On the agenda at COP26, unregulated climate in the Amazon has changed the size of birds

Victória Sales – Cenarium Magazine

MANAUS – The study published by the magazine ‘Science Advances’, on Friday, 12, pointed out that global warming and climate change is affecting the size of Amazonian birds. The research was led by Brazilian and foreign researchers, together with the Project on Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments, of the National Institute for Amazon Research (Inpa).

The project was analyzed with morphometric data collected over the last 40 years. The study also shows that research done with migratory birds had already warned about the impact of climate, when it comes to the size of a bird. At that time, the two factors for questioning the migratory process were not associated with impact factors such as habitat loss and hunting.

Read more: Climate change is expected to increase the incidence of lightning in the Amazon by 50%

Data

In the most recent study on the subject, the researchers concentrated their analyses on 77 species of non-migratory birds in the Amazon forest and, coincidentally, the result was the same, resulting in the birds becoming smaller and smaller due to climate change and global warming. The study was carried out at the Amazon Biodiversity Center, near Manaus, which at the time warmed 1.65ºC, in the dry season, and 1.0ºC, in the rainy period.

According to the researchers who led the study, all 77 species showed a lower average mass since the early 1980s. The increase in the size of the birds’ wings also caught the researchers’ attention, that a third of the species, as many as 69 percent, showed longer wings.

“The seasonal and long-term morphological changes suggest a response to climate change and highlight its widespread consequences, even in the heart of the world’s largest tropical rainforest”, the researchers said. We attribute these results to pressures to increase resource economy under warming”, the researchers said.

The scholars further point out that “both seasonal and long-term morphological changes suggest a response to climate change and highlight its widespread consequences, even in the heart of the world’s largest tropical rainforest”.

“Wing elongation is more difficult to explain using existing theory. Longer wings are interpreted as a temporal analog of Allen’s rule, where pronounced body extremities better discharge heat, but this explanation assumes that longer wings reflect longer wing bones, rather than simply longer feathers (which do not dissipate heat)”, the researchers explained.

COP26

Brazil and industrialized countries have united and signed a goal established at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) to contain the temperature limit in 1,5ºC, still in this century. Brazil’s position in supporting the target is a way of qualifying the government so that it can receive resources from international financial communities. The initiative defends the temperature limit until 2100.

For the first time, the countries will need to review and contribute with voluntary commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Currently, no major emitter has Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) in balance with the established 1.5°C target. According to the United Nations (UN) report, NDCs so far guarantee a 16% increase in emissions.