Animal rescue centers received a flood of calls, birds fell from the sky and nature reserves burned as Britain’s wildlife baked in the past week. heat wave.
Conservationists said the animals were eerily still as they tried to shield themselves from the heat. Experts fear record temperatures could cause a further collapse in insect numbers, with bumblebees and butterflies among the hardest hit.
Dehydrated hedgehogs, baby birds, fox cubs and snakes were among the casualties helped by the RSPCA, which warned that the extent of heat stress damage in 40°C (104°F) conditions was enormous. “Our emergency call center has a lot more calls than usual. On Monday we received 7,186 calls to our helpline compared to 4,416 on Sunday, which was a big increase,” said Evie Button, RSPCA wildlife science officer.
There were reports of swifts falling from the sky in London, and Oxfordshire Wildlife Rescue near Didcot said it could not take more animals after the heat wave increased the number of victims. “You often don’t see the impacts of something like this directly because it’s the nature of wildlife to hide when they’re sick or injured,” Button said. “Often, it’s only when they’re in really bad shape that people see them and call us. So much of the impact will be hidden.”
Among the most dramatic events was a Forest fire in Norfolk’s Wild Ken Hill Reserve, where 33 hectares (82 acres) of thorny scrub burned, with nesting territories of turtle doves, grasshoppers and reed warblers destroyed. Reptiles and amphibians would have been burned, while most birds would have escaped except those that nest late in the season, experts said. “I saw some birds flying into the flames. I think the maternal instinct is quite strong,” said project director Dominic Buscall. “I am worried that it will happen again this year. It’s incredibly dry, we have no rain forecast this week and it’s only the middle of July,” he added.
What is happening in the UK is part of a larger picture, with Heat waves are becoming more common as the climate crisis intensifies. Across Europe, in recent days, the earth has burned and there have been fires in several countries, including Spain, Greece and France. With heat waves projected to become 12 times more frequent by 2040 compared to pre-warming levels, animals around the world are changing their behavior to cope. For example, research shows that grizzly bears in Alberta, Canada, look more closedshaded vegetation to cope with higher temperatures, while in Greece brown bears are more likely to be active at night. “Heat wave survivors” are those who make it through the heat but suffer unseen costs like disease and poor growth.
John Spicer, a professor of marine zoology at the University of Plymouth, said the Plymouth Harbor tidal zone, which is normally busy with hermit crabs foraging for food and shells at low tide, went quiet during the heat wave. . The crabs that remained seemed sluggish and some were unresponsive.
“The mobile animals that have stayed in the intertidal zone are eerily still,” Spicer said. Beach hoppers, which recycle material from the beach, waited for the heat to pass rather than recompose the nutrients, and occasionally there was a pocket of a hundred dead crunchies, he observed.
He added: “If they survive heat stress, they may be damaged or their ‘energy bills’ may be more geared towards maintaining themselves than other equally essential functions such as growth and reproduction. So the cost of living goes up, and I don’t need to tell you the effects of such an increase.”
Just outside Plymouth, three species of common seaweed showed extensive heat damage. “The creatures that seem most affected, and this makes sense, are those that can’t move, that are fixed in place: barnacles, mussels, sponges, sea anemones,” Spicer said.
There have been reports of rare purple-haired butterflies. venture down from the tops of oak trees to ponds for moisture. across the UK, there is concern the heat wave will burn the plants these insects feed on and kill young caterpillars, which could cause dramatic declines in some species.
Bumblebees will also be severely affected, said Dave Goulson, a professor of biology at the University of Sussex. They are relatively large and have shaggy coats that are adaptations for living in cool conditions. In 40°C heat, they would not be able to forage. “They overheat in very hot weather and just can’t fly. Imagine trying to flap your arms 200 times a second while wearing a fur coat,” Goulson said. They usually have some food reserves in their nest, so they may survive for a few days, but may die if there are prolonged periods of estrus.
For many British bumblebees, it will be too hot to survive in Britain with 2°C of warming. Under the best climate scenario, seven common bumblebees are predicted to be unable to live in most of England’s lowlands, Goulson said. Research of 2020 suggested that the expansion or decline of bumblebee species could be due to their resistance to heat stress.
In general, animals such as reptiles and insects, which are ectotherms, are greatly affected because they cannot control their body heat; it simply matches the temperature of the surrounding environment. Those who live in cities suffering from the heat island effect would be subject to the greatest increases in temperature. “In more natural settings that have lots of trees, vegetation and bodies of water, there will be more fresh air and shade,” said Dr. Natalie Pilakouta, an ecologist at the University of Aberdeen. Putting feeders in gardens, water points and water baths will help wildlife get through a heat wave, she said.
Conservationists should also think about creating landscapes that are better resistant to heat waves, said Mike Morecroft, lead author of the IPCC report. Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability who also works for Natural England. “One thing that we’re quite interested in is deliberately trying to focus some of our conservation efforts on what we call climate change refugia, meaning places that are naturally cool, like north-facing slopes or higher altitudes,” he said. “Also places near the coast tend to be a bit cooler, so the sea tends to buffer fluctuations in air temperature.”
Incorporating more water into landscapes means they are more resilient in hot, dry summers and also store water in the event of major flooding. This will help prevent wildfires and reduce drought impacts that often come with such hot weather. Because drought, heat and wildfires have hit at the same time, it’s hard to tease out the effects of each. “This week’s impacts can only be properly assessed in the coming months and years,” Morecroft said.
However, cut urgently Greenhouse gases is the top priority. Spicer said mitigation and adaptation strategies are well-intentioned and give us some reassurance that we’re doing something, but they won’t prevent the looming car accident.
“The speed at which we hit the wall is determined by our production of greenhouse gases. The question is not whether we can avoid the crash, but how fast you want to travel when we hit the wall,” he said. “Dramatically reduce greenhouse gases: That’s what we can do about it, even if it’s painful.”
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