Birds’ Rate of Adaptation No Match for Climate Change
Joe Arrigo is a graduate of California State University, Long Beach, where he studied film and electronic arts. Since graduation, he has held sales positions in a number of sectors, including education, staffing, and solar energy. Aside from his professional endeavors, Joe Arrigo enjoys reading and maintains an interest in topics such as climate change.
Over the course of the Earth’s existence, its climate has changed in cycles. The current warming trend, however, is thought by experts to be caused by human activity within the last 75 years. In fact, the rate the climate is changing is unprecedented and of grave concern to scientists.
A new report published by Nature Communications explores the effects of climate change on birds, emphasizing their ability to adapt to their changing environments. The report outlines the findings of an international team of 64 researchers who examined more than 10,000 scientific abstracts related to phenological and morphological traits of common species of birds.
Phenological traits refer to life-cycle events, such as breeding, hibernation, and migration. Morphological traits refer to characteristics related to a species’ size and structure. Typically, animals can adapt to climate changes by shifting the times they hibernate or breed. Gradual changes to body mass and structure help them adjust to the environment.
Unfortunately, researchers have concluded that birds, even species that are typically able to adapt very quickly, are not adapting at a pace that matches the rate of climate change. This could lead to extinction of some species and reduced populations of others.
