{"id":3287,"date":"2011-11-30T14:40:10","date_gmt":"2011-11-30T03:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/?p=3287"},"modified":"2011-11-30T14:40:10","modified_gmt":"2011-11-30T03:40:10","slug":"climate-change-causes-colour-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/nature\/climate-change-causes-colour-change\/","title":{"rendered":"Climate change causes colour change"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_3288\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"width: 605px\"><a href=\"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/gray.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3288\" src=\"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/gray.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"605\" height=\"452\" srcset=\"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/gray.jpg 605w, https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/gray-300x224.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 605px) 100vw, 605px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">The tawny owl appears in both grey and brown. In warming climates, the brown may be dominant. Image: D. Forsman<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>Climate change can cause physical changes in animals, according to a study from the University of Helsinki.<!--more--><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Scientists studied the colour development of the\u00a0tawny owl (Strix aluco),\u00a0which can be grey or reddish-brown. It is the first study to show hard evidence that climate change can affect an inheritable trait.<\/p>\n<p>Led by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.helsinki.fi\/bioscience\/beu\/people\/karell.htm\">Patrik Karell<\/a>, the scientists compared tawny owl records from the Finnish Museum of Natural History. The records (28 years) show that more grey than brown owls survive the cold, snowy winters. Scientists think that the colouring provides a better camouflage in snow-covered landscapes than the brown, which is better suited for warmer weather.<\/p>\n<p>The colour breakdown traditionally meant that the owl population consisted of some 70 per cent grey birds and 30 per cent brown ones, and genetic analysis confirmed that the genes that signal for grey feathers are dominant. However, the generally warmer winters resulting from climate change have shifted the distribution to half grey and half brown, which may be significant for owl populations in the future. Previous studies suggest that brown owls may have weaker immune systems, however, the grey individuals could stand a better chance of surviving than their brown peers.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/owlbrown.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-3289\" title=\"owlbrown\" src=\"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/owlbrown.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"605\" height=\"419\" srcset=\"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/owlbrown.jpg 605w, https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/owlbrown-300x207.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 605px) 100vw, 605px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Climate change can cause physical changes in animals, according to a study from the University of Helsinki.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,56,45,6,36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-animals","category-conservation","category-environment","category-nature","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3287"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3287"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3287\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3291,"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3287\/revisions\/3291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}