Scottish climate change could wipe out rare birds

By JULIA HORTON 

Published on 10/05/2013 00:00

Some of Scotland’s rarest birds could be wiped out by the end of the century as a new UK report highlights “profound” climate change in the Highlands, experts have warned.

Ptarmigan, dotterel and snow bunting have already been forced to the tops of the highest Scottish peaks as global warming has shrunk the cooler high- altitude habitat which they need to survive.

snow bunting

Experts yesterday published a new report highlighting numerous accepted predictions that climatic conditions in the birds’ territory will have altered so much that within 100 years they will be squeezed out completely because there will be nowhere left for them to go.

The latest warning was made in the Terrestrial Biodiversity Climate Change Impacts Report Card, the first assessment of its kind in the UK bringing together research by 40 scientists to produce an overview of the affects of climate change on biodiversity now – and predictions for the future.

Environmental groups in Scotland, including Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) which helped to create the report card, voiced grave concerns over the affect of the changing climate on the birds’ niche Highlands habitat.

Professor Des Thompson, SNH principal advisor on biodiversity, stressed that “generations of study” were needed to get a clear picture of the effect of climate change on the Scottish mountains.

But he added: “From what we know, yes, there have been changes and, yes, they appear to have been profound, but we need further time to appreciate all the factors at work here. A 30- or 50-year period of study is in effect a very small snapshot but what is extraordinary is seeing how this habitat has changed over quite a small timeframe.

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What's troubling subarctic bird species like ptarmigan, gyrfalcon?

A Yukon biologist says ptarmigan and gyrfalcon populations could be in decline across Canada's northwestern Yukon territory. Dave Mossop says the fluctuations in these two "key" species could be a sign of greater trouble across the food chain.

Robert Massolini photo

Both populations usually peak in a 10-year cycle but recent bird surveys do not indicate a peak as expected. Mossop says the unexpected change in the cycle could be a result of climate change or other factors.

"For the last cycle yes, it declined, for reasons that we don't understand," says Mossop. "But the great hope is that things will re-establish themselves. The 10-year cycle in the boreal system is one of the most obvious things that's happening, and for some reason it faltered. That's kind of where we are now."

Mossop says gyrfalcons depend on ptarmigan as a source of food and that the predatory birds will stop breeding when there aren't enough ptarmigan to eat.

He says the Yukon Research Centre has access to a database on arctic birds which dates 50 years. Mossup says tracking willow ptarmigan and gyrfalcons is important because the birds are respectively at the bottom and top of the food chain.

"A lot of the research went into understanding the amazing intricacies between these two species," he says. "They evolved together and depend on each other. But recently as everybody knows the tundra systems are in harm's way and things are changing. In particular at the top of the food chain because the gyrfalcon is dependent on the whole thing working properly. What we're seeing is a change in the birds' ability to maintain their populations."

Scientists recently counted gyrfalcon eggs in the Ogilve Mountains in central Yukon as part of a falcon survey.

Mossup says the predators are relatively easy to monitor because they build nests in the same place year after year.

Continued:  http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/whats-troubling-subarctic-bird-species-ptarmigan-gyrfalcon