The Challenge of Future Research on Climate Change and Avian Biology

Abstract

This chapter discusses challenges of future research on climate change and avian biology. Studies of climate change comprise a unique opportunity to study the adaptation of organisms to their changing environments. Birds are particularly suitable for this study because individuals can readily be followed throughout their entire lives and across generations. This allows for individual based studies of physiology, ecology and evolution. The frequency of extreme environmental conditions is predicted to increase, but the impact of such extreme conditions is relatively little studied because such events, by definition, are rare. Intraspecific and interspecific interactions may change in frequency and intensity because the abundance of conspecifics may change, but also because the abundance of parasites and predators may change. The relative role of phenotypic plasticity and micro-evolutionary change as mechanisms allowing phenotypic change in response to environmental conditions needs to be assessed, and the ecological factors predicting interspecific differences in responses to climate change need to be identified. Latitudinal gradients in phenotype provide unexploited natural model systems that can be used to gain insights into the effects of climate change on birds. Numerous aspects of how birds adapt to their environment are still in need of study. The chapter presents a number of such pressing questions.