Birds are sensitive indicators of
climate change: they have been for
140 million years
Dr. Gareth Dyke
UCD S
School
h l off Bi
Biology
l
&
Environmental Science
13th February 2009
Earth Systems Institute
Institiúid na gCóras Domhanda
University College Dublin
An Coláiste Ollscoile Baile Átha Cliath
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.ucd.ie/earth
The anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birthday was yesterday
Feb 12th 1809 - 1882
‘Climate plays an important part in determining the average
numbers of a species …’ OOS 1859 ch.III, p. 86
The anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birthday was yesterday
Feb 12th 1809 - 1865
‘The Lord prefers common-looking people. That is why
he makes so many of them’
Our President (James Morgan)
Keen ornithologists both, no doubt:
b t what
but
h t am I going
i
to
t talk
t lk about?
b t?
(1) What are birds?
(2) Why are birds good indicators of climate change?
(3) What am I doing about this at UCD?
(4) Lessons for Ireland
Why is everyone so fascinated by birds?
Birds and climate change: a very noticeable effect
‘garden birds in decline’
Daily Telegraph Jan 2009
‘down a fifth compared with four years ago’
RSPB Garden Bird Survey 2008
‘considerable
considerable decrease in songbird species
species’
Crowe, O. 2005. Irish Birds
(1) What are birds?
Archaeopteryx:
The earliest bird
140 million-years-old
Solnhofen,, Bavaria
• teeth
• bony tail
• long-fingered
long fingered hands
+ feathers
Berlin Archaeopteryx: one of nine known skeletons
(1) What are birds?
living descendants of theropod dinosaurs: ‘feathered’
feathered dinosaurs
Sinornithosaurus: 100 mya, China
(1) What are birds?
Neornithes: modern birds
ca. 10,000 species
(1) What are birds?
Idea about dinosaur relationship dates back to the scientific debates of the 1860s
Thomas Huxley (1825 - 1895)
(1) What are birds?
Huxley noticed five things about birds
• Fluffy body covering
• Birds can fly (bipinate feathers) +
• Birds
Bi d b
brood
d their
h i nests
• Birds take care of their young
• Birds have hollow bones (air-sac
(air sac system) +
(1) What are birds?
Velociraptor
Domestic chicken
hollow bones
marks of the air sac system
(2) Why are birds good indicators of climate change?
• unique
i
b
breathing
thi
system
t
• flight efficiency
Avian respiration
human lung
avian respiratory system
(2) Why are birds good indicators of climate change?
• unique
i
b
breathing
thi
system
t
• flight efficiency
Anas: air-sac system injected with latex
O'Connor PM, Claessens LPAM (2005) Basic avian pulmonary design and
flow-through ventilation in non-avian theropod dinosaurs. Nature 436:253-256.
(2) Why are birds good indicators of climate change?
• unique
i
breathing
b
thi
system
t
• flight efficiency
Extinction risk not just garden birds: Pacific marine birds
Marbled Murrelet
Parasitic Jaeger
• Masses and speeds close to envelope (alcids, procellarids)
• Small changes in ocean temperature will seriously impact efficiency (= extinction)
• Egg numbers in nests correlated to latitude (temperature)
Elliott, K. et al. 2007. Is mass loss in Brunnich’s guillemots (Uria lomvia) an adaptation for
improved flight performance or improved dive performance? Journal of Avian Biology
(3) What am I doing about this at UCD?
(Chiappe & Dyke 2007)
Example 1: deep time (65 mya)
Bird evolution in the Eocene: surviving the ‘dinosaur extinction’
(3) What am I doing about this at UCD?
Feduccia (1995)
dinosaur
Extinction
here
Example 1: deep time (65 mya)
Bird evolution in the Eocene: surviving the ‘dinosaur extinction’
Understanding this
selective survival is
the ‘holy grail’ of
avian evolution
(3) What am I doing about this at UCD?
Some results:
Example 1: deep time (65 mya)
Bird evolution in the Eocene: surviving the ‘dinosaur extinction’
(3) What am I doing about this at UCD?
Some results:
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Clade Rank
Example 1: deep time (65 mya)
Bird evolution in the Eocene: surviving the ‘dinosaur extinction’
22
(3) What am I doing about this at UCD?
Evolutionary implications:
0.9
0.8
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•
Pneumaticity distinguishes
neornithine and non-modern
lineages
0.5
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01
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•
KT extinction coincident with O2
decline
•
Pneumaticity
y may
y have advantaged
g
neornithines post-impact
0
Non-neornithines
Neornithines
Example 1: deep time (65 mya)
Bird evolution in the Eocene: surviving the ‘dinosaur extinction’
(3) What am I doing about this at UCD?
