Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Desert Songbirds May Face Expanding Threat of Lethal Dehydration
http://www.umass.edu/newsoffice/article/desert-songbirds-may-face-expanding-threat[font face=Serif][font size=5]Desert Songbirds May Face Expanding Threat of Lethal Dehydration[/font]
[font size=4]UMass Amherst biologist and team find small birds face higher risk than larger birds[/font]
February 13, 2017
Contact: Janet Lathrop 413/545-0444
[font size=3]AMHERST, Mass – A new study of songbird dehydration and survival risk during heat waves in the United States desert Southwest suggests that some birds are at risk of lethal dehydration and mass die-offs when water is scarce, and the risk is expected to increase as climate change advances.
Using physiological data, hourly temperature maps and modeling, first author Tom Albright at the University of Nevada, Reno, with Blair Wolf at the University of New Mexico and Alexander Gerson at the University of Massachusetts Amherst investigated how rates of evaporative water loss varied in five bird species with varied body mass. They mapped potential effects of current and future heat waves on lethal dehydration risk for songbirds in the Southwest and how rapidly this can occur in each species. Details are in today’s issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Gerson brings expertise in avian heat tolerance physiology to these studies.One question he and colleagues addressed is whether some birds are more susceptible and at risk from heat exposure than others. They looked at the lesser goldfinch, house finch, cactus wren, Abert’s towhee and curve-billed thrasher, representing “a wide range of body sizes,” Gerson notes. They found the small species lose water faster than large, making them particularly susceptible to lethal dehydration.
The researchers state, “Our models reveal that increasing air temperatures and heat wave occurrence will potentially have important impacts on the water balance, daily activity and geographic distribution of arid-zone birds. Impacts may be exacerbated by chronic effects and interactions with other environmental changes. This work underscores the importance of acute risks of high temperatures, particularly for small-bodied species, and suggests conservation of thermal refugia and water sources.”
…[/font][/font]
http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1613625114[font size=4]UMass Amherst biologist and team find small birds face higher risk than larger birds[/font]
February 13, 2017
Contact: Janet Lathrop 413/545-0444
[font size=3]AMHERST, Mass – A new study of songbird dehydration and survival risk during heat waves in the United States desert Southwest suggests that some birds are at risk of lethal dehydration and mass die-offs when water is scarce, and the risk is expected to increase as climate change advances.
Using physiological data, hourly temperature maps and modeling, first author Tom Albright at the University of Nevada, Reno, with Blair Wolf at the University of New Mexico and Alexander Gerson at the University of Massachusetts Amherst investigated how rates of evaporative water loss varied in five bird species with varied body mass. They mapped potential effects of current and future heat waves on lethal dehydration risk for songbirds in the Southwest and how rapidly this can occur in each species. Details are in today’s issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Gerson brings expertise in avian heat tolerance physiology to these studies.One question he and colleagues addressed is whether some birds are more susceptible and at risk from heat exposure than others. They looked at the lesser goldfinch, house finch, cactus wren, Abert’s towhee and curve-billed thrasher, representing “a wide range of body sizes,” Gerson notes. They found the small species lose water faster than large, making them particularly susceptible to lethal dehydration.
The researchers state, “Our models reveal that increasing air temperatures and heat wave occurrence will potentially have important impacts on the water balance, daily activity and geographic distribution of arid-zone birds. Impacts may be exacerbated by chronic effects and interactions with other environmental changes. This work underscores the importance of acute risks of high temperatures, particularly for small-bodied species, and suggests conservation of thermal refugia and water sources.”
…[/font][/font]