Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Monday 6 March 2017

Warming, taller shrubs may affect birds breeding on tundra

DAN JOLING Peninsula, which juts 200
Associated Press miles into the Bering Sea
ANCHORAGE, Alaska in western Alaska and in-
(AP) — More shrubs mov- cludes the city of Nome.
ing onto Arctic tundra be- The peninsula, Thompson
cause of climate change said, is ideal for study be-
will have minimal effect on cause it includes coastal
many of the bird species habitat and inland set-
that breed there, but birds tings at a variety of eleva-
likely will seek other habitat tions. It’s also along the
when the shrubs grow tall, transition between boreal
according to a new fed- forest and tundra, Thomp-
eral study. son said.“We can look at
A study by the U.S. Geolog- all these different kinds
ical Survey concludes that of habitats that might ex-
the size of the shrubs was ist in different amounts in
more critical than the den- the future and see where
sity in determining whether birds are, and then we can
birds would continue in the project forward,” she said.
habitat. The 17 birds ranged in size
“Height came out to be from songbirds, such as
the most indicative of bird the bluethroat, which flies
habitat selection,” said in from Eurasia, to wad-
Sarah Thompson, a USGS ing birds such as whimbrel
research wildlife biologist and bristle-thighed curlews
based in Anchorage and that fly in from other parts
the lead author of the of North America to breed This June 30, 2016 photo provided by the U.S. Geological Survey shows a Bristle-thighed Curlew
study. on tundra. The birds time in Nome, Alaska.
Multiple studies have the hatching of their eggs Associated Press
shown that tundra areas to the height of insect sea-
are getting more shrubs, son, Thompson said.The Arctic is having effects the changes in these birds, way in the future, these
Thompson said. Climate research did not attempt both at sea and on land to rather than going out now, things are going to hap-
warming also is having ef- to explain why tall shrubs avian populations.Howev- and saying, ‘Oh, by the pen,’ “ Divoky said.q
fects in the form of longer made tundra less appeal- er, he said, the paper only
growing seasons, thawing ing to birds, such as effects emphasized shrubs instead
permafrost and more fre- on nesting or insects. That of other important fac-
quent and intense wildfires, likely will be addressed in tors affecting birds on the
the authors said. future studies, she said. peninsula, such as warmer
“All across Alaska, you see George Divoky, director temperatures and birds’
this kind of shrub encroach- of the nonprofit Friends of dependence on seeds
ment into places that pre- Cooper Island, who has and insects.
viously didn’t have shrubs studied Arctic seabirds for “They should have been
or didn’t have tall or many more than four decades going out ever since, cer-
shrubs,” Thompson said. off the coast of northern tainly, the 1990s when cli-
The researchers over three Alaska, said the study is mate change got to be
summers studied 17 bird one more piece of evi- an issue, and doing plots
species on the Seward dence that the warming and actually measuring