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Exploring the influence of climate change on the migration routes of Arctic Terns

Straat, Loes van de (2020) Exploring the influence of climate change on the migration routes of Arctic Terns. Research Project, Science Education and Communication.

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Abstract

Arctic Terns (Sterna paradisaea) have a very long annual migration. The route of this migration can be influenced by factors such as food availability and weather conditions. Wind patterns are shown to be an important factor on the migration routes Arctic Terns take (Manche, 2019). This project looks at the impact of changing wind patterns due to climate change on these migration routes in the future. Most climate models used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) provide projections of wind patterns up to the year 2100. These projections can be used to determine flight costs of Arctic Terns on current migrations routes taken by the birds as found by Egevang et al. (2010) and Fijn et al. (2013), both for the present and the future. A significant change in flight costs on these routes could indicate that birds might change their migration routes in the future. There were no significant changes in flight cost found on the migration routes of Arctic Terns over the period 2010-2099. It was also found that most climate models seem to underestimate flight cost when compared to wind data by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF). However, it must be stated that many simplifications were made to approximate the migration routes of the Arctic Terns. Predetermined migration tracks were used, it was assumed that all birds departed and arrived at the same time and the period over which the migration took place was limited to two months.

Item Type: Thesis (Research Project)
Supervisor name: Loonen, M.J.J.E. and Bintanja, R.
Degree programme: Science Education and Communication
Thesis type: Research Project
Language: English
Date Deposited: 13 Aug 2020 08:22
Last Modified: 13 Aug 2020 08:22
URI: https://fse.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/23064

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