In this section you will learn about approaches that can help adapt biodiversity to the identified impacts of climate change. These approaches are intended to build and enable resilience, and to limit negative impacts of change. As in the Impacts section, upland and lowland species and habitats associated with the following areas receive attention:

• Peatland;
• Moorland;
• Wetlands;
• Coastal; and
• Other habitats.

Adaptations to the impacts of climate change on agriculture, forestry and marine fisheries are addressed under Business and the Economy.

Adaptation refers to the ability of natural systems to absorb and respond to climate change. Changes will mean action is required to maximise the ability of existing habitats to adapt. There is inevitably some uncertainty in our understanding of climate change and its impacts, but adaptation actions should be beneficial whatever the extent, rate or direction of climate change.

Guiding principles have been developed by Defra to help take account of climate change and to effectively maximise the environment’s capacity to adapt. These are further expanded upon in subsequent documents (Defra 2008). These are:

SUMMARY OF GUIDING PRINCIPLES DEVELOPED BY DEFRA (Defra, 2007b) 1. Conserve existing biodiversity 1a. Conserve Protected Areas and other high quality habitats These areas will remain important because they have characteristics which will continue to favour high biodiversity 1b. Conserve range and ecological variability of habitats and species By conserving the current range and variability we will reduce the probability of all localities being lost, although some losses with be inevitable. 2. Reduce sources of harm not linked to climate By reducing other sources of harm we will help natural systems maintain their biodiversity in the face of climate change. 3. Develop ecologically resilient and varied landscapes By ensuring landscapes remain varied, and allowing space for physical processes to take place, we will increase their ability to retain biodiversity. 3a. Conserve and enhance local variation within sites and habitats Maintaining diversity in the landscape in terms of features such as vegetation structure, slope, aspect and water regime will increase the chances that species whose current habitat becomes inhospitable will be able to spread locally into newly favourable habitat. 3b. Make space for natural development of rivers and coasts By allowing natural processes of erosion and deposition to take place we increase the potential for wildlife to naturally adapt. 4. Establish ecological networks through habitat protection , restoration and creation Species may need to move some distance from their current locality if they are to survive climate change; creating new habitat, restoring degraded habitat, or reducing the intensity of management of some areas between existing habitat, will encourage this. 5. Make sound decisions based on analysis 5a. Thoroughly analyse causes of change Not all change will be due to climate change, and as such climate change adaptation may not be appropriate. 5b. Respond to changing conservation priorities Ensure that resources are directed to genuine conservation priorities as some species increase, other decline and habitats change. 6. Integrate adaptation and mitigation measures into conservation management, planning and practice When reviewing conservation management plans consider the impacts of climate change and make changes where appropriate.

 

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Habitat specific adaptations are discussed in the following sections, however, a series of overarching adaptations are relevant for all habitat types and reflect a need to change the way biodiversity is considered strategically, i.e. within projects and plans. These include:

• To enable better understanding of the impacts of climate change and inform adaptive action, information collection and collation relating to biodiversity throughout the region should be improved, particularly relating to location, extent and rate of change.
• Each of the identified habitats within the region should be fully assessed against the Defra Principles, and identify actions and responsibilities.
• In addition to the Habitats of Principal Importance, there are also 943 Species Principal Importance. These should also be assessed for both their relevance to Yorkshire and Humber (both currently and into the future) and their susceptibility to climate change.
• Local Biodiversity Action Plan Partnerships should develop climate change adaptation plans for habitats and species of local significance.
• There needs to be a new approach to land zoning i.e. to create a balance between identifying land for development and retaining and enhancing the natural environment, increasing connectivity between fragmented habitats to ensure that existing habitats have the best possible chance to adapt to climate change, and the development of a region-wide plan for the use of land.
• Agri-environment schemes, administered nationally, regionally or locally will need to account for adaptation priorities.
• Adaptation must seek to both integrate green infrastructure into new development proposals and actively seek to integrate it into a strategic regional approach to climate change.
• An overall enhancement in ecological connectivity of all key habitats is required. This will maximise opportunities for less mobile species to adapt to climate change.
• Adaptations to climate change, from a strategic planning perspective, will need to increase the areas of each identified habitat, which will also play a part in supporting other habitats and species nearby.

