Bird migration patterns are an essential part of environmental systems, feeding on insects in different areas, dispersing seeds and providing an important metric for studying the environmental health of an area.
New research by ornithologists at Colorado State University, using 24 years of radar migration data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, suggests that bird migration may be occurring earlier in the spring than in years past due to climate change.
The research, led by assistant professor Kyle Horton, hopes to explain why migration patterns of nocturnal birds are changing, and whether climate change could be the cause.
“To see changes in timing at continental scales is truly impressive, especially considering the diversity of behaviors and strategies used by the many species the radars capture,” Horton said in a press release.
Over the 24 years the data was collected, the data collection process has become easier, with use of Amazon Web Service’s Big Data Process that helps analyze the complex results. Because of this, researchers can make more sense of the years of findings, the release said.
“Historically, a person had to look at each radar image to determine whether it contained rain or birds,” Dan Sheldon said in the press release. The associate professor of computer science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst is collaborating on the project. “We developed ‘MistNet,’ an artificial intelligence system to detect patterns in radar images and remove rain automatically.”
Jenny Sparks / Loveland Reporter-Herald file
A hummingbird drinks nectar from a flower Aug. 7, 2018, at Chapungu Sculpture Park at The Promenade shops at Centerra. Many hummingbirds spend the winter in Central America or Mexico. They migrate back north for the summer season and can begin arriving back in mid-April to May. They migrate south again in late August through September. (Jenny Sparks/Loveland Reporter-Herald file)Their research shows that birds that migrate in the spring have been passing certain monitored spots earlier in the year than they had in the past, almost perfectly in line with measurements of rising temperatures in the area.
The researchers said fall migrations are less precise, as seasonal changes tend to be slower and milder, and the birds are not competing for mates then. Because of this, fall migrations have remained relatively unchanged, and the data more difficult to analyze.
“In the spring, we see bursts of migrants, moving at a fairly rapid pace, ultimately to reach the breeding grounds,” Horton said in the release. “However, during the fall, there’s not as much pressure to reach the wintering grounds, and migration tends to move at a slower, more punctuated pace.”
According to Horton, the research is significant because it can help predict future patterns of behavior for these animals, as well as to foresee any problems that may arise within ecosystems because of these changes.
Going forward, Horton and his team hope to research the impacts of this effect on Alaska, where climate change has had a much stronger effect, as the data used for their first study looked at only the 48 continental states.
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January 09, 2020 at 08:41AM
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CSU researchers examine climate change effect on bird migration - Loveland Reporter-Herald
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