Climate change link to puffin deaths

[nitpicker]

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-48447394

Climate change link to puffin deaths

By Helen Briggs
BBC News

30 May 2019

Climate change played a role in the deaths of thousands of puffins in Alaska, according to a study. Scientists believe the birds starved to death when the fish they eat migrated north with rising sea temperatures.

The bodies of dead, emaciated puffins began washing up on beaches on Saint Paul Island in autumn 2016. Up to 9,000 puffins and other seabirds died over the course of a few months, US scientists say. And climate-driven shifts in fish populations, combined with the onset of moulting, may have caused this mass die-off.
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The findings add to fears that rising temperatures are having unpredictable effects on birds, bats and other wildlife.
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The latest study looked at tufted puffins breeding in the Bering Sea, off the coast of Alaska. The birds feed on fish and marine invertebrates, which in turn feed on ocean plankton. Scientists fear that unusually warm waters can shift the ocean food web, spelling trouble for marine life, including puffins.

More than 350 bodies of seabirds were found on beaches on Saint Paul Island between October 2016 to January 2017. Most were tufted puffins but bodies of a second seabird, the Crested auklet, were also found.
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[kat3rinamarquez]

1. It's really happening

This breaks my heart. Not only Puffins suffer but actually lots of species. These adorable birds spend two-thirds of their year at the sea which is why they are getting more of the effect of climate change.