Upland habitat adaptations

Upland wetland
Increasing amounts of water may need to be stored in wetlands to mitigate the effects of temperature rises, to prevent drying out and the gradual transition to other habitat types, including wet woodland. Wetlands are transitional between terrestrial and aquatic habitat and vulnerable to changes in rainfall and temperature. The draft River Basin Management Plan for the Humber proposes the creation and establishment of more wetland to achieve the aims of the Water Framework Directive.

Upland heathland
Yorkshire and Humber has more upland heathland than any other English region. The fact that it already has a large area will help to maximise its adaptability. However improved management and improved connectivity, where habitat fragmentation is a pressure, will ensure its continued viability.

Upland woodland
Well managed semi-natural woodland is one of the most resilient habitats to climate change, and also contributes significantly to its mitigation (Forest Research, 2007). It is also important to note that the range in summer temperatures experienced now between a closed canopy woodland compared to that in the surrounding countryside far exceeds the increase in summer mean and maximum temperatures predicted in this study. As such woodlands have the capacity to significantly ameliorate climate extremes and thereby protect other habitat niches within a generally wooded landscape.

Because of the very longevity of most tree species, those being planted now will have to tolerate conditions well beyond those predicted for the 2050s within this study. Use of the Forestry Commission’s ‘Ecological Site Classification’ model is recommended when assessing future suitability of tree species for new planting. However this model does not account for other changes such as new or increased problems with pests and diseases so caution is required when considering unqualified outputs from the model.

General advice for climate proofing woodlands is to maximise future resilience by retaining a mix of age classes within a woodland, incorporating a range of species, and using trees from a more southerly provenance where existing climatic conditions more closely resemble those predicted for the region in the future. Where possible, the objective should be to create a mosaic of age classes, species mixes, canopy structures, and also incorporating open spaces.

Policy and plan makers should consider the need to increase tree coverage to both enhance shade and help reduce the effect of flooding as well as connecting woodland to help species adapt to climate change. This may involve progressively planting new stands at higher altitude, enabling mobile understorey flora and fauna and canopy species to migrate (human intervention to facilitate natural migration). It may also involve active transplanting of less mobile species.

Research is required into mechanisms to optimise stand composition. Some drought tolerant species may provide shade to other species, which are less tolerant. It may be possible to plant more trees on north facing hills, where there is less solar gain than on south facing slopes; the increasing effect of hot dry summers will be to some extent ameliorated. More southerly drought tolerant species may be progressively planted at lower levels to replace species whose climate space has moved north or to higher altitude. It is likely that woodland will also increase across all landscapes as trees provide shade and protect other land uses from temperature extremes and wind, can also help to bind soils which might otherwise be prone to increased soil erosion (due to enhanced rainfall), and filter out pollutants in rain and air.

Agri-environment schemes, administered nationally, regionally or locally will need to account for adaptation priorities, providing grant funding for schemes which increase stand connectivity, range, size and diversity. It is important to note that management techniques will also need to adapt, timing events such as cutting or thinning to avoid degradation and ensure biodiversity priorities are maintained.

Upland grassland
Species change is likely to occur in upland hay meadows, however, sensitive agricultural management could offset pressures and limit the negative effect of climate change.

Lowland habitat adaptations

Lowland heath
Whilst Yorkshire and Humber has the largest amount of lowland heathland of any other region, appropriate management is still essential. Current distribution is determined by issues other than climate; climate change is unlikely to have a major impact upon the dominant species. Most non-bird heath species have limited capacity to migrate to new areas and require planned intervention to ensure their continued viability. Such intervention, involving translocation, should be investigated as a long-term mechanism to ensure continued viability of this habitat.

UKBAP Habitat Action Plans seek to increase heathland and its overall connectivity to improve habitat permeability for heathland species, enabling migration into new areas (and therefore adaptation to climate change) where they are mobile. Other adaptation techniques include altered management regimes to increase light levels by increasing vegetation cutting, and increasing nutrient levels (Defra, 2004).

Lowland grassland
Current pressures such as grazing and scrub encroachment are considered to be exerting greater stress on species than that predicted for climate change. However, it is possible that climate change may exacerbate this stress (i.e. loss of lowland grassland) in combination with existing pressures. Monitoring and research into any exacerbation will be required in order to better identify impacts and any necessary responses.