Example 2: Recent time
R.M. Barrington (1849 – 1915) and his ‘avian herbarium’
(3) What am I doing about this at UCD?
Lighthouse and lightship map
Example 2: Recent time
R.M. Barrington (1849 – 1915) and his ‘avian herbarium’
R.M. Barrington. Cover & Inside cover - The Migration of Birds as Observed at Irish Lighthouses
and Lightships.1900.
Interior of the Merrion St. Museum
“Barrington provides us with a
baseline from which to track
changes in Irish birds over the
last 120 years”
(Prof. Tim Crowe
Univ Cape Town)
•
•
•
•
•
> 5,000 records of Irish birds and co. (700 species)
> 10 years data (1886 - 1899)
complete wings and legs
measurements, body mass, wing length
migratory and non-migratory species
How does this position UCD globally?
• Very little current work in this area: data resolution issue
Limited examples:
• Predicting areas of biodiversity risk/management (Lee & Jetz 2008 Proc Roy Soc)
• Identification
d
a o of
o phylogenetic
p y og
distribution
d s bu o of
o threatened
a
d UK
U birds
b ds
(Thomas, G. 2009. Proc Roy Soc.)
• We have unique data: time-resolved, geographically constrained
• We are a major player in Evolutionary Biology:
(www ucd ie/bioenvsci/research/evolution htm)
(www.ucd.ie/bioenvsci/research/evolution.htm)
Conclusions & prospectus:
• (1) Birds are dinosaurs and have a deep
evolutionary history
• (2) Because of their biology, birds are sensitive
indicators of climate change
• (3) Two examples of current research, one that is
uniquely Irish and relevant
• (?) Skeletal pneumaticity was important in avian
evolution
• (?) Historical data can be used to inform the
present, and perhaps make future predictions
(4) Lessons for Ireland
• We can contribute to the climate change debate
• Evolutionary biology underpins climate responses
• We have access to unique data ((‘lab
lab Ireland’)
Ireland )
• Stimulate research in all areas
• Get young people interested in science
• Graduate programmes in areas like evolution,
palaeontology and climate change biology
‘prevailing scientific dogma can be an impediment to innovative ideas’
(see for e.g. Nicholls 2009 Nature Darwin 200: A flight of fancy)
Key UCD Message
• The Innovation Imperative: Productivity growth in
the Irish economy has slowed to close to zero. The
only way to rediscover productivity growth and be able
to sustain it is by innovation and the embedding of the
knowledge society.
• The Energy and Climate Change Imperative: We
have hugely demanding energy and emission
reduction obligations – the only way to meet them is
through the use of markets and innovation.
• The Earth Systems Institute response to these
imperatives - We will be an engine showing how to
use research and innovation – smart technology and
smart policy - to regain competitiveness and
productivity generate jobs and meet our energy and
productivity,
climate change obligations
Acknowledgements:
Karl Grimes: Dignified Kings project NMINH 2007
www.karlgrimes.net
Nikita Coulter, Paolo Viscardi and Bridge to Workplace Initiative (HEA)
Data entry of Barrington birds 2006 - 2007
Julia Sigwart: Collections based Biology in Dublin
www.ucd.ie/cobid
My review papers in this area:
Chiappe, L.M. & Dyke, G.J. 2007. The beginnings of birds: recent discoveries, ongoing arguments
and new directions, in J. Anderson and H.-D. Sues (eds), Major Evolutionary Transitions, pp. 303336.
Lindow, B.E & Dyke, G.J. 2006. Bird evolution in the Eocene: climate change in Europe and a
Danish fossil fauna. Biological Reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society 81: 1-16.
Dyke, G.J. & van Tuinen, M. 2004. The evolutionary radiation of modern birds (Neornithes):
reconciling molecules, morphology and the fossil record. Zoological Journal of the Linnaean Society
141: 153
153-177
177.
E: [email protected]
UCD Earth Systems Institute
Meeting the Challenge of Climate Change
Seminar Series
In collaboration with
Comhar Sustainable Development Council,
Environmental Protection Agency, Forfás,
Geological
g
Survey
y of Ireland,, Marine Institute,, Met
Éireann, Sustainable Energy Ireland & Teagasc
Further details on the seminar series is available at www.ucd.ie/earth
A paper and podcast of this seminar will be available on the ESI website
soon, please join the online ESI mailing list for such notifications
ESI email: [email protected]
UCD Earth Systems Institute
Meeting the Challenge of Climate Change
Seminar Series
Next week...Seminar #9
Friday 20th February 2009
Royal College of Physicians, 12.30pm
Dr. Jenny McElwain
UCD School of Biology and Environmental Science
Climate change and mass extinction:
What can we learn from 200 million
year old plants?
Further details available at www.ucd.ie/earth