A RISE in unusual weather patterns – coupled with global warming – is creating a serious risk for the future of wildlife in Jersey, experts have warned.
As global temperatures continued to increase this year, Jersey’s weather lurched from one extreme to the next, with severe flooding in January followed by a cool spring, the hottest June for 47 years, a cool and wet summer, the hottest September on record and a very mild autumn which saw the Island hit by 100mph winds and a tornado.
In the UK, the National Trust this week said that the increase in less predictable weather patterns was “causing chaos” for nature.
It said climate change was upsetting the regular rhythm of the seasons, making plants and wildlife more susceptible to disease and affecting the movement of animals.
JEP Nature correspondent Bob Tompkins said that the majority of wildlife was struggling to “keep up” with changing temperatures, with some species migrating while others declined.
And conservationist Stephen Le Quesne said that “unbalanced and chaotic” weather patterns also posed a threat to food supplies, by affecting harvests and even causing “complete crop failures”.
Globally, this year will officially be the hottest on record, with scientists at the Copernicus Climate Change Service reporting that more than a third of days in 2023 were over 1.5°C above the pre-industrial average.
The Island registered its hottest year in 2022, with Jersey Met confirming an average annual temperature of 13.56°C.
The equivalent statistics for this year are due to be revealed next week.
Mr Tompkins said: “There are all sorts of examples as to how and why things are changing around.
“If you look at the chancre crab, which is a cold water species, that’s moving north. So the number of chancre crabs that we are getting in local waters is dropping as they move away from the warmer waters.”
He also noted a drop in the insect population, which he said were struggling to adapt to the changes in seasonal timings of the plants they rely on.
“The rate at which climate change is changing things means that the majority of wildlife cannot keep up.
“It is screwing everything up,” he added.
Mr Le Quesne said: “There is natural change and evolution but the speed is too quick. The main thing is that we don’t know what is going to happen – we are swimming into uncharted waters.
“Unbalanced and chaotic weather patterns also mean unbalanced and chaotic harvests or complete crop failures.
“Then there are also changing migratory patterns of birds, rising sea levels – we just don’t know what all the consequences will be.”
Ben McCarthy, the National Trust’s head of nature conservation and restoration ecology, said: “The incremental shifts we’re experiencing in terms of our seasons extending may not feel like much in a 12-month period, but over a decade the changes are extremely significant.”
