Getting to UCCBIRDS AND CLIMATE CHANGE: CAN CURRENT RESEARCH REVEAL THE FUTURE?
CONVENORS
Dr Dan Chamberlain
British Trust for Ornithology, The Nunnery, Thetford, IP24 2PU, UK.
Fax. 0044 1842 750050. email dan.chamberlain@bto.org
Climate change is a severe global threat to natural ecosystems. There is overwhelming evidence that our climate is changing and that this change is having an increasing impact on biodiversity. Studies have shown that a large number of species have gone or are undergoing changes in their distribution and abundance as a result of changing temperatures. For birds, evidence for impacts of climatic variation—and by implication, of directional climate change—include: changes in population sizes, changes in geographical distributions, shifts in the timing of breeding and changes in timing of migration. Understanding the future impacts of climate change and taking steps to ameliorate these effects are therefore key goals in ecology. Central to this is the need, recognised in the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, to constantly review changes in the range, abundance and condition of species and habitats, analyse the causes of change and respond to changing priorities.
This is a broad-ranging symposium that will consider recent impacts that have occurred on bird populations due to changes in climate, and assess how European bird communities are likely to change over the course of the next few decades. However, a central theme of the symposium will be to assess how current knowledge can be used to improve our understanding of future climate change impacts, in particular by using birds as monitors of climate change, and by forecasting effects of climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies in the approaching decades.
KEYNOTE 1: Willis, S
Observed recent changes and modelled future changes in European bird ranges and populations as a result of climatic change
KEYNOTE 2: Newson, SE
A review of Climate Change effects on migratory birds
Ropert-Coudert, Y., Kato, A.1 and Chiaradia, A.
Do not think only globally: the impact of small-scale environmental perturbations on marine predators.
Matthysen, E., Adriaensen, F. and Dhondt, A.A
Multiple changes in breeding phenology of great and blue tits in relation to climate change.
Zalakevicius, M. and Stanevicius, V.
Can recent strategies of bird diversity conservation be effective in future in the face of increasing impact of climate change?