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

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.

24 of 123 comments (clear)

  1. Development by phorm · · Score: 2

    Does this cause developmental issues, or does the heat also result in a faster maturation cycle while in the egg?

    In this case, it seems they're equally developed, but latter lays don't hatch at the same time as the others and thus are less developed than their earlier-hatching siblings.

    1. Re:Development by techno-vampire · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Good question. TFA explains that a female zebra finch will lay one egg a day for five days, but she won't start incubating them until they're all laid. This means that all five will hatch at about the same time, making them easier to care for. If the weather's too hot, the first eggs laid start developing before she starts sitting on them, messing up the timing. And, if it gets hot enough in the nest, the embryos can be damaged or even killed.

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  2. Interesting findings; and related... by skelly33 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I read another study about a year ago (the link for which I can't find, so I profusely apologize in advance for the lack of citation), which also found that warmer temperatures were causing eggs to hatch sooner... but that the new birdlings were starving to death for a different reason: the timing of their hatching no longer aligns with the bloom of insects which are required for their sustenance. Apparently the insects did not get the memo that the warmer temperatures should also make them spring forth earlier in the season. So they are still business as usual after the young birds are already dying out, but as far as the birds are concerned, the bugs are late to the party... now I wonder if an additional side effect is an atypically larger insect population due to the comparative lack of predators.

    1. Re:Interesting findings; and related... by Your.Master · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Fine. You tell me why the birds are hatching early and then starving to death from a lack of insects, in historically unprecedented ways. Your theory should provide evidence of comparable quality to that in this paper: http://rsos.royalsocietypublis.... It will not be sufficient for you to say "a kid stomped on all the bugs" or something like that.

      It's not like they pulled this answer out of their asses. They presented actual evidence, whereas you are countering that by saying "well OF COURSE you'd say that, regardless of the evidence".

    2. 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...

    3. Re:Interesting findings; and related... by tbannist · · Score: 2

      I feel I should warn you that AM appears to be entirely immune to logic, facts and reason. This is especially true when it comes to anything libertarian in nature, and he is an ardent opposer of climate change because it challenges his deeply held libertarian beliefs that the free market is perfect and will correct every problem.

      I am sure he will either ignore you, or invent another spurious reason why he needs to ignore the the facts.

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    4. Re:Interesting findings; and related... by radarskiy · · Score: 3, Funny

      Birds have a well-known liberal bias.

    5. Re:Interesting findings; and related... by riverat1 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      And having looked at the dataset, I can conclude that it is incomplete (as shown) because there is no date ranges for each of the data points in the spread graph (fig 1). All it shows is that the heat band (grey box) is the danger zone. They haven't shown increasing temperatures as the cause for the datapoints in that range.

      With an analysis of the graph like that I can see why I always think you don't have a clue what you're talking about. The x-axis of the graph is clearly labeled July through June (the equivalent seasonally of January through December in the Northern Hemisphere) and the caption to the graph says the points of the graph represent the daily maximum temperature from 2005 to 2013. On top of that the caption says the grey band is the ideal range for avian embryo development.

      The paper wasn't trying to say anything about anthropogenic global warming, it was just looking at the effect of temperature on the nesting success of zebra finches.

    6. Re:Interesting findings; and related... by tbannist · · Score: 2

      "Ignore the facts" meaning "healthy skepticism".

      There's nothing "healthy" about your "skepticism". It is entirely one-sided and engineered to insulate your from inconvenient truths.

      Like when the CRU at UEA was caught manipulating the numbers (and then conveniently "lost" them) ? Those facts?

      I would refute your claims, except that you left out all specifics other than the target you wish you discredit with vague allegations, however, assuming you're referring to "climategate", eight separate investigations found that the claims you are repeating were invented bullshit based on quote-mining thousands of emails.

      or the fact that the Polar Cap has more ice now than it should given Global Warming? (should be gone according to Al Gore!) Those facts?

      More facts that aren't. Arctic ice losses are consistently out-pacing actual predictions, so there is less sea ice in the Arctic than the IPCC predicted there would be. Also, Al Gore (who is not a scientist) actually said that one study predicted ice could be gone in less than 22 years, and a second study by a U.S Navy researcher warned it could happen in as little as seven years.

      Or the "starving polar bear" facts ?

      What about starving polar bears?

