Climate Change Turns Britain into Haven for Wildlife

Climate change could increase the number of wildlife species found in Britain as birds and insects take refuge from higher temperatures in southern Europe, a study by the RSPB has found.

Dozens of species, including 20 types of waterbird, including the little egret, common crane, purple heron, little bittern, black-winged stilt and mediterranean gull, have already arrived and begun breeding in recent decades. Species that are largely confined to the south coast, such as the dartford warbler, are expected to spread northwards and inhabit a much larger area.

Any gains in Britain in terms of wildlife diversity, however, will be more than outweighed by losses elsewhere caused by global warming, according to the report, The Nature of Climate Change.

“While climate change could lead to the dartford warbler increasing in Britain, its global future may be less positive,” the report said.

“In Spain, the core of its range, the dartford warbler is declining.”

Some native species, such as bearded tits, will suffer from the predicted increase in extreme weather, such as periods of more intense rain and stronger storms.

Wet and windy springs can cause the mass deaths of shags, a cormorant-like seabird. The UK is home to almost half the world’s breeding population of shags.

Heavy rain in the breeding season, which is becoming more likely because a warmer atmosphere holds more water vapour, kills the chicks of slavonian grebes, oystercatchers and capercailles.

The population of kittiwakes, a gull distinctive by its black wing-tips, has already fallen by 70 per cent since 1986, and climate change is expected to accelerate the decline.

The study also examined shifts in insect populations and found the that red-eyed damselfly and wasp spider had spread in England because of a warmer climate.

SOURCE: www.thetimes.co.uk - http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/environment/wildlife/article4614758.ece

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