Birds on the brink?

Abstract

book reviews ISSN 1948-6596 Birds on the brink? Birds and Climate Change: Impacts and Conservation Responses. James W. Pearce-Higgins and Rhys E. Green, 2014, Cambridge University Press. 467 pp. £75 (hardback) / £40 (paperback) ISBN: 9780521114288 / 9780521132190; http://www.cambridge.org This is a very readable book. With many academ- ic texts, best value is obtained by a selective ap- proach, dipping in and out, but this book can be easily and profitably read from cover to cover. The overall structure is logical. After a short sum- mary of how the climate is changing, the first part of the book deals with potential impacts of climate change on bird distributions, abundance and productivity and the second part on how conservation efforts (including negative aspects as well as positive ones) might respond to the challenges. Each chapter usually ends with dis- cussion of overall conclusions in addition to an actual summary. This could tend towards repeti- tion, but it is well done and serves to cement the main points and maintain the narrative. Similar- ly, statistical descriptions and results of particu- lar analyses are included within separate boxes so you don’t lose the plot or get lost in the de- tail—all of which contributes to excellent reada- bility and comprehension. In temperate Europe at least, most peo- ple's perception of climate change in relation to birds is probably linked with phenology, the ten- dency for birds to start breeding earlier and for spring in general to be earlier. This book howev- er makes it clear that climate fundamentally shapes all aspects of bird ecology. At all scales from global to local, temperature and rainfall patterns have direct effects on bird survival and breeding success, and indirectly influence habitat type, structure and composition. While much has been made of early breeding by some species, others have not changed their timing (or have even shifted later). Phenological responses also differ for residents, and short and long distance migrants, depending on the cues used to time migration and breeding behavior (e.g. local tem- perature, vegetation changes, changes in food abundance). Thus bird communities will change with the potential to alter resource use and com- petitive interactions. The complexities of climate change effects on birds are illustrated by the groups currently identified as most at risk, that is, seabirds, upland birds, long distance migrants, some forest birds and specialists. Changes in ocean temperatures, fronts and circulation pat- terns are altering the abundance and distribution of food resources for seabirds, rising tempera- tures are changing habitat suitability for upland birds, some forest species may be at risk from phenological mismatch and the fine tuning of specialists may be challenged by rapid changes in habitats and bird communities. Long distance migrants stand to face a triple whammy with temperature, rainfall and habitat changes in both their breeding and wintering ranges and at all points in between. The book makes it clear that despite great interest and concern over climate change and its effects on birds, clear hard evidence of deleteri- ous (or beneficial) effects is as yet relatively scarce. This is probably not surprising as real change has yet to occur; the next 100 years or so could amount to ‘interesting times’. The book deals in some detail with the currently best- researched aspect, i.e. phenology, and its corol- lary of mismatching, and gives a well-balanced account of a sometimes contradictory literature. It then takes the very sensible approach of exam- ining how climate and weather currently affect bird demographic rates (and population sizes) and hence what the impacts of future changes might be. This highlights the potential im- portance of changes in rainfall, and in particular of drought, especially in the tropics. As with most aspects of bird ecology, there is a notable lack of research in the tropics, with most studies being in north temperate and boreal regions. The book then continues down the chain from direct climate and weather effects to indi- rect influences on habitats and land use change. frontiers of biogeography 7.2, 2015 — © 2015 the authors; journal compilation © 2015 The International Biogeography Society