Fears for Seabirds

A study by the National Trust has found that Puffins and Terns are among key species in the UK that are being put at risk from global warming. The UK's coastline is being transformed as sea levels rise and storms grow fiercer. The study predicts that sea levels will rise by up to half a metre by the turn of the century and coastal erosion is accelerating.

Puffin chicks are being particularly affected as their preferred meal of sand eels is disappearing, most probably caused by overfishing and changing ocean temperatures. To add to their problem a new fish has moved into UK waters, which the chicks find indigestible. The snake pipefish is having a devastating effect on the puffin population, as it is bony and hard to eat. The report states that some chicks have been found dead, having choked trying to swallow  pipefish.

The snake pipefish

Colonies of puffins can be found in the Farne Islands and at Lundy Island in Devon where burrows were flooded during last year's exceptionally wet summer, which was followed by the unusually long winter. As a result many puffins died of starvation.

Terns are also likely to suffer as they tend to site their colonies just above the high tide line. When storm surges occur their nests can be easily flooded.

Matthew Oates, a specialist on wildlife at the National Trust, said: "With rising sea levels our rich mud flats could simply disappear. Wildlife that relies on the gradual erosion of soft rock cliffs or lives on loose sand and shingle habitats could be caught out by an increasingly mobile landscape as a result of extreme weather...."

Plants, animals and humans will have to live with an increasing rate of environmental change. It's happening now...