Abstract
Many organisms have been found to respond to global warming by adjusting one or several aspects of their ecology, such as timing of migration events, time at reproduction and size at maturity. We examined changes in arrival and departure times, and age and sex ratios of overwintering White-throated Dippers Cinclus cinclus in northern Sweden, by comparing data collected in 1975–1979 to a similar dataset from 2010–2014. Between these periods, the average winter temperature had increased by about 2°C. During the latter period the Dippers arrived in their winter area two weeks earlier and departed three weeks earlier. We found no change in age and sex ratios during the study period.
Highlights
IntroductionThere are good evidence showing an earlier arrival to, and an earlier departure from the breeding grounds, and these changes are associated with a warmer climate (Hüppop & Hüppop 2003, Cotton 2003, Møller et al 2011)
Among birds, several effects of climate change have been reported
In 2010–2014, a larger proportion of the Dippers arrived in the area already in October–November and fewer were present in April, compared to 1975–1979
Summary
There are good evidence showing an earlier arrival to, and an earlier departure from the breeding grounds, and these changes are associated with a warmer climate (Hüppop & Hüppop 2003, Cotton 2003, Møller et al 2011). These changes are not consistent among species groups. Jenni & Kéry (2003) found that autumn migration had advanced in species overwintering south of the Sahara while those overwintering north of the Sahara had delayed their departure The result of these studies suggests that many birds leave from and arrive to their winter areas earlier. Studies on waterbirds have shown that in these areas ducks have advanced their spring arrival, and winter population densities and species number of waterbirds have increased, since the 1990s (Guilleman et al 2013, Musilova et al 2015)
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