Modeling climate change impacts on overwintering bald eagles

Bald eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) are recovering from severe population declines, and are exerting pressure on food resources in some areas. Thousands of bald eagles overwinter near Puget Sound, primarily to feed on chum salmon (Oncorhynchus keta) carcasses. We used modeling techniques to exami...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Ecology and evolution 2012-03, Vol.2 (3), p.501-514
Main Authors: Harvey, Chris J., Moriarty, Pamela E., Salathé Jr, Eric P.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
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Bald eagles
Bioenergetics
bioenergetics models
Birds
Carcasses
Climate change
Climate change models
Climate models
Climatic data
Creeks & streams
ecosystems
Endangered & extinct species
Environmental impact
Food
Food availability
Food resources
food webs
Foraging behavior
General circulation models
Global climate
Global warming
Haliaeetus leucocephalus
Hydrology
Influence
Long wave radiation
Oncorhynchus keta
Original Research
Overwintering
Population decline
Predation
regional climate models
Rivers
Salmon
scavenging
Stream discharge
Stream flow
Terrestrial ecosystems
Trends
Winter
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Summary:Bald eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) are recovering from severe population declines, and are exerting pressure on food resources in some areas. Thousands of bald eagles overwinter near Puget Sound, primarily to feed on chum salmon (Oncorhynchus keta) carcasses. We used modeling techniques to examine how anticipated climate changes will affect energetic demands of overwintering bald eagles. We applied a regional downscaling method to two global climate change models to obtain hourly temperature, precipitation, wind, and longwave radiation estimates at the mouths of three Puget Sound tributaries (the Skagit, Hamma Hamma, and Nisqually rivers) in two decades, the 1970s and the 2050s. Climate data were used to drive bald eagle bioenergetics models from December to February for each river, year, and decade. Bald eagle bioenergetics were insensitive to climate change: despite warmer winters in the 2050s, particularly near the Nisqually River, bald eagle food requirements declined only slightly (
ISSN:2045-7758
2045-7758
DOI:10.1002/ece3.204