Hot Birds Research Project

Global temperatures are increasing as a result of anthropogenic change, and arid-zones are rapidly heating up. These increases in temperature may prove detrimental to birds occupying these already hot environments. Birds are able change their behaviour to mitigate the physiological effects of increased air temperature, but this may result in missed opportunities for foraging and off-spring care, as well as have further repercussions for body condition, recruitment, population persistence. Birds may also experience detrimental effects on thermoregulatory behaviour once critical temperatures are reached and/or water availability changes.

This study aims to integrate lessons learned, expert knowledge, and data from previous Hot Bird Research Project work to identify behavioural and physiological traits of selected arid-zone birds that may serve as potential indices for their sensitivity to increased air temperature, and ultimately, climate change. These indices will be applied to fine-scale spatial models of past, present, and future climate conditions to assess overall vulnerability of these bird species to climate change. From this, we will also identify which species are at greatest risk from global heating, and potential thermal refugia for these species. Ultimately, from this work, we aim to produce risk assessment techniques for incorporation in future National Biodiversity Assessments.