Conservation & Ecology
Along with modern farming methods, climate change is widely cited as one of the most significant threats to the world’s biodiversity, and one that is projected to become increasingly severe through the course of this century. Large- scale monitoring programmes, such as those reviewed annually in ‘The State of the UK’s Birds’, have provided data for a number of cross-species analyses to examine the impacts of climate change.
The following excerpts from the publication are designed to give an overview of the content, along with the concerns raised. It is by no means comprehensive and readers should download the full publication at
www.rspb.org.uk. Compiled by Peter Britton
P
ublished in December 2017, ‘The State of the UK’s Birds’ (SUKB) report provides a one‐stop shop for the results from annual, periodic and one‐off surveys and
monitoring studies of birds.
SUKB 2017 is produced by a coalition of three not‐for‐profit organisations: the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) and the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT), together with the UK’s statutory nature conservation bodies: the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, Northern Ireland (DAERA), the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC), Natural England (NE), Natural Resources Wales (NRW) and Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH). Since 1999, these reports have provided an annual overview of the status of bird populations in the UK (and its Overseas Territories). It presents trends for as many of the UK’s regularly occurring species as possible.
The 2017 edition also focuses on the considerable impact climate change has had, is currently having and is likely to have in the future on bird populations in the UK. The report reviews this research to present the current evidence for how climate change is already affecting our bird life. Projections of how species populations are likely to respond to climate change in the future are examined.
It highlights those species considered particularly vulnerable to, or potentially able to benefit from climate change, bearing in mind the many other drivers that are likely to interact with climate change. In the light of this evidence, it discusses the conservation response required to meet the challenges presented by climate change in order to maintain and, where possible, enhance the status of our bird life. Climate change is already affecting much of our wildlife. Trends in temperature and rainfall over the past 30 years have been shown to affect the distribution, abundance and timing of natural events.
Changes in survival and breeding success lead to changes in community processes and population changes for a wide range of taxonomic groups.
Since the early 1990s, birds in the UK, and Europe as a whole, have shown changes in numbers and distribution consistent with a warming climate.
The UK wild bird indicators are high‐level measures of the state of bird populations. They show relative changes in the abundance of common and widespread native birds of farmland, woodland, freshwater and marine habitats. In conjunction with indicators for other well‐ monitored groups, such as butterflies and bats, they are used as a proxy for the overall state of biodiversity, to track progress towards targets for conserving the natural
PC FEBRUARY/MARCH 2018 I 107
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