Clemson University hosts conference on environmental risks to sea eagles

Published: February 28, 2011

Participants in this week's sea eagle conference at Clemson. image by: Craig Mahaffey

CLEMSON — No one would confuse sea eagles with canaries, but the great raptors serve a similar purpose to canaries in a coal mine: early-warning monitors of environmental safety. A conference at Clemson University this week brings together 20 of the world’s leading sea eagle researchers to discuss what the birds reveal about the global environment.

“There are eight species of sea eagles around the world, many of which we have been studying for more than 40 years,” said William Bowerman, professor of wildlife ecology and toxicology in Clemson's forestry and natural resources department. “The amount of research data — bird health, habitat, behavior, population — provides us with a wealth of information about past conditions to compare to current conditions, and that will help us make better projections and models about what the future may look like environmentally.”

Bowerman specializes in bald eagles, one of the eight species in the genus Haliaeetus, which range across a wide array of latitudes and geographical regions. He has been studying bald eagle ecology and the effects of environmental pollutants in the Great Lakes region since 1984.

Working with Michigan State University, the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bowerman has trained wildlife professionals and started environmental monitoring programs using Haliaeetus eagles in the United States and Canada (bald eagle), Sweden (white-tailed sea eagle), Russia (Steller’s sea eagle), Uganda and South Africa (African fishing eagle).

Recently, according to Bowerman, researchers have noted changes in many sea eagle species. In Michigan, for example, bald eagles are initiating egg laying significantly earlier (by 12 to 15 days, 1988-2006).  This is the greatest annual change in egg laying recorded for any species, he said. The change in behavior is cause for concern.

“Because Haliaeetus species are so well-studied, we have reliable methods to define and quantify specific impacts of stresses on sea eagles,” said Bowerman. “Coupling life-history data to climate change models and adding in a risk-assessment model it is feasible that many sea eagle species could die out.”

As a result, Clemson University, the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have initiated a project under the global SEA EAGLE cooperative to evaluate historic effects of global climate change, develop standardized monitoring protocols for measuring and modeling current effects and test predictive hypotheses relating to the type and extent of future effects.

The project brings together a prestigious international team of professional and academic wildlife ecologists, toxicologists, geographical information specialists, climate-change modelers and risk assessors. Representatives come from more than 19 countries on four continents. Participants attending the Clemson meeting are from Russia, Sweden, Scotland, Kenya, Madagascar, Australia and the United States.  

The goal of the project is to establish modeling efforts and propel a collaborative effort to the forefront of wildlife-climate change research on a global scale with the desired outcome of actionable policy and monitoring protocols for U.S. and foreign government agencies, including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the European Union.

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