As temperatures rise in northern regions, migrating species are seeing less benefit from migrating north for the summer months, according to scientists who reviewed 25 recent studies.
As temperatures rise in northern regions, migrating species are seeing less benefit from migrating north for the summer months, according to scientists who reviewed 25 recent studies.
In the warm months, birds, mammals, and insects head north to access food, escape predators, and avoid diseases made worse by summer heat. But with climate change, many species are seeing shrinking food supplies and encountering new parasites and pathogens in the Arctic. This has stunted reproduction and increased mortality among migrating species, the scientists write in the journal Trends in Ecology & Evolution.
“Lemmings and voles used to be the main food source for predators such as foxes in the Arctic, however the milder winters can cause rain to fall on snow and then re-freeze, preventing the lemmings from reaching their food,” said Vojtěch Kubelka, a biologist at the Global Change Research Institute in the Czech Republic and lead author of the study. “With fewer lemmings and voles to feed on, foxes eat the eggs and chicks of migratory birds instead.”
Read more at: Yale Environment 360
A wild saiga antelope at the Stepnoi Sanctuary, Astrakhan Oblast, Russia. (Photo Credit: Andrey Giljov via Wikipedia)