      Or any of the other 97.4% of the predictions gone wrong. Those facts?

      http://www.westernjournalism.c...

      Yea, a link to a conservative blog post written three years ago about a Fox News article about a Nature Climate Change article, is certainly evidence of something... It took me a while to find it, but the actual commentary article says that runs that they did of the CMIP5 models over-estimated warming from 1993 to 2012 according to the HadCRUT4 temperature data. So, it's 97.4% of the predictions from a single set of models as run by three researchers that are overestimating observed warming, and they then point out a number of reasons why that might be the case.

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  3. Caribou as well. by darkonc · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Native communities in Northern Saskatchewan are dealing with the problem of caribou herds moving north. Their ranges are no longer within range of hunters from the communities. I theory, the climate change would have probably cause buffalo to move north to replace them, but the buffalo are mostly extinct, now.

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    Sometimes boldness is in fashion. Sometimes only the brave will be bold.
  4. Re:I agree that climate change has these effects by Your.Master · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This climate change is caused almost entirely by the sun and the oceans.

    But this isn't borne out by evidence. The sun has cooled very slightly, but the temperature has spiked up: https://www.skepticalscience.c...

    The oceans absorb and release carbon dioxide in direct proportion to atmospheric carbon dioxide. They essentially function to reduce the impact of atmospheric CO2 changes that would otherwise happen, in either direction. The ocean doesn't just burp out CO2 on a whim.

    Every reputable expert on geologic evidence I can find suggest that geologic evidence actually indicates that current climate change is overwhelmingly from human activity, and unusually rapid. There will of course be error bars and overall trendlines from natural sources as well, although it's not even clear that trendline runs in the same direction as current climate change.

  5. We're all gonna die!!!!!! by NotDrWho · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The end is nigh!!!!!!

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    SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
    1. Re:We're all gonna die!!!!!! by Falconhell · · Score: 2, Insightful

      SJW is a useful acronym for finding who is a Self-Righteous equality hating White redneck-free-speech Bigot, especially if it's in their signature.
      FTFY.

  6. Re:time to add a new one by d34thm0nk3y · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Imagine that, a change that effects the entire planet's atmosphere might cause a whole variety of changes across said planet. Its almost like if you change variables in a chaotic system you can get a wide range of surprising effects.

  7. Re: This will make those Republicans so happy... by PopeRatzo · · Score: 2

    Let's not forget that he was there to murder birds.

    But not bird fetuses, which is what really matters.

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  8. Re:time to add a new one by Archangel+Michael · · Score: 2

    especially "earthquakes" and the spin of the earth.

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  9. 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.

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    Time is what keeps everything from happening all at once.
  10. Re: time to add a new one by Namarrgon · · Score: 2

    That list has a duplicated item. This is clear proof that the whole list has been fabricated by a conspiracy of neocons to drive their global agenda! I demand to see the emails of the authors!

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    Why would anyone engrave "Elbereth"?
  11. Re:Confirmation Bias by riverat1 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Or you could go actually read the original paper to see if you could detect any confirmation bias. I did and it's not that hard to read if you have a little biology literacy.

  12. Re:But not as early as my... by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 2

    Rattlesnakes are ovoviviparous. They don't lay eggs.

    Do you think AC will even know what that means?

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    The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
  13. Re:I agree that climate change has these effects by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 3, Funny

    Every reputable expert on geologic evidence I can find suggest that geologic evidence actually indicates that current climate change is overwhelmingly from human activity, and unusually rapid.

    Well there's your problem. Getting your science information from Scientists, instead of Politicians and the industries that own them. Whooooeeeee! what next? Gettin' healthcare from Doctors? That's crazy thinkin'!

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    The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
  14. Re:Birds adapt but humans can't! by Ol+Olsoc · · Score: 3, Insightful

    So birds in their wisdom can adapt to climate change but the weeping willies say humans can't.

    Of course we can. Those adaptations might not be all that much fun for some of us though.

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    The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
  15. Re:time to add a new one by Maow · · Score: 2

    How the ever-loving fuck did this get modded +4 Informative?!?

    Slashdot has been looking so much more positive lately (thanks whipslash) but the mods on this topic, WTF?

    Another tech site (like El Reg) where a science topic can't be discussed rationally due to the denialist BS.

    It's a fucking shame. Truly shameful that technologists let their personal tribal biases and politics get in the way of real, actual science.

  16. 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.