Environmental Challenges from Global Warming/Climate Change, Urbanization and Pollution to Wild Birds and Poultry

Both wild birds and poultry are negatively impacted by global warming/climate change. Globally, climate has changed over the past 100 years due to industrial and other human activities with increased release of greenhouse gases such as methane and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. While atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide have oscillated from 250 to 180 ppm every 50,000 years for the past 800,000 years, they have rapidly risen to 440 ppm since 1900. As a consequence, average global temperatures have rapidly risen at least 1.5 degrees C. Global climate change affects breeding cycles, migratory patterns and all aspects of avian physiology. One goal of this Research Topic is to provide the historical and most recent perspectives concerning the impacts that global climate change has had on the physiological adaptations of birds to these changes, including heat stress, together with effects on daily and seasonal activities, reproduction, migration, range, spread of tropical disease, and other physiological responses to climatic change.

In addition, bird populations are negatively impacted by the environmental challenges of habitat loss and degradation due to urbanization, pollution and other human activities. These challenges contribute to reduced reproductive success and increased morbidity and mortality. To gather further insights into the physiological impacts of environmental challenges on avian populations, articles address, but not limited to, the following themes:

• The effects of light, air, noise, soil, and chemical pollution on avian physiology and survival.
• The impact of feed availability and contamination, including toxins, heavy metals, and PCBs, on avian physiology.
• Innovative protocols and solutions to mitigate environmental threats to avian populations.
• Comparative studies across different avian taxa to identify common physiological responses to environmental stressors.
• Experimental and correlative studies that explore the interactions between multiple environmental factors.
• Investigations into the phenotypic versus genetic or epigenetic nature of physiological changes in birds.

Keywords: urbanization, avian physiology, soil pollution, chemical pollution, noise pollution, light pollution, endocrine, metabolism, oxidative stress, stress, diet, anthropization, disease/parasitism, predation, competition, reproduction, environment, feed pollution, climate change

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.