Daily non-political popular news in brief.

Land conversion and climate threaten land birds

06-04-2007 · EurekAlert!

Evaluating changes in range size of land bird species using Millenium Ecosystem Assessment scenarios reveals that land conversion, as well as climate change, will lead to the decline of many species, particularly those in the tropics.

Keywords: land, conversion, climate, threaten, birds, bird

« Previous | Next »

Similar news on "Land conversion and climate threaten land birds":

Stanford researchers say climate change will significantly increase impending bird extinctions
12-05-2007 · EurekAlert!
Where do you go when you've reached the top of a mountain and you can't go back down? It's a question increasingly relevant to plants and animals, as their habitats slowly shift to higher elevations, driven by rising temperatures worldwide. In one of the first analyses of extinction rates to incorporate the most recent climate change scenarios set forth in the IPCC 2007 reports, Stanford researchers say that by 2100 up to 30 percent of land-bird species may be extinct.
Similar news · Read more »
Climate change creates dramatic decline in red-winged black bird population
11-13-2006 · EurekAlert!
Global warming strikes again. A University of Illinois researcher reports that a red-winged black bird population in Ontario, Canada has decreased by 50 percent since 1972. The decrease is related to a positive shift in the North Atlantic Oscillation which has resulted in warmer, wetter winters in the southeastern United States.
Similar news · Read more »
Tipping points
08-06-2007 · EurekAlert!
Growing food and fiber entails the use of fertilizer and irrigation systems and results in land clearing. These "side effects" of agriculture can lead to regime shifts -- or "tipping points" which include desertification, salinisation, water degradation and changes in climate due to altered water flows from land to atmosphere.
Similar news · Read more »
Scientists find mutations that let bird flu adapt to humans
11-15-2006 · EurekAlert!
By comparing influenza viruses found in birds with those of the avian virus that have also infected human hosts, researchers have identified key genetic changes required for pandemic strains of bird flu.
Similar news · Read more »
Birds found to plan for the future
02-21-2007 · EurekAlert!
Planning and worrying about the future has always been considered an exclusively human activity, but now one species of bird has also been found to plan for tomorrow. The finding, published in Nature, raises the possibility that, like humans, birds may get anxious about the future. The birds, western scrub-jays, are shown to have learned from their previous experiences of food scarcity, storing food for future use in places where they anticipate future slim pickings.
Similar news · Read more »
ASU research shows connection between testosterone, dietary antioxidants and bird coloration
06-11-2007 · EurekAlert!
Mom may have been right all along, especially when we were hormone-raging teenagers: Eat your veggies and good things will happen. In a new physiological study of birds, a researcher at Arizona State University has found that carotenoids, the pigments that color carrots orange and corn yellow, have even deeper health benefits than originally thought. They appear to fight off the negative impacts that testosterone can have on an animal's health.
Similar news · Read more »
Snowy invaders point to Arctic thaw
04-03-2007 · EurekAlert!
Could climate change be to blame for the increase in numbers of snow geese that visit the US each winter? Wildlife experts say that warming temperatures on the Arctic Island where the birds nest, has led to a breeding boom. But not everyone is happy with the invading birds. Some farmers are declaring war on the geese where thousands of them have ravaged their fields and crops.
Similar news · Read more »
Rising food prices threaten world's poor people
12-03-2007 · EurekAlert!
Income growth, climate change, high energy prices, globalization and urbanization are all converging to transform food production, markets and consumption, according to a new report by the International Food Policy Research Institute. As a result, global food demand and prices are likely to rise, threatening the livelihoods and nutrition of poor people in developing countries. The report, "The World Food Situation: New Driving Forces and Required Actions," was released today at the annual general meeting of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research.
Similar news · Read more »
Crowcam: Camera on bird's tail captures bird ingenuity
10-06-2007 · Science News Online
Video cameras attached to tropical crows record the birds' use of plant stems as tools to dig out food.
Similar news · Read more »
Drought limits tropical plant distributions, scientists at the Smithsonian report
05-02-2007 · EurekAlert!
Drought tolerance is a critical determinant of tropical plant distributions, researchers working at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama report in the journal Nature, May 3. In a novel coupling of experimental measurements and observed plant distributions across a tropical landscape, drought tolerance predicted plant distributions at both local and regional scales. This mechanism to explain a common observation will contribute significantly to models of land use and climate change.
Similar news · Read more »