Bar-headed geese migrate over Himalyas - Photo: Dan Rhoads, Migrations.

But some creatures have made more extreme adaptations than seem physically possible.  Here are a few examples.

The bar-headed goose migrates over the Himalayan mountain range – the world’s highest. To do this, they achieve heights higher than Mount Everest which is just shy of 30,000 feet. When these geese are flying nearly 6 miles up, they are in what mountain climbers calls the “dead zone” because the oxygen is impossibly thin and the temperatures are 40 degrees below zero. The good news is, however, that the geese can take advantage of the jet stream and a 100 mile per hour tail wind. A special mix of hemoglobin in their blood and an extraordinary tolerance for pain lets them complete the thousand mile trip in fine fashion.

Another high altitude adaptation is by sheer accident. Small spiders and aphids can get swept up from ground level in a windstorm and end up being carried four miles up where they can float, frozen solid, half way around the globe. A rainstorm or some other weather occurrence will eventually carry them back to earth where many will revive!

Some sizable animals are well adapted to the cold including whales, seals and penguins. But one surprising cold water dweller is the 12 foot long bluefin tuna. The bluefin spawns in the tropical waters of the Gulf of Mexico and the Mediterranean but its large size and calorie needs force it into colder waters where food fish are more abundant than in warmer regions. Their blood vessels are specially adapted to let them easily make this hot-to-cold transition.

There are amazing adaptations in desert environments too. The sand grouse of African deserts have an uncanny ability to find thousands of seeds in the sand, each day, that are blown in from distant places during storms. They also fly long distances from their nests to reach drinking water.  The males of the species have specially adapted breast feathers that soak up water at the watering spot so they can carry it miles back to the nest and offer a vital drink to their thirsty young hatchlings.

Big ears seem to make a difference in the desert too and it is not just for better hearing. Desert hedgehogs, foxes and rabbits have large ears that act as panels for the cooling of their blood and bodies. The American jackrabbit is a prime example. Its ear-to-body ratio is amazingly efficient at cooling these animals living in ground temperatures sometimes in excess of 130 degrees.

The dorcas gazelle wins the prize for desert adaptation. It does not drink water at all. It gets all of its moisture by ingesting desert plants and it does not urinate. Instead it discharges small dry uric acid “pellets.”

Many close-to-ground environments are dangerously hot. This can be a problem for birds called plovers that, worldwide, lay their eggs directly on sandy beaches and dune areas. The crab plovers of the Persian Gulf lay their eggs on sand that gets so hot it would literally cook them. But these birds have adapted to the hot surface and dig deep holes where the cooler sand at the bottom is better suited to egg hatching.

Flamingos are well adapted to both heat and the exploitation of quite toxic salt lake sites. They feed on specialized algae that grow in salt (soda) lakes and they nest by building small islands in the middle of waters so caustic that predators will not venture into them. They build these nesting mounds high enough that the wind will not blow toxic salt-laden mist onto the eggs.

Tubeworms - Photo: NSF

Another bird, Temmick’s courser of Africa has learned to take advantage of areas that have been burned over by wild fires. It feeds on the insects that have been baked in the fire and it lays ash-colored eggs that blend in with the burnt environment it prefers.Perhaps the champions of all adapted species live at the bottom of the ocean and congregate around thermal vents that emit water as hot as 600 degrees. The vents are a fairly recent discovery and have shifted some theories about the origins of life itself. These vents support a wide range of unique fish, crabs, shrimp, mussels and huge tube worms that live in water that is often near 150 degrees. What makes these adaptations scientifically amazing is that the vent-supported food chain is not based on sunlight, which is the universal source of life elsewhere in the world. Instead these creatures feed on bacteria that derive their energy from the sulfides the vents emit. They have adapted to an entirely unique food web and demonstrate how life manages to thrive in nearly any environment.

Learn more about how you can celebrate EXTRA-ordinary species during this year’s National Wildlife Week, March 19-25.

This document is an important contribution for Christians seeking to learn more about climate change and act on it.

In the preface, Leith Anderson, President of National Association of Evangelicals, highlights the Christian imperative to care for the poor who are impacted by climate change:

God calls us to care for those who are poor, vulnerable and oppressed. It is the Christian thing to do.

While others debate the science and politics of climate change, my thoughts go to the poor people who are neither scientists nor politicians. They will never study carbon dioxide in the air or acidification of the ocean. But they will suffer from dry wells in the Sahel of Africa and floods along the coasts of Bangladesh. Their crops will fail while our supermarkets are full. They will suffer while we study.

Download the document and read more here.

The Climate of Conservation in America: 50 Stories in 50 States series will explore the many ways accelerating climate change is impacting or may impact fish and wildlife at the local and regional level.

“We know the future is not the past restored; conservation success rests in our collective ability to work in unison to safeguard our Nation’s wildlife heritage,” said Service Acting Director Rowan Gould.

