Conserving geodiversity in a changing climate

 

On 4 June 2009, the country conservation bodies, JNCC and the Geoconservation Commission of the Geological Society of London (http://www.geoconservation.com/) convened a meeting to further the understanding of climate change and its effects on geodiversity*. The intention was to bring together a range of people that are involved in conserving geological and geomorphological sites – and soils. The geoconservation community offers invaluable experience to the climate change debate – with knowledge about its predicted effects on biodiversity as well as geodiversity, with evidence covering millions of years of climate change, ice-ages, and mass extinctions gleaned from the geological record. However, the focus of this meeting was to evaluate what additional steps may need to be taken to conserve geodiversity itself, in a world of rapidly changing climatic conditions.

                                   

In short, the outlook for the 21^st century for the UK is that summers will be drier, winters will be wetter, and by the 22^nd century, the sea level will be almost a metre higher. Storminess may increase, but the climate change models are imprecise here. During the conference, we spent some time looking at the climatic models (USA, Australia, UK, Germany and Japan have the most developed models; for more information visit the UKCIP website at http://ukcp09.defra.gov.uk/).

 

During the meeting, the focus was to think about what the impact of climate change will be on geoconservation. John Hopkins of Natural England made a presentation that helped stimulate discussion, based on bioconservation data: it is clear already that trees are coming into leaf earlier each year, and, for example, that warm-loving species of insects are gradually extending their range northwards into hitherto cooler territory. Sea level is going to rise – many capital cities (which are mainly sited at, or near, current sea-level) will be flooded in a century’s time. So what now for conservation, bearing in mind that there will be a human response to climate change that will put more pressure on the natural world during an inward retreat from the coast?

 

The debate – for geodiversity – is in its early stages. But geoconservationists are not only looking to the geodiversity and its conservation, but also to the contribution that can be made by assisting in environmental forecasting, from the knowledge amassed of climate change that has been a part of our planet’s history for many millions of years. Clearly coastal sites will be suffering a faster rate of change, but possibly river systems and caves will change in their dynamics at a rate not seen for many thousands of years. More needs to be done in research - and in gathering of information to be able to predict how things will change. But, as a first step, in working out what is needed to be done and what information can be provided in the future in responding to how climate change affects both bio- and geo-conservation, the conference was an excellent start.

 

Neil Ellis

Geoconservation Adviser

Tel: +44 (01733) 866906

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