Severe space weather affects migratory birds

NEW DELHI: Severe space weather events have been linked to a 9-17 per cent lowering in the numbers of migrating birds, in both spring and fall, according to new research.

Space weather events such as solar flares and other energetic outbursts cause periodic disruptions to Earth’s magnetic field, which migratory birds rely on for long-distance navigation.

The remaining birds that chose to migrate during such events seemed to experience more difficulty navigating, especially under overcast conditions in autumn, the researchers from the University of Michigan

(U-M), US, said in their

study that used a 23-year dataset of bird migration across the Great Plains, a major

migratory corridor, for analysis. For their analysis, the researchers used images collected at 37 radar stations in the Great Plains’ central flyway, spanning more than

1,600 kilometres from the US states of Texas to

North Dakota. The flaterrain was selected for study to minimise influences from mountainous topography or oceanic coastlines. The radar images or scans detect groups of hundreds to thousands of migrating birds, using which the migration intensity can be estimated and direction of flight can be measured, the researchers said in their study. In all, the datasets for analysis included 1.7 million radar scans from the fall and 1.4 million from the spring. Using statistical models, the team measured the effects of magnetic disturbances on bird migration.