Hot Birds Research Project

Arid zones globally are warming rapidly under anthropogenic climate change. For many bird species, increases in air temperature in these already hot environments result in serious challenges in terms of maintaining safe body temperatures. Many species change their behaviour, seeking shade and reducing activity, to buffer  high physiological costs during periods of hot weather.

 

In my MSc dissertation, I will be studying the impacts of hot weather on the behaviour and breeding success of white-browed sparrow-weavers in the Kalahari, furthering work already done on this and other species in the area by the team.  Many species are affected by increasing temperatures and forced to adapt their behaviour and activity to seek shade and thermoregulate.  These behavioural changes, while reducing physiological costs, present missed opportunity costs in terms of foraging and care and provisioning for offspring which will affect population persistence of Kalahari birds. I intend to gather data which will enhance our capacity to predict arid-zone species’ vulnerabilities to climate change.