Climatic impacts on European and North American birds [BIP]
Climatic impacts on European and North American birds [BIP]
Indicator description
Birds are useful indicators of the state of the environment as they are sensitive to environmental change, their ecology is well-known and they are relatively easy to survey and count. The Climate Impact Indicator (CII), derived from these counts with other information, quantifies the impacts of recent climate change on breeding abundance in common birds, accounting for regional variation in both climate impacts and population trends. The CII is relevant to policy makers because it can be used to track biological impacts of climatic warming in near real-time, relating the rate of change in bird populations to observed temperature change and climate drivers.