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Researchers used a mix of modern and Victorian-era egg samples to determine that several bird species in Chicago were able to lay eggs nearly a full month earlier than they did 100 years ago. The study was published in the Journal of Animal Ecology on Friday.
Researchers believe the climate crisis is to be blamed.
The team discovered that three-quarters of the 72 species they have documented were nesting earlier than expected. On average, eggs laid by birds that changed their nesting habits 25 days earlier than normal were laid by birds that had changed their nesting habits.
The team examined egg collections at the Field Museum in Chicago and the Western Foundation of Vertebrate Zoology.
Scientists looked at rising temperatures as a reason for the shift in behavior.
John Bates, the Field Museum’s curator of birds and study’s lead author, stated that most of the data’s birds eat insects so the whole ecosystem is interconnected. The results of this study match the patterns found in plant and insect communities.
Bates stated that although these stresses haven’t necessarily made any organisms extinct, they are changing the environment in which they live. “And that could have really important implications — and anything similar has potential big implications for humanity, too.”
The first collection included data between 1880 and 1920. The second set covers the period 1990 to 2015, leaving a large gap in information. Researchers believe the gap was caused by a decrease in egg collecting interest after 1920.
Mason Fidino (co-author of this paper) and a quantitative ecologist from Chicago’s Lincoln Park Zoo developed a model that included the approximate change during nesting time in the missing era. These results were then compared with changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide, temperature, and other factors.
Bates stated, “What the model may imply is that there are many factors involved with how birds respond to changes in their nesting dates,” “We need to do better at understanding which factors may be important.”
Friday’s report is another amazing discovery from the Field Museum and other foundations of zoology.
