1 How mobile species adapt to climate change

1.1 Outline

This unit explores the effects that changes in climate have on the distribution and biodiversity of non-human species within the UK. In this section I will introduce the term biodiversity and look at species distribution. We will explore the effects of changing climate on the migration patterns of bird species and begin to look at how changing climate affects the timing of biological events (phenology) and changing patterns of distribution.

Before we begin I would like to say something about why I am using the term non-human species within this unit.

Much of the discussion on climate change focuses on what climate change will mean for us. This unit tries to redress that imbalance, albeit in a very small way. The focus on, and the use of the term, non-human species is an attempt to highlight the separation we make between the human and the non-human. This attempt relates in part to a desire that debates on climate change address the effects on all species and in part it relates to the idea of value and, in particular, how we value nature.