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Climate Change And Its Impact On Migratory Birds In North America; Know Drastic Results

By Vin Ross | Update Date: May 18, 2017 07:08 AM EDT

So far, there has already been plenty of published ill-effects of climate change, as well as some measures that can be carried out to reduce it. Now, this is the time to see how man-made pollution is affecting other species we coexist with. Its bad effects has reached a new location - American backyards.

Impact On Migratory Birds

The northern breeding grounds have been attracting migratory birds for centuries and this natural process coincides with the growth of spring plants. A research report published in Scientific Reports, showed a detailed discussion and experiment done by a group of researchers from multiple universities.

They studied collected data by citizen scientists and satellites views taken between 2001 and 2012. Their motive was to track how climate change is affecting the natural ability of the birds to exactly time or schedule their arrival at the breeding grounds, as reported by Futurism.

Bird migration is mainly prompted by annually consistent physiological responses to photoperiod but the researchers say that their conditions at the breeding grounds actually depend on annually variable climate. The scientists presently involved in the study also merged satellite, as well as citizen science data to find out the rate of change in 48 breeding passerine species of North America, Nature elaborates.

Researchers Get To See Drastic Results In Some Species

They found that only 9 out of 48 North American didn’t reach the breeding grounds by the deadline for mating and breeding to reproduce next generations. They also discovered an average gap stretched by over half a day per year across all species.

This would stand an average estimation of five days on every 10 years. The impact of climate change has brought changes - for some species more severe, like double or triple.

The scientists blame the effect of climate change in the rise of global temperature that affects the growth cycles of plants. This is because the constant climate change is also changing the natural time of plants for putting out new leaves.

In North America, the process has become sooner than normal, whereas it is going late in the western part of the continent. Stay tuned for more updates.

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