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A new study has shown that avian species are showing alarming trends. Nests are being made and eggs laid nearly one month earlier than historical patterns.
Research published in Journal of Animal EcologyClimate change is now being seen as a new product. By comparing current observations with archived records and centuries-old eggs preserved and stored in collections, experts believe around one-third of birds in Chicago are laying their eggs around 25 days earlier than expected.
‘Egg collections are such a fascinating tool for us to learn about bird ecology over time,’ said John Bates, curator of birds at the Field Museum and the study’s lead author. ‘I love the fact that this paper combines these older and modern datasets to look at these trends over about 120 years and help answer really critical questions about how climate change is affecting birds.
‘Once I got to know our egg collection, I got to thinking about how valuable that collection’s data are, and how those data aren’t replicated in modern collections,’ he continued. The museum’s egg collection contains thousands of egg shells which have had their contents emptied, with information archived including the exact date they were collected and prepared for storage, with the majority falling into two large data sets: the first spanning 1880 to 1920, the second from 1990 to 2015.
It was discovered that one-third of the 72 bird species in Chicagoland had been laying eggs earlier than usual. This was also a major part of the research project.
Rising temperatures were thought to be the catalyst. However, historical information was lacking. As such, the work looked to the level of carbon in the atmosphere – a key contributor to rising temperatures – to understand the change in bird egg patterns better. They concluded that rising emissions and their effect on seasonal temperatures are driving this change in behaviour.
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Image credit: Hannah Schulte
