The average temperature in Wales has increased 1C (1.8F) during the past 40 years, according to a research monitoring the effects of climate change on streams and rivers.
For forty years, the Llyn Brianne Observatory has been gathering information on the streams that flow into the Carmarthenshire reservoir near the River Tywi.
The study is headed by Prof. Steve Ormerod and his wife, Isabelle Durance.
He claimed that they were “quite positive” the impact of climate change has caused a decline in bug populations year after year.
Prof Ormerod said: “The predecessor of Natural Resources Wales started to monitor these streams back in the early 80s to look at what was then the problem of acid rain.
“As the project evolved, we realised there were other issues, and we started to see signals of climate change effects.”
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Prof Ormerod explained: “In winter, the warming is even more than 1C, up to about 1.5C (2.7F).
“What we’ve seen on the back of that is quite a substantial change in the number of insects and invertebrates that live in these streams.
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Prof Ormerod explained: “In winter, the warming is even more than 1C, up to about 1.5C (2.7F).
“What we’ve seen on the back of that is quite a substantial change in the number of insects and invertebrates that live in these streams.
“When we first noticed this phenomenon, the numbers of insects were dropping by about a fifth for every one degree centigrade rise in temperature. That has slowed a little bit, but in all of the streams here, there is a year-on-year reduction in the numbers of insects, which we’re pretty sure is linked to a climate change effect.”
The 14 streams that are monitored in the Cardiff University-run study were chosen because they flow through different landscapes – some through pine forests, others through broadleaf woodland and some through open pastures, grazed by sheep.
Story was adapted from Yahoo news.
