Climate change affecting Europe’s birds now, say researchers

Durham University: Climate change is already having a detectable impact on birds across Europe, according to a group of scientists led by Durham University. The scientists are publishing their findings to create the world’s first indicator of the climate change impacts on wildlife at a continental scale.

Published in the journal PloS ONE, scientists have shown a strong link between observed population change of individual species and the projected range change, associated with climate change, among a number of widespread and common European birds, including the goldfinch and the lesser spotted woodpecker.

By pulling all the data together, the team has compiled an indicator showing how climate change is affecting wildlife across Europe. The European Union has adopted the indicator as an official measure of the impacts of climate change on the continent’s wildlife; the first indicator of its kind.

…The RSPB’s Dr Richard Gregory, the paper’s lead author, said: “We hear a lot about climate change, but our paper shows that its effects are being felt right now. The results show the number of species being badly affected outnumbers the species that might benefit by three to one. Although we have only had a very small actual rise in global average temperature, it is staggering to realise how much change we are noticing in wildlife populations. If we don’t take our foot off the gas now, our indicator shows there will be many much worse effects to come. We must keep global temperature rise below the two degree ceiling; anything above this will create global havoc.”

Dr Stephen Willis, of Durham University, said: “The impact of climatic changes, both positive and negative, can now be summarised in a single indicator which we’ve called the Climatic Impact Indicator. A period of stable annual average temperatures in Europe ended in the early 1980s, and this new Indicator shows that climate change is affecting many species but in different ways. Climate change is having an adverse effect on many birds, though some species are actually benefiting from the recent changes.

…The Climate Change Indicator combines two independent strands of work; bioclimate envelope-modelling and observed populations trends in European birds, derived from the Pan-European Common Bird Monitoring Scheme.

A European eagle owl, shot by John Haslam from Dornoch, Scotland, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License