Migrating species

Once heard only rarely outside the north Kent marshes, the loud voice of the Cetti's warbler is now delighting a whole new set of listeners, from the isle of Anglesey to the banks of the Humber. The bird has moved 150 kilometres further north within the UK in the last 40 years, in response to the changing climate.

These changes, in response to global warming, have happened two to three times faster than was previously expected, according to a new study from the biology department of York University, published on Thursday evening in the peer review journal Science. Although such responses to global warming have been predicted, the study is the first to show that animal and plant species have moved furthest in the regions where the climate has warmed the most.

The team leader compares these changes as equivalent to animals and plants shifting away from the equator at around 20 centimetres per hour, for every hour of the day, for every day of the year. This has been going on for the last 40 years and is set to continue for at least the rest of this century.

One can be prompted to ask 'does it matter' unless you sit back to think what happens if birds and bees were to desert our areas. Think it out!