Lowland woodland
General advice for climate proofing woodlands is to maximise future resilience by retaining a mix of age classes, incorporating a range of species, and using trees from a more southerly provenance where existing climatic conditions more closely resemble those predicted for the region in the future. Where possible, the objective should be to create a mosaic of age classes, species mixes, canopy structures, and also incorporating open spaces.

Pressures on woodland could also arise from increasing demand to use woodfuel for renewable energy generation, reflecting a human adaptation to legislation being developed to tackle other aspects of climate change. Any such negative spill-over effects of climate change responses should be identified and neutralised through early consideration. Woodland management for timber/woodfuel production can also result in a clear biodiversity gain, for instance where dense canopy cover is shading out the ground flora and where non-native species need to be removed. Tree felling might also be required from a climate change resilience perspective in order to create the woodland mosaic described above.

Urban biodiversity and brown field land
Urban green space is recognised as a habitat type in its own right, supporting numerous species of conservation concern. Green infrastructure is increasingly recognised for its role in ameliorating the impact of climate change on the urban environment. Trees and other vegetation have a cooling effect in two ways – evaporative cooling from the evapotranspiration process, and direct shading of darker or artificial surfaces. Surface waters in urban areas similarly create cooler microclimates.

Wetland areas provide cooling and reduce the effect of flooding. Artificial wetlands, such as within sustainable urban drainage systems, are increasingly recognised as a tool for reducing the effect of flooding, cleansing water by retaining sediment and nutrients, and providing valuable green space and wildlife areas for people to enjoy. Wetland can also reduce the effect of drought by slowly releasing water, helping to support urban biodiversity.

Green roofs also soak up some rainfall, helping to reduce the effect of increased winter rainfall. They also reduce solar gain and the urban heat effect. Green infrastructure also contributes to improved quality of life with important benefits for mental and physical health.

Development is likely to increase in response to a national shortfall in housing and associated infrastructure as well as future energy, transport and economic requirements as set out in the Regional, Spatial and Economic Strategies. Yorkshire and Humber already suffers water stress (Defra, 2007a) and abstraction pressures in certain areas will also affect biodiversity.

The importance of enhanced urban green space should not be underestimated. It can provide alternative or connecting habitats that may help species adapt to climate change, i.e. enlarging and reconnecting habitats previously fragmented by urban development. It may also have a role to serve linking wetland and surface waters with other habitats, providing hydrological conditions which help to sustain other habitats during drought.

External pressures on urban biodiversity may arise from policies which intensify land use for building development in response to increasing energy efficiency for example. Increasing summer temperatures and drought stress will also directly threaten existing mature trees and there is an urgent need to safeguard these key components of our urban green infrastructure for the increasingly important future benefits they will offer. It takes 50-100 years for a tree to reach a significant size and the loss of one large mature specimen cannot be immediately offset by planting a few small ornamental species.

Lowland wetland / coastal
The availability of water and water quality is important in the future adaptation of wetlands to climate change. There is, therefore, a close relationship between spatial planning and demand from natural systems. Wetlands are sensitive to abstraction pressures which create water stress. This is an issue which is noted in the Regional Spatial Strategy for Yorkshire and Humber with regard to the suitable location and the phasing of future development to avoid over abstraction, as well as highlighting the need for adaptations which seek to conserve and re-use water. Such actions will reduce stresses on natural wetlands. The draft River Basin Management Plan for the Humber (Environment Agency, 2008) provides the first integrated strategic action plan to improve the ecology of surface waters and wetlands. Habitat Action Plans and Character Area vulnerabilities and conservation policy will need to focus on the need for adaptations in specifically zoned areas. Interactions with other areas will increasingly become important as the range of species expands, contracts or moves in response to climate change.

Adaptations to climate change, from a strategic water planning perspective, will need to increase the area of wetland available. This will also improve water quality by retaining sediment and nutrients and reducing the effect of flooding, whether coastal, pluvial (from rain) or fluvial flood risk, as well as reducing the impacts of drought by releasing water back into surrounding areas. A programme to improve peatlands in Yorkshire already includes blocking gullies, sowing heather and changing the grazing pattern of livestock, to improve the status of the peat and to combat the impacts of drought.

