Severe heat leads dramatic declines in tropical birds

Black Amazon throat is a sharp decrease

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In tropical areas such as Amazon and Panama, the population of some birds decreased by up to 90 percent Even mostly in the rain forests that you did not touch. Now, research has found that the most intense temperature is likely to be the main factor behind these declines.

Between 1950 and 2020, the intensification of thermal extremism led to a decrease between 25 and 38 percent in the abundance of birds that control lands in the tropics, according to a new study conducted. Maximilian Cotz At the center of supernatural computing in Barcelona and its colleagues.

The team has not yet used these results to try to show what will happen with the planet continued to heat, but the expectations are clearly worrying. “It is not a good -looking picture,” says Cotz.

He and his colleagues began data on the gatherings of birds that control lands all over the world from Live Planet Database. The study did not include water birds or marine birds. Then they got data on the destruction of habitats from HYDE database for the global environment Weather data and historical climate from the European Center for Medium Range Weather.

The researchers compared all these data to find the links that may explain the noticeable changes in the abundance of birds. In the middle of the girl between 21 degrees and 43 degrees north or south, the destruction of habitats was the main factor that leads to their declines, as their results indicate, in line with other studies.

But in tropical areas, the opposite insects were the largest factor. In these areas, birds often live near the boundaries of their heat and He dies if these limits are crossedCottz says. Even if they survive severe thermal events, their poor condition reduces the chances of reproduction.

After that, the team investigated the extent to which insect intensification of the heat is due to the phenomenon of global warming resulting from the human being, and thus how the people of birds were in the absence of warming. This allowed researchers to estimate the decline in the abundance of birds that are due to climate change.

A long time ago, support studies have been used to assess the extent to which harsh weather events refer to climate change, but Kots says that, as much as he knows, this study is the first to use it to consider environmental effects in this way.

There are large gaps in data about the abundance of birds, especially in tropical areas, Kotz admits, but it is believed to be sufficient to extract conclusions. If anything, the lack of data in the tropical areas will reduce the effects, he says.