Strange Arctic Bird Deaths Likely to Increase with Climate Change
09.04.2010 - Flora & Fauna, Arctic
A large number of Arctic seabirds have been meeting bizarre deaths, which could increase as climate change continues to warm the Arctic, according to Canadian scientists from the Arctic Institute of North America. As the Arctic warms with climate change, it could bring more storm events, including incidents of heavy fog, rain, freezing rain, wet snow and stronger winds, which could create more challenging living conditions for Arctic seabirds.
Three Canadian scientists reviewed 33 years and 7,000 days of fieldwork with observations of six bird species in 11 different colonies in the eastern Arctic. Their findings, which were published in the journal Arctic, show that the seabirds have been:
- crashing into each other in heavy low-visibility fog conditions;
- dying form heat stress and blood loss from increasing temperatures and mosquito attacks
- getting crushed in avalanches caused by falling rocks and ice, which are likely to increase as more freeze-thaw cycles brought on by climate change weaken the sedimentary rock on the cliffs;
- getting slammed into the ocean by intense Katabatic winds;
A lot of the birds seem to have been casualties of factors related to climate and weather, according to the researchers. They added that if climate change were to increase temperatures in the Arctic, it may increase the number of such bizarre weather and climate-related deaths. Since the birds are adapted to a region that has typically been cold and dry, increased precipitation and warmer temperatures could make life for the birds more challenging.
