THE Sleepy Lizard has given Australian meteorologists a wake-up call.
The species of blue-tongued lizard commonly found in New South Wales has begun to mate earlier in a direct indication that Australia's climate is changing.
As a result, its behaviour - along with other native flora and fauna - is being catalogued for an ecological database that meteorologists hope will give an insight into climate change and its effect on nature.
Dr Lynda Chambers helped establish the database at Melbourne's Bureau of Meteorology Research Centre after noticing "astounding" behavioural changes.
"Change to plant and animal behaviour is nature's own yardstick," she said today.
"When we see and record ecological changes, it's an indicator of how the climate is changing.
"The Sleepy Lizard is now mating weeks earlier due to the warmer and drier winters.
"And the Purple-crowned Lorikeet is one of more than 20 bird species whose migration patterns have changed.
"Along the coastline of Western Australia, the lorikeets are now arriving more than a month earlier than they did in the 1980s.
"The fact that so many different species are exhibiting changes is quite astounding."
Dr Chambers' work will be presented during an international conference on greenhouse and climate change at Melbourne from November 14-17.
She has already compiled flora and fauna studies that look at abundance, timing of breeding and migration or flowering for the database.
Dr Chambers also encourages people to contribute information.
"By documenting what ecological data has already been collected by researchers across Australia and by encouraging people to look for climate change signals, we will be in a good position to understand observed and potential impacts of climate change over a wide range of species, ecosystems and regions," she said.
"This will allow us to better manage our natural resources."
The database is a joint project of the Bureau of Meteorology, Macquarie University and the University of Melbourne, funded by the Australian Greenhouse Office.
The conference will also feature the Bureau's work with Pacific governments to salvage and computerise their weather records written on paper that are threatened by decay and weather.
Meteorologists can use the historical data to forecast weather trends and extremes for the island nations.
The Bureau will help the Solomon Islands, Kiribati, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea and Fiji rescue the data over the next 12 months.
