The National Trust has warned that storms, drought and record breaking heat could become the new norm, while it lamented a "devastating year" for seabirds on the North East coast.
The conservation charity said that this year's "litany" of weather extremes had been challenging for nature in its annual review of the year, from habitats scorched by wildfire to bats, birds, butterflies and natterjack toads being hit by drought. It warned that 2022 was a "stark illustration" of the difficulties many UK species could face, unless there is more action to tackle climate change and help nature cope - with extremes likely to worsen as temperatures rise.
Despite a warm January, back-to-back storms brought down trees in January. Then the country saw a dry spring, summer heatwaves where temperatures exceeded 40°C for the first time in the UK and drought, before ending with a freezing snap in December.
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Alongside extreme weather, it was also a devastating year for wild birds hit by avian flu, especially on the Northumberland coast. The Farne Islands closed to tourists to prevent the risk of bird flu transmitting to humans in July, though that was too late for many of the birds who had returned to breed; as with many other parts of the North East coast, such as Coquet Island (which is managed by the RSPB).
The National Trust did have some "winners" nationally, with good apple crops on many estates and a record-breaking year for choughs breeding on its land in Cornwall, but the turbulent seasons caused there to be many losers too. Low rainfall during the hot summer months dried up rivers, fragile chalk streams and ponds, damaged crops and natural habitats, and fuelled wildfires which destroyed landscapes in Cornwall, Devon and Dorset.
Natterjack toads' shallow breeding ponds dried up, while bats had to be rescued in the heatwave. Bumblebees, butterfly species and other flying insects had a poor year as flowering plants withered and died in dry heat, with a lack of insects having knock-on effects on birds such as swifts, which rely on them to feed their chicks. It was a mixed year for wildflowers, with species that flowered early getting off to a good start, but later species like the white campion doing less well in the drought.
Keith Jones, climate change adviser at the National Trust, said: "There is no escaping that this year’s weather has been challenging for nature. Drought, high temperatures, back-to-back storms, unseasonal heat, the recent cold snap and floods means nature, like us, is having to cope with a new litany of weather extremes.
"It is a stark illustration of the sort of difficulties many of our species will face if we don’t do more to mitigate rising temperatures and helping nature’s survival. Weather experts predict that the future will see more torrential downpours, along with very dry and hot summers, with 2022 setting a benchmark for what a ‘typical’ year for weather could be like.
"But the ‘new normal’ is also likely to result in even more extreme weather events than now."
Ben McCarthy, head of nature conservation and restoration ecology at the National Trust, said: "Our wildlife is under extraordinary pressure from a number of sources such as habitat loss and pollution. Now we’ve got this topsy-turvy weather coming in as climate change bites, which impacts the predictable seasonal patterns and adds further pressure on our wildlife."
He said that changing weather patterns and more diseases such as avian flu hitting wildlife, there was "no doubting the scale of the challenges we face and how much our nature needs our helping hand." The National Trust also said that conservation work to improve habitat was helping to make the environment and species more resilient to changes brought by rising temperatures.
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