European researchers have found that birds who migrate long distances are arriving at their summer breeding grounds earlier.
Reporting in the journal Science, the group says that long-distance migrants appear to be adapting to warmer temperature changes as quickly as short-distance ones. Scientists had assumed that birds that do not travel far would change patterns more quickly.
In an interview with the BBC, Nils Christian Stenseth of the University of Oslo called the long-distance shift a "surprising and interesting evolutionary response to climate change."
The team compared the times of birds' arrival in Europe using information going back more than 20 years from banding stations in Italy and Scandinavia. They compared changes in arrival times for birds that migrate a few miles north with those migrating from Africa to Europe.
Stenseth said that because most birds start breeding when they are only a year old, genetic adaptations happen relatively quickly.
Copyright 2006 by United Press International
Related stories:
Polarized light pollution leads animals astray
Human-made light sources can alter natural light cycles, causing animals that rely on light cues to make mistakes when moving through their environment. In the journal
Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, a collaboration of ecologists, biologists and biophysicists has now shown that in addition to direct light, cues from polarized light can trigger animal behaviors leading to injury and often death.
A gift for planet Earth: Ways to save energy during the holidays
Penn State's Office of Sustainability offers suggestions for saving energy this holiday season.
New Research on Darwin's Finches Offers Rare Glimpse Into How Species Diverge
(PhysOrg.com) -- Some of the latest research on Darwin’s finches of the Galapagos Islands shows an unexpected pattern of natural selection that is allowing researchers “a rare glimpse into what the early stages of speciation might look like,” and emphasizing the central role of environmental conditions, according to Jeff Podos, a behavioral ecologist at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Speciation refers to the way new species arise from a common ancestor.
Females compensate for unattractive partners
(PhysOrg.com) -- Attractive males promise quality offspring. Most female birds therefore invest a lot of energy in their attempts to breed with attractive partners. Not so the female zebra finch. If they have unattractive male partners, the females lay particularly big eggs that contain a lot of nutrients. Because the finch pairs stay together for their entire lifespan, the female has no reason to save up resources for a subsequent and better partner. The low genetic quality of the male is compensated for by good egg quality, as discovered by the scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Seewiesen.
Exercisers face the challenge of dark times
This time of year tries runners' souls as much as their soles, and the same goes for cyclists and walkers. Really, almost anyone who exercises outdoors in the fall and winter has to deal with darkness descending earlier and earlier.
Climate change: Floods, drought, mosquito disease aim at Europe
Climate change will amplify the risk of flooding in northwestern Europe, water scarcity and forest fires on the northern Mediterranean rim and bring milder winters to Scandinavia, the European Environment Agency (EAA) said on Monday.
Professors teach robot to 'play ball'
(PhysOrg.com) -- Baseball is elegant in its simplicity. Pitch a ball, hit the ball. Score more runs than your opponent and you win the game.
Great bustards to be released on Salisbury Plain
Researchers at the University of Bath and conservationists from the Great Bustard Group will be releasing 19 birds on Salisbury Plain on Thursday 25 September as part of an ongoing reintroduction project in the UK.