Líffræðifélag Íslands - biologia.is
Líffræðiráðstefnan 2019
Erindi/veggspjald / Talk/poster E80
Höfundar / Authors: Pedro Rodrigues
Starfsvettvangur / Affiliations: Independent researcher
Kynnir / Presenter: Pedro Rodrigues
Iceland is experiencing the impacts of global climate change. Climatic trends for the 21st century reveal an increase atmospheric temperature of 1.8ºC to 3.1ºC, decrease in snow cover in mountains and glaciers, as well as a significantly increase of warmer summer days, a decrease of days bellow 0ºC, and a rise of sea surface temperature of 3ºC. Icelandic seabird populations have seen considerable changes over the last decades. The abundance of breeding Brünnich’s guillemot Uria lomvia, common guillemot U. aalgae and razorbill Alca torda, have declined 44%, 30% and 17%, respectively, between 1985 and 2008. The same pattern occurred for fulmar Fulmarus glacialis and kittiwake Rissa tridactila by 35% and 12%, and puffin Fratercula arctica by 30%. Could climate change be the reason for this population’s decline? Using examples from other high latitudinal regions, correlating climate change with decreasing of food availability, vector-born parasitic diseases and antimicrobial resistance in seabirds, this presentation aims to highlight the importance of developing monitoring projects using seabirds as proxies to assess the impact of climate change and anthropogenic stressors on Icelandic environmental conditions to better achievement of the Iceland’s Climate Action Plan for 2018-2030.