Tag: Migration

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Heating by Thomas Klodowsky

blinding hot sun
a t-shirt in February
confused birdsongs

by Thomas Klodowsky

New Jersey, the state I’ve lived in all my life, just experienced the warmest January on record, and any accumulation of snow seems to be a distant hope. NJ is also one of the fastest warming states of the last 50 years. As nice as it’s felt outside (even reaching over 60 F) so far this year, it makes me nervous for what future winters might hold, confusing wildlife, vegetation, and people.

In fact, evidence is already increasing that early and false springs occurring as a result of climate change are detrimentally affecting bird populations in a number of ways, from disrupting migratory cycles to setting them out of sync with key food sources such as caterpillars.

Further reading:

‘NJ experienced a record warm January. What’s the outlook for the rest of winter?’, NorthJersey.com: https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/environment/2023/02/10/nj-had-warmest-january-on-record-what-will-rest-of-winter-bring/69889744007/

‘False Springs: How Earlier Spring With Climate Change Wreaks Havoc on Birds’, Audubon.org: https://www.audubon.org/news/false-springs-how-earlier-spring-climate-change-wreaks-havoc-birds

‘Climate change leaves birds hungry as chicks hatch too late to eat caterpillars’, The Independent: https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/climate-change-hungry-birds-chicks-late-caterpillars-spring-woodland-flycatchers-a8318366.html

‘Migrating birds can’t keep up with an earlier spring in a changing climate’, CarbonBrief.org: https://www.carbonbrief.org/migrating-birds-cant-keep-earlier-spring-changing-climate/

Author bio:

Thomas Klodowsky is a writer, writing instructor, and proud New Jersey native. You can see what he’s up to at www.thomask.space

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Progress by Dr Katy Roscoe

In mid-2021 The Sciku Project teamed up with the Literature and Science Hub at the University of Liverpool to run the ‘Research in Verse Poetry Competition’, open to staff and postgraduate research students across the university to submit poems about their research subject. The competition saw poems addressing all sorts of topics, ranging from gravity to slavery to life in the lab.

Second prize was won by Dr Katy Roscoe for her poem ‘Progress’:

Progress

The scratching and scraping of steel on rock,
In concert our muscles, they crunch and creak.
Slow inch by inch we chisel out the dock,
Ankles bound in irons, the hulls in teak.

Wiping sweat from my brow, I gaze afore:
I’m dazzled – bright sun, blue sky, white lime.
Ocean’s eternity returns ashore,
An excess of brightness ¬– like hope – can blind.

Night falls, men drive us into beached ships,
Dank air, sodden bodies, yellow fever.
Vessels for human cargo turned crypts,
If my body holds out, I will leave here.

Will I be able to retrieve the past,
Or will that monolith be all that lasts?

Background

My research is about convicts who quarried stone to build the naval dockyard at Bermuda, an Atlantic archipelago. Around 9,000 British and Irish men, many poor and starving, were transported there from 1842-63. Prisoners slept in decommissioned ships (hulks) which were dirty and crowded. Over 1200 men died there from effects of hard labour and yellow fever. Some went temporarily blind (opthamalia) from sunlight reflecting off limestone. “Retrieve the past” is a quote from a convict’s letter (1857). He hoped to be released under a “Ticket-of-Leave” in Australia, where he could earn an honest living, rather than return home.

Dr Katherine (Katy) Roscoe is a historical criminologist at the University of Liverpool with research interests centred on global mobilities, unfree labour and racial inequalities, with a particular focus on mid-nineteenth century crime and punishment in Britain and its former empire. You can connect with her on Twitter here: @KatyARoscoe

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Signs of Spring by Dr. Jon Hare

silvery white
shadbush blossoms
swim upstream

By Jon Hare

Shadbush (Amelanchier arborea) blooms in the spring. Clusters of small white flowers appear in March through May before leaves grow. The bloom time coincides with the upstream migration of American shad (Alosa sapidissima). Millions of shad used to return to east coast rivers, but these runs are now greatly reduced because of historical overfishing, dams, and loss of habitat.

Much like salmon, shad return to rivers to reproduce after several years at sea. Unlike salmon that reproduce and die, shad go back to sea after reproducing to return to rivers in following years to reproduce again. Thus salmon are termed semelparous from the Latin semel – once, a single time. Shad are termed iteroparous from the Latin itero – to repeat.

Photo credit: NOAA Fisheries Northeast Fisheries Center.

Shadbush is also iteroparous – blooming year after year in the spring to mark the return of the shad. Recent research by Nack et al. (2019) indicates shad migration will be earlier in the season; whether shadbush will bloom earlier remains to be seen.

Original research: https://doi.org/10.1002/mcf2.10076

Dr. Jon Hare is a scientist who works Woods Hole, Massachusetts. His research background is in fisheries oceanography and climate change impacts on marine fisheries. Check out Jon’s other sciku ‘Owls of the Eastern Ice’, ‘Varves’, ‘Cobwebs to Foodwebs’ and ‘Glacier Mice‘.

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What welcome awaits?

Drought. The water’s gone.

A forced move to find new homes.

What welcome awaits?

 

Relocation due to environmental problems can be a dangerous process. Linke et al (2018) interviewed individuals in Kenya who have been forced to relocate as a result of drought. They found that people forced to move are more likely to be victims of violence than the general population. The research also found that such displaced individuals only support the use of violence if they themselves have been victims of violence. This suggests that such migrant populations are unlikely to be the sources of violence unless victimized first.

Original research: http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aad8cc

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Tiny migration

The dusky grouse wait,

girding their loins for the trip –

Tiny migration.

 

As the seasons change many species migrate across hundreds or even thousands of miles to reach fertile breeding or feeding grounds. In contrast, the North American dusky grouse (a species of blue grouse) may sometimes migrate less than a mile, with females travelling shorter distances than males (Cade & Hoffman, 1993). Often these tiny distances are travelled on foot rather than flying.

The migration is so small that the species is recognised by Guinness World Records as being the shortest bird migration at 300 meters (although individual birds have been recorded as travelling even shorter distances) and has featured on the BBC quiz show QI.