Friday, February 17, 2012

This is what Principalis warns about in "Aves"

Apparently, our woodpecker friend isn't just a loon.


SUMMIT COUNTY — Global warming is likely to drive hundreds of bird species to extinction in coming decades, as more intense and frequent extreme weather events destroy habitat and make foraging impossible.

“Birds are perfect canaries in the coal mine – it’s hard to avoid that metaphor – for showing the effects of global change on the world’s ecosystems and the people who depend on those ecosystems,” said Çağan Şekercioğlu , an assistant professor of biology at the University of Utah.
Şekercioğlu recently reviewed 200 scientific studies on climate change impacts to birds, concluding that 600 to 900 species are likely to go extinct by 2100. For context, there area about 10,000 bird species worldwide. The research suggests that each degree of warming could lead to the extinction of an additional 100 to 500 species.

Read full story here: 
http://summitcountyvoice.com/2012/02/17/global-warming-threatens-tropical-birds/

Courtesy photo