climate change | Mass Audubon – Your Great Outdoors

Every spring our world blossoms with life: melodious bird song accompanies the bursts of growth in our plants, flowers, and trees. As our backyards and neighborhoods fill with bright colors and vivid aromas, a special group of animals work behind-the-scenes to ensure the survival of our flora: pollinators.

What are Pollinators?

Pollinators are animals that help plants reproduce by spreading pollen, a powdery material that fertilizes plants. By doing so, pollinators conserve and propagate the plants we have in our backyard and the plants we depend on for food.

According to the US Department of Agriculture, over 75% of the world’s flowering plants and about 35% of all food we eat require pollinators to reproduce! The busy-bodies behind these plants’ survival include birds, bees, bats, and even beetles.

While pollinators have been supporting our lives for years and ensuring our local ecosystems thrive, they need our help now more than ever. Many species of pollinators are experiencing dramatic declines to their populations. For instance, three species of bumblebees in the eastern US have experienced a 90% decline over the last 30 years.

Climate change only heightens and multiplies other environmental threats such as pesticide use, habitat degradation, and the spread of non-native, invasive plants – here’s how:

Warming Temperatures

Climate change gradually increases the overall temperature both around the world and in Massachusetts. To try and accommodate for shifting temperatures, many species have to scramble towards new habitats that meet their environmental needs.

Unfortunately, some pollinators (like bees) are not as good at dealing with a warming world through such adaptations. When animals are stuck in unsuitable environments, many of their critical behaviors are negatively altered. Mating and reproduction are a few pollinator behaviors impacted by warming temperatures and inability to adapt.

Additionally, parasites, diseases, or predators that require generally warmer environments to survive are now moving upwards to Massachusetts as the state’s overall temperatures increases. Studies suggest that gut parasite Nosema ceranae has shown to infect honey bees at higher rates during warmer temperatures, for example.

Earlier Springs

Climate change disrupts weather patterns across the world. In Massachusetts, that means shorter and milder winters and earlier springs. As climate change affects our seasons, flowers and plants are now blooming earlier.

These plants, and their pollen, are a food source for pollinators and critical to their survival. Earlier springs means the timing of when plants produce pollen and when pollinators are ready to consume pollen might not align. Pollinators can therefore have less access to food or might completely miss out on their food source because of shifting seasons.

How we can help

Now, it’s our turn to protect our pollinators the same way they’ve protected our ecosystems and plants! We can come together and fight climate change by reducing and eliminating greenhouse gas emissions so our pollinators survive, thrive, and continue their hard work.

When we act on climate change together, we can make an impact and protect the people and wildlife we love. Ruby-throated Hummingbird © Kris Quinn

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Our world needs nature heroes, and we can fight climate change together. Sign up for our newsletter, Climate Connection, to learn more about climate information, solutions, and community action.

Plant a pollinator garden.

Planting a pollinator garden not only beautifies your yard and provides food for existing pollinators, it also fights climate change. Plants are carbon sinks: meaning they can soak up carbon dioxide, a common greenhouse gas, like a sponge. A garden, therefore, can be one of nature’s climate-fighting tools. Learn how to plant a native pollinator garden to fight climate change.

As buds bloom and seedlings sprout, you can hear the familiar chorus of American Robins in your backyard, signaling the arrival of spring. Over the last few years, however, you may have heard our robins start singing earlier than usual.

What We Know

A recent study found that migrating American Robins now start their journeys about 12 days earlier than they did in 1994 because of climate change’s impacts on temperature and weather.

Robins can be seen near year-round in the US, and since the 1900s have been sighted in Massachusetts during the winter. However, most American Robins migrate from wintering habitats to breeding habitats in response to food availability. These migrations can span as far as from Central America in the winter to throughout the US and even into Canada in spring and summer.

To track the south to north migratory patterns of these hallmark birds from Alberta, Canada to throughout Alaska between 1994-2018, scientists outfitted a group of migrating American Robins with small GPS harnesses. They found that environmental cues affected robin migration. Namely, snow and temperature were among the strongest influences: during drier and warmer winters, robins would migrate earlier than normal.

Study results suggest robins have been migrating five days earlier every decade since 1994 (for a total of about 12 days), indicating a response to warming temperatures.

What this tells us About Climate Change

One of climate change’s impacts is higher average temperatures and shorter, milder winters. American robin’s early arrival, even in New England, is just one way we can see climate change impacting our wildlife, here and now with increasing intensity.

According to Mass Audubon’s 2017 State of the Birds report, warmer winters shift the way critical food webs work and warmer overall temperatures influence the timing of ecological events – like when leaves and insects pop out for spring.

Such changes can lead to climate change induced food shortages and missed foraging or predation opportunities. Climate change’s impacts cascade through the environment, reflecting on species like the American Robin down to the availability of the food they eat, such as earthworms. But we can help!

Making a Difference Together

American Robins sing an important tale about climate change’s impacts – it’s up to us to listen and learn.

To support our wildlife, we must fight climate change at its source by reducing and eliminating excess greenhouse gas emissions. Join our collective climate fight by signing up for our newsletter, Climate Connection, to stay up to date on how to act on climate as a community .

You can also take our climate pledge to commit to reducing your greenhouse gas emissions both individually and as a community or make a gift to Mass Audubon to support our climate action initiatives.

When we act together, we can fight climate change to protect the world around us and the wildlife we love.

If you want to learn more about American Robins during your climate action journey, check out Mass Audubon’s “Bird of the Day” with Joan Walsh, Gerard A. Bertrand Chair of Natural History and Field Ornithology

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Tag Archives: climate change

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