How does rising atmospheric CO2 affect marine organisms?

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Birds of New York
Reference
Zuckerberg, B., Woods, A.M. and Porter, W.F. 2009. Poleward shifts in breeding bird distributions in New York State. Global Change Biology 15: 1866-1883.

What was done
The authors "used the New York State Breeding Birds Atlas, a statewide survey of 5332 25-km2 blocks surveyed in 1980-1985 and 2000-2005, to test several predictions that the birds of New York State are responding to climate change."

What was learned
"As expected," in Zuckerberg et al.'s words, "we found all bird species (n = 129) included in this analysis showed an average northward range shift in their mean latitude of 3.58 km."

What it means
Citing a number of other studies, the three New York researchers concluded that "the repeated pattern of a predicted northward shift in bird ranges in various geographic regions of the [Northern Hemisphere] provides compelling evidence that climate change is driving range shifts." And this fact provides "compelling evidence" that earth's birds did precisely what they should have done, over the period of Zuckerberg et al.'s study, in order to maintain a strong presence on the planet in the face of the rising temperatures of that period.

Reviewed 7 October 2009