Climate change could make Minnesota loon flocks vanish
MINNEAPOLIS » Minnesota could lose its beloved state bird in coming decades if humans don’t stall climate change and prevent the common loon from shifting north.
The black and white bird is among 55 species likely to disappear from the state for the summer by 2080 if the world does nothing to cut greenhouse-gas emissions, according to a new report by the National Audubon Society, Survival by Degrees: 389 Bird Species on the Brink.
Minnesota is one of the country’s fastest-warming states, largely because of its northern location and warming winters. Even if humans stall global warming at 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit, several bird species in Minnesota remain threatened, including the trumpeter swan, the spruce grouse and the blackthroated green warbler. An increase of 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit is the threshold set by scientists to prevent the worst impacts of warming.
“If you like birds, your experience of nature will change,” said Luis Ramirez, Audubon’s director of conservation for the Upper Mississippi River Flyway.
Even though loons are fairly adaptable, rising temperatures will make Minnesota less hospitable as their summer home. Warming lakes and algae blooms put stress on the fish that loons rely on for food.
And as Minnesota gets more rain, rising water levels in lakes and wetlands choke out the marshy areas where loons like to build their nests.
As the food and habitat change, the birds will migrate farther north, the researchers predicted.
The report’s overall conclusion: Two-thirds of 604 North American bird species face possible extinction as the Earth’s temperatures rise, although the worst can be avoided if people cut carbon emissions and other heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
Audubon’s analysis echoes a startling Cornell University study published last month in Science magazine showing that 3 billion North American birds have vanished since 1970.
Audubon researchers reviewed studies on 604 North American bird species and modeled how their ranges would shift if the climate warms, in Celsius, by 1.5 degrees, 2 degrees and 3 degrees.
The work builds on an earlier Audubon report in 2014.
Loons are not the birds most vulnerable to climate change. Boreal species such as warblers and chickadees will suffer greater effects because they are specialists and less adaptable to changes in temperature and habitat, Ramirez said — like humans who are picky about their food and sleeping arrangements.