Every Bird Matters

News and Views from International Bird Rescue

The week in bird news, October 10

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• Ocean temperatures are rising faster than many scientists had predicted. Most unsettling: Since 1970, the upper 2,300 feet of the Southern Hemisphere’s oceans may be warming at twice the rate of previous estimates.

“Seas have risen 8 inches since the industrial revolution, and they continue to rise at a hastening pace, worsening floods and boosting storm surges near shorelines around the world,” Climate Central’s John Upton reports. “Another 2 to 7 feet of sea level rise is forecast this century, jeoparizing the homes and neighborhoods of the 5 million Americans who live less than 4 feet above high tide, as well as those of the hundreds of millions living along coastlines in other countries.” [Climate Central]

• Scientists are studying mercury content in Little Auks of the Arctic to identify potential contamination in food chains of northern climes. [Scientific American]

• Preliminary results in the study of American White Pelican eggs in Minnesota have found evidence of WhitePelicanLanding640contaminants from the 2010 Gulf Oil Spill, including the dispersant Corexit, according to researchers at North Dakota State University. [MinnPost; photo via Creative Commons/Chuck Abbe]

• In climate change preparations, California leads the nation, Grist reports. Read the state’s climate change adaption strategy here. [Grist.org]

• Add another human-caused hazard to nesting birds. Researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory found that open pipes posed a “potentially very large” risk of bird mortality for species including Ash-throated Flycatchers, Acorn Woodpeckers and Spotted Towhees. [American Bird Conservancy]

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