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Posted by Gwenaël Quaintenne on 22 June 2019

No clear evidence that “the Arctic is no longer a safe haven for shorebirds”

Climate and ecosystems are changing, but predation on shorebird nests has changed little across the globe over the past 60 years, finds an international team of 60 researchers (Martin Bulla -Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Jeroen Reneerkens – NIOZ University of Groningen, Emily L. Weiser – U.S. Geological Survey, et al.).

The study published in Science on 14 June 2019 challenges a recent study finding that shorebird eggs are more often eaten by predators due to climate change, and more so in the Arctic compared to the tropics. The research shows that these claims could be due to a methodological artefact.

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/364/6445/eaaw8529

Comment on “Global pattern of nest predation is disrupted by climate change in shorebirds”

By Martin Bulla, Jeroen Reneerkens, Emily L. Weiser, Aleksandr Sokolov, Audrey R. Taylor, Benoît Sittler, Brian J. McCaffery, Dan R. Ruthrauff, Daniel H. Catlin, David C. Payer, David H. Ward, Diana V. Solovyeva, Eduardo S. A. Santos, Eldar Rakhimberdiev, Erica Nol, Eunbi Kwon, Glen S. Brown, Glenda D. Hevia, H. River Gates, James A. Johnson, Jan A. van Gils, Jannik Hansen, Jean-François Lamarre, Jennie Rausch, Jesse R. Conklin, Joe Liebezeit, Joël Bêty, Johannes Lang, José A. Alves, Juan Fernández-Elipe, Klaus-Michael Exo, Loïc Bollache, Marcelo Bertellotti, Marie-Andrée Giroux, Martijn van de Pol, Matthew Johnson, Megan L. Boldenow, Mihai Valcu, Mikhail Soloviev, Natalya Sokolova, Nathan R. Senner, Nicolas Lecomte, Nicolas Meyer, Niels Martin Schmidt, Olivier Gilg, Paul A. Smith, Paula Machín, Rebecca L. McGuire, Ricardo A. S. Cerboncini, Richard Ottvall, Rob S. A. van Bemmelen, Rose J. Swift, Sarah T. Saalfeld, Sarah E. Jamieson, Stephen Brown, Theunis Piersma, Tomas Albrecht, Verónica D’Amico, Richard B. Lanctot, Bart Kempenaers

Science 14 June 2019

 

No evidence for increased egg predation in the Arctic

 

Response to Comment on “Global pattern of nest predation is disrupted by climate change in shorebirds”

Vojtěch Kubelka and co-authors response to comment of Bulla et al. reafirming their previous outcomes:

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/364/6445/eaaw9893

By Vojtěch Kubelka, Miroslav Šálek, Pavel Tomkovich, Zsolt Végvári, Robert P. Freckleton, Tamás Székely

Science 14 June 2019

 

 

Featured image: Knot on nest at the study site near Nome, Seward Peninsula, Alaska, USA (photo:James Johnson).