"Warming Climate Expected To Squeeze Out Arctic Bird Habitat"

"Many species of shorebirds that migrate to the Arctic each year to breed their young will lose substantial amounts of their summer habitat to climate change, and the biggest losses in the coming decades will be in Alaska and neighboring parts of Russia, new research concludes.

By 2070, higher temperatures brought on by climate change will eliminate important Arctic breeding habitat for at least two-thirds of the 24 bird species evaluated in a study published in the journal Global Change Biology, scientists predicted. Some species, like the Pacific golden plover and the red phalarope, are on track to lose nearly all of the suitable Arctic conditions they use in the summer, according to the study.

The study was led by scientists at Australia's University of Queensland and co-authored by scientists in Alaska, Norway, Russia and Denmark. It projects habitat conditions based on two different climate scenarios — an optimistic one that assumes greenhouse gas emissions will peak in 2040 and then decline, and a more aggressive warming scenario that assumes that greenhouse gas emissions will continue on their current trajectory."

Yereth Rosen reports for Alaska Dispatch News August 8, 2016.