Tim Wright, a professor at New Mexico State University (NMSU), is spearheading a new partnership between NMSU and Los Alamos National Lab to train students in a relatively new field of research, disaster ecology.
“It is one in which we try to understand how these disasters are occurring, what leads to these disasters, and also how we might be able to mitigate them and lessen their impact in the future,” Wright told KOB.
He said students will revisit 2020's mass die-off of migratory birds to better understand how climate change affects them. It’s believed that research could one day help predict future weather disasters.
“That’s why migratory birds are particularly important,” said Jeanne Fair, a Los Alamos National Lab scientist. “They’re a great indicator of stresses, from where they’ve been to where they’re going. They are the ones that are connecting us globally.”
Researchers want to investigate what led to thousands of birds dropping dead over New Mexico in September 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown was entering its sixth month. Disease was the first theory, but scientists pointed to something more prevalent. “That would be climate change,” Fair said.
Fair, who studied the incident, said the birds experienced three different extreme weather events in only a few days.
“We had some extreme high temperatures in Colorado and New Mexico, and then we had a cold front come in that was [an] extreme cold event,” Fair said. “At the same time, we had large catastrophic forest fires in the region, and so it was very, very smoky as well.”
Researchers believe all of those elements pushed the resilient birds to their limit.
“Something new is happening. Climate change is increasing the frequency and the severity of these weather-related events,” Wright said.
A U.S. Department of Agriculture grant allows up to 24 students to participate in the research project for the next four years.
“If it’s true that these sorts of events are going to happen more regularly, we need the next generation of environmental scientists of ornithologists, and researchers and environmental professionals to come together and be able to address this,” Fair said.