Each weekday for 50 consecutive days the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will roll out a new story from a different state, examining regional challenges posed by climate change. A few examples of what to expect:

• On the Atlantic Coast, the rising sea is claiming historical nesting grounds for shorebirds and sea turtles.
• Loss of snowpack and changing hydrology in the Pacific Northwest is having a profound impact on native trout species.
• As human influence on the natural landscape increases in the Rocky Mountain West, there is a growing need to secure opportunities for wildlife to move between large blocks of protected public land that provide valuable habitat for large mammals like the grizzly bear.
• With temperatures in the Northeast predicted to rise in the coming years, the deep snow cover Canada lynx depend on may be significantly reduced, eliminating their competitive advantage over other predators.

Read today’s entry on South Carolina and be sure to check the Fish and Wildlife Service blog each day for a new story.

Make Earth Day count for you and your family this year. Join the “B Kind 2 Earth Day” campaign!

A new study published this week in the journal Science examines sockeye salmon populations in the Fraser River of British Columbia. The Fraser River has heated up by about 3.5 degrees Fahrenheit since the 1950s. Salmon mortalities can be close to 95% of millions in population during the river’s warmest years.

There are some sockeye salmon who will go to great lengths to survive. Some salmon will travel almost 680 miles upstream with an elevation gain of 3,000 feet to find colder, glacial waters.

Deemed “superfish” by researchers these fish may have what it takes to survive a warming river.

Photograph courtesy of Robert Polo, Science/AAAS

Will salmon populations simply evolve to become “superfish” to survive climate change?

Researchers in the study tested these “superfish” and others by placing them in swim treadmills and monitoring their vital signs while adjusting water temperatures. The “superfish” have larger hearts that allow them to move great distances to escape temperatures as they warm. Some “less super” fish can only handle water temperatures of about 62 degrees Fahrenheit before they reach a point of cardiovascular collapse and just cannot make the trip. It is unknown at this time why some fish develop larger hearts and others do not.

There are other limits to “superfish” travels. While some can travel 600 miles, others may only make it 400 miles, making it more difficult to spawn. Also salmon might not have the option to swim north or higher in altitude in cases of natural habitat limits, pollution, habitat destruction or ever-climbing temperatures.

To assist wildlife survival in a changing climate conservation managers are looking into options such as restoring or expanding natural areas, planting shady vegetation to cool river temperatures and, in some cases, potentially moving species to cooler locations.

What can you do to help the millions of fish in warming waters? Right now, critical salmon conservation funding and the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to limit carbon pollution are both under attack. Speak up for salmon! 

Learn more about National Wildlife Federation’s efforts to help wildlife survive warming temperatures and other impacts of climate change.

Miami, Florida faces a greater economic threat from global warming than any other city on earth.  Much of the city is just a few feet above sea level and even 3-4 foot rise in sea levels – well within the projections of what could happen over the next century - could inundate Miami Beach and downtown Miami.  Don’t believe me?  Thanks to the wonders of Google, with a little help from the architects at Architecture 2030, you can see for yourself.

So I was pleased to hear that Miami is the first participant in ICLEI’s “Climate Resilient Communities” program, which is geared to help cities prepare for, and even thrive in, a warmer – and in Miami’s case, wetter – world.  ICLEI is an organization that helps cities become more sustainable.  They have done fantastic work in helping cities reduce their carbon footprint, but have recognized that simply reducing emissions is not enough to prepare for climate change, a city must also prepare for the inevitable (and in many cases, already occurring) impacts of climate change.

You can find out more about ICLEI’s work on preparing for climate impacts (often called “climate adaptation”) at www.icleiusa.org/adaptation.  They have resources for local governments and city planners who want to prepare for climate change in their governing and planning.

Of course if you do want a Waterworld 2 (and after watching the trailer again, I think I might…), you can always write to Universal Studios.  But congratulations to Miami, for taking steps to avoid making it a reality.

Flooding events will intensify as the world warms

Today a group called the Interagency Task Force on Climate Change Adaptation issued a report with recommendations to the President on how the nation can respond to and prepare for global warming impacts.  The task force, comprised of over 20 federal agencies, spent the past 1-1/2 years gathering ideas from states, tribal governments, NGOs, private industry and others.

The report does a nice job of explaining how the federal government can better implement its many programs by incorporating some intelligent thinking about climate change.   It also does a good job of cataloguing and promoting adaptation exercises already underway in the federal government, including the one focused on ecosystem-based adaptation (called the “National Fish, Wildlife and Plants Climate Adaptation Strategy”) that I’m involved with.

I’d like to highlight just a couple of key ideas from the report that might otherwise get lost due to their subtlety.

