Due to climate change, extreme weather events such as heat waves become more common. These heat periods in particular increase birds in the tropics, which are already fighting with high temperatures, as a new study shows. Accordingly, the tropical bird populations have shrunk by 25 to 38 percent since 1950. Thus, climate change threatens tropical birds more than previously thought and even more than direct human activities such as deforestation.
Almost half of all types of birds live in tropical regions – they are a hotspot of winged biodiversity. But for many tropical birds, the temperatures there are already close to their thermal tolerance limit. It is known that global warming and the increasing average temperatures therefore also affect these tropical birds. “High temperatures can lead to increased mortality, reduced fertility, changing breeding behavior and reduced survival rate of descendants,” explains a team around Maximilian Kotz from Barcelona Super Computing Center. Because birds are particularly sensitive to dehydration and heat stress.
How do birds get along with weather extremes?
Unclear
