Welcome to the last Sweet Sixteen round of March Sadness, our bracket tournament of animals impacted by climate change and other environmental threats. Again, for whichever animal wins, ClimateProgress will write a feature-length article exploring the story behind it, and who is working to save it. Read the rules here.
Last round saw Elephant triumph over Mountain Goat, and Moose get harpooned by Narhwal.
This round features our Wings and Shells division. Sea Turtle, the only aquatic member of the division, faces off against the migratory wonder Red Knot. And Butterfly, our only insectoid contender, goes head to head with bird of prey Peregrine Falcon. Your votes will decide who moves on to the next round for a chance at a feature story. Vote in the embedded tweets below, on Twitter with the hashtag #CPMarchSadness, or on our Facebook page.
Sea Turtle vs. Red Knot
Sea Turtle:
Last round we told you about the problems sea turtles face when sea level rise shifts the location of the beaches on which they need to lay their eggs. And when the turtles do lay their eggs, they do so on warmer beaches, which actually causes more females to be born. This throws the reproductive future of the species into chaos.
Storm surge boosted by sea level rise, paired with more extreme weather events along coastlines, can also threaten sea turtle nests. Paired with human development on coastlines, turtles have even fewer options for nesting sites. Shifting ocean currents and rising acidity levels can threaten sea grasses and other turtle food sources.
Red Knot:
As we said last week, red knots are some of the migratory bird world’s most amazing fliers: they travel up to 18,000 miles every year. But climate change and other environmental threats could make that migration a lot more difficult. During their migration, red knots stop off at Delaware Bay in Maryland, and they depend on horseshoe crab eggs for sustenance while they’re there. But horseshoe crab eggs have declined in the past due to poor management by fishermen, and that decline led to a drop in red knot numbers too.
Horseshoe crabs are better managed today, but climate change still poses a risk to these birds. Climate change is contributing to increased storms in the Arctic, which puts young red knots at risk. In addition, changing temperatures could make a mismatch between the time that the birds show up in Delaware Bay and the time that the crabs lay their eggs more likely. “The peak of horseshoe crabs spawning in Delaware Bay has not always aligned itself with the migration of the red knots. That could be related to climate change,” said Gregory Breese, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s project leader for the Delaware Bay Estuary Project.
Will the winner be swimming or flying to the next round?
Who will you choose? RETWEET for Sea Turtle or FAVE for Red Knot #CPMarchSadness http://t.co/IObDWvTKkC pic.twitter.com/C8SCCOg5vI
— Climate Progress (@climateprogress) March 31, 2015
Butterfly vs. Peregrine Falcon
Butterfly:
Warmer temperatures could already be messing up the flight season timing of multiple butterfly species, a 2013 study found. The study concluded that the butterflies’ flight seasons started an average of 2.4 days earlier for each degree Celsius in rise in temperature. “With warmer temperatures butterflies emerge earlier in the year, and their active flight season occurs earlier,” said Heather Kharouba, lead author of the paper published this week in Global Change Biology. “This could have several implications for butterflies. If they emerge too early, they could encounter frost and die. Or they might emerge before the food plants they rely on appear and starve.”
Some butterfly species are particularly at risk. Monarch butterflies, which are already facing threats from the destruction of their favorite crop — milkweed — and of the forests they rely on, are also at risk of having their migration altered due to climate change. One study found that monarchs needed a cold trigger in order to continue migrating south to Mexico in the fall, and without these cold conditions, monarchs can actually stop in the middle of their migration south and start migrating north. Extreme weather, which is expected to become more common as the earth warms, also poses a major threat to monarchs — in 2002, a severe storm in Mexico killed nearly 80 percent of the monarch butterfly population there.
Peregrine Falcon:
For peregrine falcon chicks, heavy rains exacerbated by climate change can be deadly. One 2013 study, conducted by researchers at the University of Alberta and the Université du Québec, found prolonged, heavy rains in the Arctic are causing peregrine chicks to drown or die of hypothermia. That kind of rain has become more frequent in the Canadian Arctic — according to the study, there’s been an uptick in the number of days with heavy rainfall in the region from 1981 to 2010, a trend that follows increasing temperatures in the region and that’s consistent with predictions of climate change’s effect on precipitation. That’s bad news for peregrine falcon chicks, which are vulnerable to the heavy rains.
“They’re completely covered in fluffy down,” study co-author Alastair Franke said of the chicks. “That down gets wet very quickly.”
Typically, a mother peregrine will cover her chicks with her wings when it rains, shielding them from getting wet. But the study found more frequent rain spells are forcing some mother peregrines to give up and leave their chicks exposed to the rain. In one case, a mother who left her chicks in the rain for several hours and returned to find them visibly weakened killed both of them — the first case of infanticide ever recorded in wild peregrine falcons.
Which one will wing it to the next round for a chance at a feature story?
Who will move on? RETWEET for Butterfly or FAVE for Peregrine Falcon #CPMarchSadness http://t.co/IObDWvTKkC pic.twitter.com/CZmBzLUEJi
— Climate Progress (@climateprogress) March 31, 2015
***TOURNAMENT UPDATES:Day 1–3/19: Paws and Claws pt. 1 — Polar Bear vs. Wombat; Tasmanian Devil vs. Pangolin; (voting closed) WINNERS: Polar Bear and Pangolin.Day 2–3/20: Paws and Claws pt. 2 — Lemur vs. Koala; Panda vs. Wolverine (voting closed) WINNERS: Koala and Wolverine.Day 3–3/23: Fins and Flippers — Sea Lion vs. Sea Horse; Penguin vs. Manatee; Walrus vs. Sea Otter; Whale vs. Salmon (voting closed) WINNERS: Sea Horse, Sea Otter, Whale, and Penguin.Day 4–3/24: Horns and Hooves — Elephant vs. Horned Lizard; Rhino vs. Narwhal; Saola vs. Moose; Mountain Goat vs. Reindeer (voting closed) WINNERS: Elephant, Narwhal, Moose, and Mountain Goat.Day 5–3/25: Shells and Wings — Sea Turtle vs. Pelican; Sage Grouse vs. Peregrine Falcon; Oyster vs. Butterfly; Lobster vs. Red Knot (voting closed) WINNERS: Sea Turtle, Falcon, Butterfly, Red Knot.Day 6–3/26: Polar Bear vs. Pangolin; Koala vs. Wolverine (voting closed) WINNERS: Polar Bear, Wolverine.Day 7–3/27: Sea Horse vs. Whale; Sea Otter vs. Penguin (voting closed) WINNERS: Sea Horse, Sea Otter.Day 8–3/30: Elephant vs. Mountain Goat; Moose vs. Narwhal (voting closed) WINNERS: Elephant, Narwhal.Day 9–3/31: Sea Turtle vs. Red Knot; Butterfly vs. Peregrine Falcon (voting closed) WINNERS: Sea Turtle, Peregrine Falcon.Day 10–4/1: Polar Bear vs. Wolverine; Sea Horse vs. Sea Otter (voting NOW OPEN)Day 11–4/2: Elephant vs. Narwhal; Sea Turtle vs. Peregrine FalconDay 12–4/3: THE FINAL FOUR: TBD Day 13–4/6: THE CHAMPIONSHIP: TBD
PAST ROUNDS:Round 8: Sweet Sixteen, part 3Round 7: Sweet Sixteen, part 2Round 6: Sweet Sixteen, part 1Round 5: Shells and WingsRound 4: Horns and HoovesRound 3: Fins and FlippersRound 2: Paws and Claws, part 2Round 1: Paws and Claws, part 1