UK: 'The losses could be profound': how floods are wreaking havoc on wildlife
By Phoebe Weston
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The damage flooding does to humans has been well-documented, but wildlife populations are unseen casualties, with some ecosystems taking decades to recover. “It is frightening to think that we have only just begun to see what might be ahead with our climate. The losses could be profound,” says James Hitchcock from Herefordshire Wildlife Trust, which manages the Lugg reserve.
Months of flooding is turning Lugg meadows anoxic as oxygen is lost. Worms and other insects suffocate and come to the surface where they are picked off by scavengers such as foxes and crows, reducing the larder of food for rarer species that rely on the reserve in spring. Many delicate grass species like vernal grass and red fescue are likely to be weakened by the floods, leaving a flush of resistant weed species such as thuggish dock leaves and thistles to take their place. In 2012, conservationists resorted to weedkiller to get rid of the dock leaves because the valley had been too wet.
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Farther down the Lugg at Bodenham Lake, prolonged flooding may have drowned 1,500 young reeds, planted in 2019 as part of a £520,000 project managed by the Herefordshire Wildlife Trust to create more habitats for declining wetland species such as warblers and bearded tits.
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Fast-moving water causes gravel at the bottom of rivers – which is key for river ecosystems – to be ripped away and spat out farther downstream. Macroinvertebrates such as bull head, stone larch and marsh brown lose their homes, says Evans. “These animals are the life-support systems in the river. They provide food for the dippers and the fish, which provide food for the kingfisher, so if you don’t have the macroinvertebrates because you have taken away their houses then your whole ecology is done.”
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