Slides of my talk to the Scottish Wildlife Trust on ‘Effect of climate change on Wildlife’ are available here Lecture to Scottish Wildlife Trust

“On behalf of the Lothians Branch Scottish Wildlife Trust I wanted to thank you again for the excellent talk which you delivered to us last night. It was challenging, thought provoking and superbly supported by your selection of slides, and all delivered on the night without reference to any notes! I think it is safe to say that the audience was the largest we have had for as long as I have been involved with the Trust and quite possibly for many years before that.” – Secretary, SWT.

Summary

• • Climate change continues to accelerate – despite Rio, Kyoto, Paris.
  • Global land-temperatures have already risen 1.6oC.
  • The environment is changing faster than at any time in recorded history.

• • Mobile generalists (e.g. dragonflies) respond to warmth with minimal climate deficit.
  • Other taxa (e.g. Scots pine) and biome boundaries (e.g. tree-lines) only react slowly.
  • Climate change is already causing desynchronisation and disrupting wildlife behaviour.

• • Higher temperatures are coming:- heatwaves, extreme highs, changed rainfall patterns.
  • By 2100, over land, a 6 to 8oC rise will not be unusual, locally +12oC.
  • Conservationists need to be preparing for a much, much warmer world.

Scottish Wildlife Trust / Roy Thompson by blogadmin is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 3.0