Climate change is on your doorstep
11 November 2009, by Tamera Jones
If you think climate change is something for the next generation, think again. In a detailed study of trends in UK ecosystems, researchers have found that not only has the environment changed, but everything from butterflies and beetles to soil, is responding.
Usually found in warm regions, numbers of the Dark Green Fritillary (Argynnis aglaja), have started to increase in a northern region of the UK.
Researchers measured differences in climate, air pollution, soil chemistry, plant abundance and type, and the numbers and spread of butterflies, moths, bats and beetles across 12 sites in the UK between 1993 and 2007. Reported in the journal Biological Conservation, it's the most detailed study of UK ecosystems to date.
'Nowhere else in the world has anyone looked at such a large range of different factors and brought them all together,' says Dr Mike Morecroft of Natural England, who led the study.
The scientists show that temperatures have risen faster than the global average and rainfall has increased over the period 1993 to 2007 at the 12 sites. But the acidity of rain has dropped dramatically, as a direct result of a clampdown on sulphur emissions since the 1970s, leading to less acid soils at some sites.
'Evidence is accumulating that organisms are responding to our changing climate, but this is likely to just be the beginning of trends like these.'
Dr Mike Morecroft, Natural England
Numbers of insects used to warm weather - like the peacock butterfly - have risen in the cold northern hills of Scotland. On the other hand, some beetles, which prefer a cooler home, have declined in places they traditionally lived in, like the Cairngorms.
'Evidence is accumulating that organisms are responding to our changing climate, but this is likely to just be the beginning of trends like these,' says Morecroft.
While soils have become less acidic as a result of less acid rain falling in the last 15 years, the researchers were surprised to find no change reflecting this in the types of plants growing at the 12 sites.
Ammonia pollution varied across the sites. In most places where it is high, the source is more often than not intensive farming. And although some plants do well in the nitrogen enriched soils in these areas, some don't, leading to a skewed ecosystem.
But the amount of nitrate in soils and rainfall has dropped, 'possibly because catalytic converters started to be used in cars from the early 1990s,' says Morecroft.
The 12 sites are part of the UK Environmental Change Network which was set up to identify and understand long-term changes in UK ecosystems. They range from upland areas of the Cairngorms in Scotland and Snowdonia in Wales to lowland regions of southern England and Northern Ireland.
The network is unique in that it analyses how ecosystems respond to environmental change in a standardised way so that results can be compared.
'These results give us a greater insight into how the wider natural environment is changing. We all depend on the natural environment and we're so connected to it that we really should be concerned. This could be a warning sign that we should take more care of our environment,' adds Morecroft.
The UK Environmental Change Network is co-ordinated by the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology and sponsored by 14 UK government departments, agencies and research organisations.
The UK Environmental Change Network: Emerging trends in the composition of plant and animal communities and the physical environment
M.D. Morecroft, C.E. Bealey, D.A. Beaumont, S. Benhamd, D.R. Brooks, T.P. Burt, C.N.R. Critchley, J. Dick, N.A. Littlewood, D.T. Monteith, W.A. Scott, R.I. Smith, C. Walmsley and H. Watson
Biological Conservation, Volume 142, Issue 12, December 2009, Pages 2814-2832
doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2009.07.004
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