Climate change increases the likelihood of catastrophic avian mortality events during extreme heat waves.
Severe heat waves have occasionally led to catastrophic avian mortality in hot desert environments. Climate change models predict increases in the intensity, frequency and duration of heat waves. A model of avian evaporative water requirements and survival times during the hottest part of day reveals that the predicted increases in maximum air temperatures will result in large fractional increases in water requirements (in small birds, equivalent to 150-200 % of current values), which will severely reduce survival times during extremely hot weather. By the 2080s, desert birds will experience reduced survival times much more frequently during mid-summer, increasing the frequency of catastrophic mortality events.
DST/NRF Centre of Excellence at the Percy FitzPatrick Institute, Department of Zoology and Entomology, University of Pretoria, Pretoria 0002, South Africa. aemckechnie@zoology.up.ac.za
Andrew E
AE
McKechnie
Blair O
BO
Wolf
D000818:Animals; D001715:Bird Diseases / Q000401:mortality*; D001717:Birds; D049628:Body Size; D057231:Climate Change; D003681:Dehydration / Q000401:mortality / Q000662:veterinary*; D003889:Desert Climate; D004326:Drinking / Q000502:physiology; D006358:Hot Temperature; D008954:Models, Biological; D013997:Time Factors; D014870:Water Loss, Insensible / Q000502:physiology*