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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.

6 of 123 comments (clear)

  1. 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...

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.