First, the report states that ecosystem-oriented adaptaton strategies are useful to reduce the vulnerability of both natural and human systems to climate change.  This is a crucial point that would benefit from stronger language and further elaboration.  A substantial body of research is emerging that shows how human systems such as drinking water supplies, crops, and buildings are at great risk from climate-related disturbances such as intense storms, floods, heat waves and droughts and can be better safeguarded by protecting and restoring ecosystems.  Check out, for example, this just-released study from the United Nations Environment Program entitled “How Ecosystems Protect Communities from Natural Hazards.”

Second, in extremely polite terms, today’s Task Force report identifies some key federal programs that would benefit from integration of adaptation approaches.  For example, it states that “programs like the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) in the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) can explore a range of approaches to encourage people, communities, and businesses to shift away from high-risk coastal areas and account for future risk in the administration of the Program.”  I suppose this kind of diplomatic language is necessary, especially considering that FEMA is one of the Task Force members responsible for the report.

Here is my suggestion for how to make the same point in a less polite way:

The National Flood Insurance Program currently provides financial incentives for people to build homes and businesses in coastal and floodplains habitats that, according to the latest climate change science, are highly vulnerable to catastrophic storms and floods.  By ignoring this science and failing to adopt modern approaches to climate change adaptation, FEMA is inadvertently and unnecessarily putting people’s lives at risk. In contrast, if FEMA were to employ the adaptation approaches discussed in this report, it would great reduce climate-related risks to people and property, while reducing development that is both damaging to the environment and costly to taxpayers.

Saying it this way might not be diplomatic, but it would give readers a better sense of the urgency of the adaptation agenda.

Many possible topics to choose among for my inaugural blog post.  Rather than focusing on the tea party or some other easy target, I’d like to talk about what some of the leading thinkers on adaptation are saying.

Yesterday, the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research delivered a report to John Holdren, the President’s science and technology advisor, recommending actions at the national and regional levels to prepare for the changing climate.

You can download the report here.

The report was the product of the the National Climate Adaptation Summit held earlier this year, which I attended.   By necessity, only a small subset of summit participants was involved in drafting the report.  I am among the participants who saw the report for the first time this week and now is my chance to react to this important document.

The report does a nice job summarizing the best thinking on what action is needed on climate change adaptation, with two glaring exceptions: it gives no attention to the emerging discipline of ecosystem-oriented adaptation and gives no indication of which among the many types of adaptation efforts underway deserves priority attention.   Instead, the report puts ecosystems / natural resources on equal par with the long list of other societal assets.  It emphasizes the need for all agencies and sectors with at-risk assets to integrate their planning.

The premise of the report is correct:  to address the looming threat of climate change,  virtually all of our institutions, both private and public, will need to reconsider how they do business, to reduce both their carbon footprint and their exposure to climate disruptions already piped into the system.   However, building an effective overarching structure for every single agency to coordinate its adaptation efforts with every other agency will take a very long time.  Some sort of prioritization is needed;  if you try to do everything at once, you may end up doing nothing very well.

Our nation must therefore give top priority to adaptation strategies that minimize climate change’s harmful impacts on ecosystems.  Every day we get more evidence that we have very little time to rescue the ecosystems that sustain not only our fish and wildlife, but also our economy and jobs, our food and water, and our quality of life.  Species extinctions, intensified floods, wildfires and droughts, and many other ecosystem disruptions are well underway due to climate change.    With ecosystems being damaged much more dramatically by climate change than human systems, and human systems so dependent on the health of ecosystems, ecosystem health must be put first in line.

Miguel Ferrer, an ornithologist at Spain’s Doñana National Park, told a recent gathering of about 200 scientists that about 70 percent of the world’s migrating birds, 20 billion in total, have changed their migration habits over the past few decades. Some birds have stopped migrating altogether.

“Long-distance migrators are traveling shorter distances; shorter-distance migrators are becoming sedentary,” Ferrer said. “That has a knock-on effect on almost everything they do, from breeding habits to feeding habits to their genetic diversity, which in turn affects other organisms in their food chain. It’s a huge behavioral change, forced on them by rising temperatures.”

The biggest reason behind this behavioral shift is climate change.

“Climate change and environmental change are simultaneously forcing migratory birds to adapt extremely quickly”, says Ian Newton, a Royal Society member and longtime researcher.

The adaptation process was necessary during the Ice Age, when species needed to change habits in order to adapt to a changing climate. However, if this adaptation process is needed much faster than previously, the process may be no where near as successful.

“Average annual temperatures are moving northward at a rate of four kilometers (about 2 miles) a year,” Mr Ferrer estimates, “so the normal summer temperature in your city 12 months ago is now normal four kilometers further north. It doesn’t sound like a lot, but that’s 20 times quicker than temperatures changed in the last Ice Age. At the same time, because birds are migrating less, one traditional path for genetic development, when they strayed from their migration paths by accident and had to adapt, is being closed off.”