Climate change forces waterbirds to shift their wintering ranges

A recent study, published in Global Change Biology, has found a strong link between changes in the numbers of Common Goldeneye, Tufted Duck and Goosander wintering across northern Europe and changes in temperature in early winter.

In fact, in Finland and Sweden, the mid-winter numbers of these three species are more than 130,000 individuals higher than three decades ago. On the southern edge of their distribution in France, Ireland and Switzerland, numbers have dropped by nearly 120,000 individuals. In several southern countries wintering numbers have halved.

Researchers, led by Aleksi Lehikoinen, curator at the Finnish Museum of Natural History, said that the study “demonstrates strong north-eastwards shifts in the centres of gravity of the entire wintering areas of three common waterbird species along the North-West Europe flyway during the past three decades. These shifts correlate with an increase of 3.8°C in early winter temperature in the north-eastern part of these ranges, where bird abundance increased exponentially, corresponding with decreases in abundance at the south-western margin of the wintering habitats.”

Richard Hearn is head of species monitoring at the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT) and contributed to the study. He commented: “Our world is changing rapidly and conservation tools need to be flexible so they can respond to that challenge. This means more monitoring to keep track of bird populations that are, in some cases, changing exponentially. It also means maintaining a coherent network of protected areas throughout Europe, and altering their management in response to the changing mix of wildlife that uses them.

“Studies like this are critical to making governments aware of their shifting responsibilities and helping them plan for the future.”

The British Trust for Ornithology’s (BTO’s) Bird Atlas 2007-11 is one of the biggest citizen scientist projects ever, mapping the changes in distribution and numbers of summer and winter birds across the UK. Find out how the findings above tally with those of the Atlas results in the July issue of Birdwatch (on sale 27 June).

Reference: Lehikoinen, A, et al. Rapid climate driven shifts in wintering distributions of three common waterbird species. Global Change Biology, first published online 18 April 2013. DOI: 10.1111/gcb.12200. Click here to read the abstract.