Descripción del proyecto
Efectos del cambio climático en las poblaciones de aves acuáticas continentales
Las aguas continentales desempañan un papel fundamental en el ecosistema, ya que son consideradas centinelas valiosos del cambio climático y actúan como repositorios de información sobre fenómeno s ambientales pasados, además de proporcionar áreas de nidificación para las aves migratorias. Con todo, el cambio climático antropogénico perjudica a las aguas continentales como los lagos del Ártico y el Mediterráneo. El resultado son períodos más cortos con cubierta de hielo en el Ártico que conllevan un mayor calentamiento y un menor almacenamiento de agua en el Mediterráneo, lo que provoca sequías hidrológicas. El proyecto financiado con fondos europeos PAST estudiará cómo han influido las sequías meteorológicas e hidrológicas y los fenómenos climáticos extremos previos en los procesos a largo plazo de las poblaciones de aves. El proyecto empleará un método paleolimnológico que revela las tendencias de los cambios ambientales en períodos anteriores y permite a los investigadores estudiar la historia lacustre de manera rentable y eficaz.
Objetivo
Anthropogenic climate change affects all countries and so societies need to begin adapting to the ongoing impacts of these changes. In addition, different biomes respond in distinctive ways to climatic warming. For instance, like oceans, Arctic lakes are strongly affected by shorter ice-cover periods, further decreasing albedo which further increases warming. On the other hand, lakes located in Mediterranean regions are experiencing a decrease in the inundation area and water storage due to the magnitude of the droughts.
It is important to say that inland waters are recognised as important sentinels of climatic change and their sediments accumulate records of past environmental conditions. For this reason, we can use these sediment records to study the trends in environmental changes such as warming or wet periods that occurred in the past. Through paleolimnological analyses, past climate history information can be inferred to determine the timing and degree of change in lake ecosystems. Whilst monitoring data may be short, the paleolimnological approach allows for the study of many years of a lake’s history in a very cost and labour effective manner.
Furthermore, inland waters are frequently nesting areas for migratory birds, and these water bodies are especially sensitive to droughts. For this reason, waterbirds may suffer major losses by limited food supplies and habitat, as well as increased disease due to overcrowding. By using paleolimnological approaches, new methodologies allow us to assess past drought periods along with the long-term changes in bird population.
This is why the main objective of this proposal is to study how past droughts and other climatic extremes have affected long-term dynamics of bird populations using paleolimnological approaches in two areas that are being affected by environment change in such different manners: ponds on nesting islands in the Great Lakes region of Canada and the Mediterranean Region of Spain.
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MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)Coordinador
18071 Granada
España