Dr. Morgan Tingley: Bird migration and climate change

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SPRING MIGRATION IS TAKING FLIGHT… BUT AS TEMPERATURES RISE AND SEASONS SHIFT… BIRDS ARE CHANGING WHEN AND HOW THEY MIGRATE TO KEEP UP WITH A RAPIDLY WARMING CLIMATE.

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DOCTOR MORGAN TINGLEY… A PROFESSOR OF ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES… STUDIES HOW CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACTS BIRDS.
HE SAYS CLIMATE CHANGE IS DRIVING EARLIER SPRINGS… AND THAT MEANS BIRDS ARE MISTIMING THEIR USUAL MIGRATION WINDOW… ARRIVING TO PLACES TO BREED WHEN IT’S TOO HOT AND THERE’S NOT ENOUGH FOOD.
DOCTOR TINGLEY SAYS THE EFFECTS DON’T STOP AT BIRDS.

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Duration: :49
Super: Dr. Morgan Tingley – Professor, University of California, Los Angeles
“I don’t know about you, but for me, I’ve grown up just caring about nature and loving birds, but bird watching is actually one of the fastest growing hobbies in the United States. And a lot of people not just sort of care about a specific bird or bird population in general, but they have a feeling that sort of when they go outside and they hear birds and they experience them, it brings them a lot of joy. And so not only is there that intrinsic factor, but also there’s this question of all the services that birds provide for us, whether it’s pollinating our crops or it’s eating the insects that can destroy our food supply. So when we have decreased bird populations, it also means that our environment is just not gonna work as well. That could mean that we have a lot of problems and can cause issues for things like food supply.”

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DOCTOR TINGLEY SAYS COMMUNITIES CAN HELP.
AND THE FOCUS NOW SHOULD BE ON CONSERVATION EFFORTS… LIKE PROTECTING LAND… TO GIVE BIRDS THE BEST CHANCE OF ADAPTING TO A CHANGING CLIMATE.