Date:
November 13, 2015
Source:
Dartmouth College
Phenological
mismatches, or a mistiming between creatures and the prey and plants they eat,
is one of the biggest known impacts of climate change on ecological systems.
But a Dartmouth-led study finds that one common migratory songbird has a
natural flexibility in its breeding time that has helped stave off mismatches,
at least for now.
The
results suggest this flexibility provides a buffer against climate warming for
the black-throated blue warbler in eastern North America and potentially for
other migratory forest birds in temperate zones, but such resilience probably
has limits.
The
study appears in the journal Oikos. The research included scientists from
Dartmouth College, Norwegian Institute of Nature Research, Smithsonian
Conservation Biology Institute and Wellesley College.
"Understanding
the effects of climate warming on ecological systems is critical for the
conservation of forest bird species and their habitats," says lead author
Nina Lany, who conducted the study as part of her doctoral degree at Dartmouth
and is now a postdoctoral researcher at Michigan State University.
The
researchers studied the causes and consequences of year-to-year variation over
25 years in the breeding time of the black-throated blue warbler in the Hubbard
Brook Experimental Forest in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. They
compared its breeding time and success to the timing of spring leaf-out and the
availability of the leaf-feeding caterpillars eaten by birds. The timing of
spring leaf-out varies by as much as a month from year to year in hardwood
forests of the northeastern United States. This variability poses a challenge
to migratory birds that migrate from the tropics and then time their breeding
to maximize reproductive success.
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