Some don’t like it hot

Friday 12 August 2022

Climate and wildlife

https://www.facebook.com/worcestershirewildlifetrust

With both ecological and climate crises unfolding before us, our climate and wildlife blog will explore aspects of this as well as the difference that organisations and individuals can achieve.

Sunrise by Anil Patel

With a second heatwave in a month and the hottest UK temperatures being recorded, Sean takes a closer look at the impact of this year's weather...

Just like us, wildlife can find extreme weather difficult and dangerous. And there’s been no escaping the extreme heat recently - with the highest temperature ever recorded in Britain, 40.3°C, in July and another heatwave underway. It’s also been incredibly dry and there is a real possibility of prolonged drought in parts of the UK.

These hot, dry conditions are affecting wildlife in several different ways. Across the country we’ve seen streams and rivers running low and ponds heating up and drying up. This reduces the habitat for aquatic wildlife and it also affects nearby habitats and wider-ranging wild animals that rely on these wetlands for water. We’ve also seen grasslands and heathlands become dangerously dry and increasingly susceptible to wildfires, like those seen at the Lickey Hills and Hartlebury Common recently. Even woodlands are suffering, with many trees showing signs of heat and drought stress - shedding their leaves and making it feel like autumn has come early.

Blackbird with worm in beak, dandelion in foreground by Jon Hawkins/Surrey Hills Photography — Blackbird by Jon Hawkins - Surrey Hills Photography

These conditions are also having direct impacts on wild animals. We know that bumblebees struggle to fly in high temperatures and hoverflies suffer when the small pools of water that they breed in dry out. Plants produce less nectar in hot dry conditions, which makes life harder for other pollinators and could have knock-on impacts for wildflowers and crop plants. Birds like robins, rooks and starlings find it harder to find food of worms and small soil-dwelling invertebrates when the ground is baked dry. There have also been reports of disorientated bats flying in the daylight because their roosts have become too hot.

Additional pressure on our biodiversity crisis

When ecosystems are healthy and intact, nature can be very resilient and remarkably able to bounce back. But most of our natural ecosystems, both in the Britain and globally, aren’t in good shape. Land use change and development has meant that many habitats are fragmented and wildlife populations are isolated in small pockets, such as nature reserves. Most of the remaining habitats have also been damaged to some degree by pollution, invasive species and over-exploitation. These are the main reasons why we are in a biodiversity crisis.

To add to these pressures, the impacts of climate change are now being felt ever more strongly. The heatwaves we’ve experienced this summer aren’t isolated events. They are part of an increasing climatic trend for hotter temperatures and more extreme weather caused by human-induced climate change and greenhouse gas emissions. The global temperature is currently about 1.1°C hotter than pre-industrial levels and it’s set to increase further. Each decade since the 1980s has been hotter than the previous one and the hottest seven years on record have all occurred since 2015. The overall increase in average temperatures is forcing species to move, if they can, to find areas with more a more suitable climate.

It is easy to forget in these very dry conditions that in the winter and spring we were also seeing increased risks of intense flooding and storms. We are on a rollercoaster of extreme weather. As these events happen more and more frequently, it gives nature - and us - less time to recover. This all adds to the stress on wildlife and compounds the impact of each extreme event. For some species, climate change will be ‘the straw the broke the camel’s back’.

The Royal Society of Wildlife Trusts estimate that by 2050 94% of Wildlife Trust nature reserves will see an increase of more than 1°C in maximum summer temperatures; 55% of reserves will see nearby rivers being reduced by a third; and there will be a fivefold increase in the risk of wildfires.

What can be done?

With enough will power, focus and action, we can steer society onto a sustainable course, to a future where wildlife is diverse and abundant and where the climate is stable and hospitable.

To enable nature to recover, and to stand a fighting chance against climate change and the other threats it faces, we needed to create a strong network of high-quality habitats. That’s why the Wildlife Trusts are calling for 30% of land and sea to be properly protected for wildlife by 2030. Together, we are also calling on the Government to introduce a suite of measures to protect rivers, streams and wetlands. These include fixed targets to reduce water pollution; specific objectives to help nature cope with drought, fire, and flooding; and better management of water resources to reduce waste and over-abstraction.

Nature is crucial for food production and providing water and it can help us to mitigate and adapt to climate change and other issues in a sustainable way. The Wildlife Trusts want to see increased effort from governments, business and other landowners on climate change adaptation, including greater investment in nature-based solutions. Nature-based solutions include things like restoring peatland habitats and creating woodland to sequester carbon from the atmosphere, creating wetlands and woodlands to reduce flood risk and planting trees to provide shade and reduce temperatures in our towns and around our homes. Nature-based solutions really can be win-win scenarios.

What can individuals do?

There’s lots of things that we can all do to help wildlife adapt to extreme weather and a heating climate:

In our gardens and greenspaces we can plant trees and shrubs to provide shade and shelter as well as leave unmanaged areas and denser patches of vegetation where wildlife can hide away. Leaving lawns longer in hot weather also provides a bit more shelter and helps to keep the ground cool.

One thing I always suggest is to create ponds if you can, even a small one or a container pond is good. Ponds are one of the best ways to increase biodiversity and to provide water for wildlife in hot weather. Just make sure there’s some shade and that animals can easily get in and out. Bird baths and shallows bowls of water will also help in heatwaves.

Planting more trees and shrubs in our towns and cities, increasing tree cover in hedges and fields and creating new woodlands can all benefit wildlife and help us adapt to climate change by drawing carbon from the atmosphere, providing shade for people and animals and reducing flood risk.

In several other counties, beavers have been helping to create wetlands, providing oases of wetland habitats that benefit a host of other species. Hopefully we will see beavers doing the same thing in Worcestershire one day!

Of course, the most important way to reduce the impact of climate change on wildlife is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as quickly and thoroughly as possible. That is the only way to meaningfully limit the severity of climate change. If we don’t do it, we will turn the climate crisis into a climate catastrophe. I’ve written more about how we - as individuals, organisations, communities, and a country - can reduce emissions in my previous blogs (see links below) but you can also find lots of good information here: