savanna raptor found in Asia and Africa.

Small changes in precipitation predicted with climate change would likely

result in the bird’s extinction in its African habitat in the southern

Kalahari. If the mean annual precipitation stays the same but the

inter-annual (year to year) variation increases by less than 10 per cent,

the bird’s population will decrease considerably.

 

UK: The particular vulnerability of seabirds to climate change is

illustrated by the unprecedented breeding crash of UK North Sea seabirds in

2004. The direct cause for the breeding failure of common guillemots, Arctic

skuas, great skuas, kittiwakes, Arctic terns and other seabirds at Shetland

and Orkney colonies was a shortage of small fish called sandeels, a crucial

prey species for the seabirds. As a result, the nearly 7,000 pairs of great

skuas in the Shetlands, for example, produced only a handful of chicks and

starving adult birds ate their own young. Warming ocean waters and major

shifts in species that underpin the ocean food web are thought to be behind

the major sandeel decline.

 

USA: An unprecedented 2002 drought in southern California caused a 97 per

cent breeding decline in four species: the rufous crowned sparrow, wrentit,

spotted towhee and California towhee. Breeding success dropped from 2.37

fledglings per pair in 2001 (a normal year) to 0.07 fledglings per pair

during 2002, the driest year in the region’s 150-year climate record.

Precipitation in this region is expected to decrease and become more

variable with global warming. Even slight increases in arid conditions would

make these species vulnerable to extinction in a dry year.

 

Asia: The Siberian crane is a critically endangered migratory wetland bird

numbering 3,000 individuals worldwide. Siberian cranes breed in Arctic

Russia and Siberia, and most winter in China in the middle to lower reaches

of the Yangtze River. This bird’s Arctic tundra habitat is forecast to

decline by 70 per cent. Decreased precipitation, coupled with more intense

rainfall events, also negatively affects the crane in its habitat in China.

Increasing drought due to higher temperatures is thought to be one factor

that caused a subpopulation of Siberian cranes, which once wintered in India

’s Keoladeo National Park, to shift out of the park and become locally

extinct.

 

Europe/Africa: Pied flycatcher birds and other species are shifting the

timing of seasonal behaviors in response to climate change. Shifts like

these can cause problems for birds if the plants and animals they interact

with do not shift at the same rate. In Europe, earlier spring peaks in

insect numbers mean that some pied flycatchers (long-distance migratory

birds) no longer arrive from Africa in time to match food peaks with peak

demands of their nestlings. This climate-change induced mismatch is strongly

linked to 90 per cent declines in some European pied flycatcher populations

over the past two decades.

 

Australia: Illustrating the vulnerability of mountain birds to climate

change, the habitat of the golden bowerbird is predicted to shrink by 97.5

per cent with a future warming of 3°C and a 10 per cent decline in rainfall.

The bird occupies cool habitat in Australia’s wet tropics on conical

mountains surrounded by warmer lowlands. As temperatures rise, its suitable

habitat will contract, and beyond 3°C of warming is expected to completely

disappear