Climate change not sparing migratory birds

Everyone has noticed that the weather is unusual around spring time of year. Depending on where you live in South Africa and who you're asking, it's hotter, colder, wetter or drier than you can remember. So, as spring becomes the new summer the question being asked is, what's going on? According to Dave Thompson, a researcher with the South African Environmental Observation Network (SAEON), the simple answer is that the global climate is changing, and the heat is definitely on. Established in 2002, SAEON is an environmental observation network that delivers long-term reliable data for scientific research and informs decision-making for a knowledge society and improved quality of life. It has been doing several researches on climate change including its impact on birds and insects. At a meeting of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2007, experts and officials accepted that climate change is a human-induced reality. Average temperatures world-wide have increased by almost 1oC in the last century and are predicted to rise by another 5oC by 2100. With this in mind, a more appropriate question might be how is the natural world responding to a changing climate? Well for one thing, mounting evidence from studies carried out in the northern hemisphere reveals that deciduous trees are leafing, flowers are blooming and migratory birds are arriving anywhere from one to two weeks earlier than they did 30 years ago. In essence, spring has sprung - but it's all happening just a little too soon. Thompson said by monitoring the timing of biological events in plants and animals locally, the SAEON is attempting to understand and respond to the impacts of climate change on South Africa's biodiversity. "As the timing of important events shift, we anticipate problems for the completion of life cycles in certain organisms; the loss of synchrony between interacting species – especially between plants and their pollinators; resource limitations and changes in the competitive advantage between species," Thompson said in a document sent to Xinhua Friday. "This will undoubtedly and negatively change the composition and organization of the natural world around us. It's also important to realize that the need to understand and manage these changes is much broader than simply us wanting to be environmental good Samaritans," he said. According to SAEON, the biggest challenge that climate-change biologists face in understanding the response of organisms to the environment is that the effect of recent weather events can mask the effect of long-term climate change. The impact of these very different factors on plants and animals can only be separated by analyzing large amounts of data recorded over decades and ideally sourced from many different localities. "Unfortunately this is exactly the sort of data that is sorely lacking in South Africa," says Thompson. He said in order to address this short-fall SAEON has launched two new citizen science projects – Climate Buddy and Turning New Leaf. Citizen science projects invite members of the public, from individuals and families to groups such as schools and environmental/conservation bodies, to participate in observing local biological events that are likely indicators of climate change. "The depth and breadth of data that can be collected by an organized group of enthusiastic volunteers will allow researchers to conduct studies that would have otherwise been logistically impossible," Thompson said.