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The Heat Is On: Climate Change Causes Birds To Hatch Early (australiangeographic.com.au)

Posted by yaelk on from the which-came-first-the-chicken-or-the-egg dept.

grrlscientist writes: A recently published study reveals that climate change can cause birds' eggs to hatch early. In addition to creating warmer temperatures that trigger early embryonic development in birds, climate change also increases the frequency and duration of heat waves. Thus, warming temperatures are leading to asynchronous hatching of individual eggs within a clutch and increased chick mortality, particularly for birds breeding in the tropics and semi-tropics, and in tropical deserts.

5 of 123 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Interesting findings; and related... by belthize · · Score: 4, Informative

    This is a fairly significant problem for parts of Northern New Mexico through Central Colorado. I think though that it's kind of the opposite timing from what you describe. The Spruce Beetle larvae are spawning at an earlier time. The eggs of birds who primarily predate on them to feed their young aren't hatching early enough (they're hatching earlier, just not early enough) and are actually dwindling due to starvation while the infestation gets larger. The pine beetle infestation is even worse.

    It's rather stunning to see mile after mile of dead forest in parts of central Colorado.
    http://www.summitdaily.com/new...

  2. Re:my submission was plagiarised. by EzInKy · · Score: 4, Informative

    Probably because of this "Thank you for visiting Forbes. We noticed that you have an ad blocker enabled." Which makes the site useless to many of us.

    --
    Time is what keeps everything from happening all at once.
  3. Re:Confirmation Bias by reboot246 · · Score: 1, Informative

    Good post, but you'll probably get modded down. Slashdotters can't stand reason. Most aren't scientists and have no clue as to how science actually works.

  4. Re:Confirmation Bias by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Informative

    Oreally?

    Did they discuss other possible causes? I didn't see that. Did they rule out other possible causes? I didn't see that either.

    What I saw was them starting with a premise that "global warming" was causing that and they constructed an argument to support that.

    That is NOT Science.

  5. Re:Confirmation Bias by riverat1 · · Score: 3, Informative

    The paper was about the effect of temperatures on the nesting success of zebra finches. As part of the study they looked at natural conditions but they also tested the effects of artificially raising the temperature. The paper barely mentions global warming.