The global impact of climate change is threatening the habitats of some migratory birds along their migration route in the eastern Atlantic Ocean, reported the German news agency.
Based on the findings of a recent study, the Joint Wadden Sea Secretariat in Wilhelmshaven announced Monday that the rising sea level in northwestern Europe is one of the main challenges facing migratory birds.
The Wadden Sea off the coasts of Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands is considered the hub of East Atlantic bird migration.
Millions of birds eat up food reserves for their onward flight between Africa and the Arctic in the UNESCO-listed wetland.
“Climate change affects most coastal regions. For example, in addition to sea level rise in the Wadden Sea, extreme weather events such as heavy rain and storms are increasingly affecting the resting and breeding birds,” explained Kristine Meise, program manager for Migration and Biodiversity at the Wadden Sea Secretariat.
“The consequences of climate change, for example the erosion of coasts, are already being felt in the main wintering area off West Africa,” she added.
According to the study, other factors such as overfishing, shipping, and logging have an even greater influence there.
The assessment of habitat’s exertion was part of a study published in late April.
The project has been counting migratory bird populations along the East Atlantic bird migration route every three years since 2014.
The last census in 2020 involved more than 13,000 people in 36 countries.
According to Meise, these regular statistics are of great importance to spot the changing numbers of birds in an early stage, but “the process is difficult because birds normally don’t stay in one place, and sometimes, change their flying routes. This means that one species could be shrinking in the Wadden Sea, but stable or even growing in other parts of the world.”
She noted that counting requires synchronous statistics in all the locations of those birds.
Compared to data from the past decades, the 2020 census shows an increase in the number of 83 migratory groups. The population of birds was stable in 16 percent of these groups, while the researchers recorded a decrease in 30 percent of them, such as the waders that breed in the Siberian Arctic.
Meise suggested the changing climate conditions are the culprit behind those uneven numbers.
“The migratory birds have adapted to schedules over thousands of years. Due to climate change, spring, and thus snowmelt and insects hatching in the Arctic are beginning earlier. This would result in poorer breeding and rearing conditions for young birds, and a lower breeding success.” she said.
To face these threats and preserve migratory birds, the study’s authors have called for protecting the birds’ favorite habitats and applying sustainable preservation measures.
