Noctilucent clouds.
Invasive signal crayfish, shags, night-shining clouds
13 March 2012
This week in the Planet Earth Podcast: Richard Hollingham finds out why the American signal crayfish is driving out one of the UK's native species; in our latest audio diary, Hannah Grist from the University of Aberdeen talks us through her research on European shags; and what noctilucent clouds tell us about our changing climate.
The American signal crayfish was introduced to Britain in the 1970s. Since then, the invader has spread rapidly across south and southeast England, decimating native populations of white-clawed crayfish in rivers, canals and streams. Now researchers are starting to get to grips with why the species is so successful. Richard Hollingham reports from Yorkshire.
Many seabirds around the North Sea are under threat from over-fishing and climate change In our most recent audio diary, seabird expert Hannah Grist talks about her research on European shags, which could help with their conservation.
Listen
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A full text transcript is available.
Finally Sue Nelson finds out why unusual, night-shining, or noctilucent, clouds 85 kilometres (53 miles) up in the atmosphere reveal more about our changing climate than scientists anticipated.
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Keywords:
Atmosphere,
Birds,
Climate system,
Invasive species,
Rivers and lakes,
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