Arctic warming is shrinking the red knot shorebird
CBC Radio | Posted: May 27, 2016 7:56 PM | Last Updated: May 27, 2016
Birds are being born too late for best feeding, due to climate change
The red knot is a small shorebird that migrates from its breeding grounds throughout the high Arctic to wintering grounds in various locations in the tropics and southern hemisphere.
Scientists, including Dr. Marcel Klaassen from the Centre For Integrative Ecology at Deakin University in Australia, looked at one sub-species that breeds in the Russian High Arctic and winters in Mauritania in Africa. They studied data from the past 30 years and determined that the red knot is 15 percent smaller today, apparently because of climate change.
Snow melts two weeks earlier today in a warmer Arctic, resulting in an earlier peak in insect availability. The red knot chicks miss that peak food source and have consequently grown smaller over the three decades, resulting in a shorter bill. That means that they are unable to retrieve molluscs, deep in the sand on the shores of some wintering grounds, and have had to rely on less nutritious food sources.
Related Links