Climate Breakdown May Be Altering Breeding Cycle Of Antarctic Birds - BBC

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Antarctic seabirds may be breeding later in response to climate change, according to a scientific study. French researchers analysed records stretching back to the 1950s and think the breeding delays are linked to changes in East Antarctic sea ice.

Bird species are arriving at their colonies an average of nine days later and laying eggs on average two days later than they did in the 1950s. Details appear in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal.

Researchers have found that spring events such as the arrival of migrant birds and the blossoming of trees, have been occurring progressively earlier in the Northern Hemisphere during the 20th Century. But little information exists for the Southern Hemisphere due to a paucity of long term data sets.

Christophe Barbraud and Henri Weimerskirch from the Centre d'Etudes Biologiques de Chize in Villiers en Bois, France, have now analysed the only long term record of arrival and egg-laying for all species of seabird that come to breed in continental Antarctica.

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4874026.stm