Extreme weather devastates UK wildlife in 2022: National Trust

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This year’s extreme weather conditions have devastated some of the UK’s most valuable flora and fauna, a leading conservation charity has said.

Survival has been very difficult for various animals, such as toads, birds, butterflies, and bats, as well as great trees and meadowland flowers.

The climate emergency shows that 2022's extreme events are going to become the new norm and create major challenges for many species, according to the National Trust, which makes a Christmas audit every year on how the weather has affected nature.

“This year’s weather has been challenging for nature. Drought, high temperatures, back-to-back storms, unseasonal heat, a cold snap and floods means nature, like us, is having to cope with a new litany of weather extremes," the charity’s Climate Crisis advisor, Keith Jones, said.

Read: Wildlife population drops 69% in under 50 years: Report

Jones warned of the “stark illustration” of the difficulties many of the species could face in the UK if action to tackle climate change and help nature cope is not taken.

“Weather experts predict that the future will see more torrential downpours, along with very dry and hot summers. We’re going to experience more floods, droughts, heatwaves, extreme storms and wildfires – and they will go from bad to worse, breaking records with ever alarming frequency if we don’t limit our carbon emissions,” he added.

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Wildfires that devastated heathland areas in Devon, Cornwall, and Dorset were one of the most obvious consequences of the hot summer. Habitats for species like the silver-studded blue butterfly, smooth snakes, and rare sand lizards, have been damaged.

The drought dried up the ponds at Formby in Merseyside and shortened the flowering season, affecting pollinators and natterjack toads, which need clusters of pools to travel across dune slacks.

Young bats have been dehydrated and disoriented. 

Read: Wales officially declares drought emergency, hosepipe ban begins

Several butterfly species also had a poor year due to depleted food sources over their peak summer period.

While numbers of the black darter have been declining for half a century, none were found this year at one of its strongholds, Black Down in the South Downs national park. Experts are concerned that the summer was too dry for the black darter larvae to survive.

Lower numbers of swifts returned to the east coast of England, and those had low breeding success, most probably because of the scarcity of flying insects.

One's loss is another's gain

The terrible weather consequences had some advantages for other species. It has been a good year for the chough, with the number booming to around 200 birds.

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Wildlife that has a broad range of habitats, "such as robins, wood pigeons or common blue butterflies that we may see in our gardens, are better able to respond to the pressures of extreme weather as there is more space to support them," Ben McCarthy, the National Trust’s head of nature conservation, said.

However, McCarthy pointed out the demanding requirements of such species, saying they are vulnerable as they are more restricted by specific needs. 

"These are the species which currently face the biggest challenges and need our help to join up habitats and to make landscapes more resilient to change," he said.

The lack of late frosts in the spring led to a decent apple harvest, and it has been an excellent year for some nuts and berries, but even this could partly be the consequence of the stress caused to trees by the drought conditions.