2023-05-13 15:16:53
Mith climate change, practically everything is changing, and it is not always the major upheavals that should concern us. Subtle changes in us and in nature, for example, have so far hardly been noticed, apart from the fact that the insidious evolution of loudmouths has noticeably accelerated with rising world temperatures.
Even if many of them don’t see it immediately, the correlation with the well-documented beak growth in Australian parrots can be deduced with some plausibility: large beaks ventilate more. However, not everything is getting bigger.
For example, the whistle frog of Puerto Rico, after all a national symbol and known beyond the island for its two-syllable, deafening call, is experiencing a voice change. The smallest frogs with the tallest and loudest Voice is drawn up the mountainsf. There they displace the larger conspecifics, which are adapted to the cooler alpine regions but have a lazy voice. Until at some point the hooting up there might stop because the rising heat is also sizzling their brood. Climate change is relentless.
As far as bird life is concerned, it is hardly different. In a meta study With 104 bird species, researchers have found a decline in the number of offspring and a reduction in the population by more than half in half a century. And here again: The little ones get through better. In general, the direction of evolution already seems clear.
Many bird species are tending towards smaller bodies with warming, a paper in the journal suggests “PNAS” published long-term study in North and South America. Everything is shrinking. To scream. However, even such a dubious prospect will probably not silence the climate-skeptical boasters.
#climate #crisis #driver #evolution