Abstract:
Severe heat waves have occasionally led to catastrophic avian mortality in hot desert
environments. Climate change models predict increases in the intensity, frequency and
duration of heat waves. A model of avian evaporative water requirements and survival
times during the hottest part of day reveals that the predicted increases in maximum air
temperatures will result in large fractional increases in water requirements (in small birds,
equivalent to 150 – 200% of current values), which will severely reduce survival times
during extremely hot weather. By the 2080s, desert birds will experience reduced survival
times much more frequently during mid-summer, increasing the frequency of
catastrophic mortality events.