Research is required to ensure the many functions of wetlands are best harnessed, through determining the scale and nature of connectivity required to adapt to climate change. The creation of new wetland areas is linked to benefits to human health in reducing the effect of flooding, and developing recreation areas, eco-tourism opportunities and the development of attractive places to live, visit and work. Planners and policy makers will need to ensure that land is available which can either be converted back to wetland or to identify new areas that may be available for wetland creation, improving habitat connectivity and enabling species to migrate to suitable areas.

The long-term enhancement of surface water ecological status will require integration with the programme of measures identified within the draft River Basin Management Plan for the Humber (which covers all surface waters within Yorkshire and Humber). This will ensure that all future activities which affect the water environment contribute to enhancing the ecological status of surface waters. This includes improving water quality and sustaining water resources and includes coastal waters.

It may be possible to utilise a moving habitat arrangement in a similar vein to moving path agreements whereby coastal habitats are actively migrated inland to retain species continuity where this is possible. However, areas where this policy could be adopted will be limited as competition for land use intensifies.

 

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| North Yorkshire | West Yorkshire | Humber | South Yorkshire |

 

In addition to the broad adaptation mechanisms identified at the regional level, many of which also apply in North Yorkshire, the following measures are of particular relevance:

• Restore the hydrological integrity of upland habitats, including blanket bog, so that they remain wetter and therefore more resilient to a drier climate.
• Wetland could be created in upland areas to reduce lowland flooding, but also in flood-vulnerable lowlands such as the Vale of Pickering. Schemes are already underway to restore some wetland functionality.
• Continued heathland management to ensure the continuity of this habitat type as far as possible, whilst creating structural diversity to allow adaptation.
• Increase woodland cover across North Yorkshire and improve its connectivity in urban and rural areas.
• The progressive planting of appropriate tree species into areas of new climate space and planting current species further north or at higher altitudes.

The West Yorkshire region includes part of the Character Areas of the Dark Peak and Southern Pennines, Southern Pennine Fringe, Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and Yorkshire Coalfield and Southern Magnesian Limestone. It therefore ranges from the Pennine moorlands of the Dark Peak and Southern Pennines with deeply dissected valleys into progressively lower and more undulating limestone landscape further east.

Upland habitats include upland heathland, both acid and neutral grassland, hay meadows and upland mixed ashwood, upland oakwood and areas of wet woodland. A high proportion of the sub-region’s woodlands are classified as Ancient, and the woodland habitat networks they form are of national significance.

Upland wetland areas are principally blanket bog with purple moor grass and rush pasture. Priority species associated with bog include bog-rosemary and marsh helleborine. Upland bird species are well represented including red grouse, dunlin, hen harrier, meadow pipit, short eared owl and merlin as well as the rare twite.

Grassland occurs across the area including acid grassland, lowland calcareous grassland, dry acid grassland, heath and meadows. Species associated with unimproved grassland include the skylark, slow worm, snipe, warblers, dark purple earth tongue, and pink waxcap, small copper and stags-horn clubmoss. Hedgerows support a wide range of species including linnet, bats, yellowhammer and reed bunting.

There is lowland mixed deciduous woodland in eastern part of the sub-region along with wood pasture and parkland. Notable species include the lesser spotted woodpecker, beaked bow-moss, pied flycatcher, dunnock, spotted flycatcher and hairy and red wood ant.

West Yorkshire impacts
Due to the wide range of habitats present in this sub-region, the wide-range of impacts identified at the regional level apply across this area, with the obvious exception of coastal and intertidal habitats. However it is worth noting the particular importance, in the sub-regional context, of upland heathland, blanket bog, woodland habitat networks and associated Ancient Woods, and a relative abundance of lowland dry acid grassland (>100ha in Wakefield).

 

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In addition to the broad adaptation mechanisms identified at the regional level, many of which also apply to the habitats found in West Yorkshire sub-region, the following measures are of particular relevance.

• An overall enhancement in ecological connectivity of habitats, whether woodland, heath, moorland, wetland or surface waters whatever their location. This will maximise opportunities for less mobile species to adapt to climate change.
• Restoration of blanket bog areas in West Yorkshire, and reduce other pressures on it.

 

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In addition to the broad adaptation mechanisms identified at the regional level, many of which also apply to the habitats found in this sub-region, the following measures are of particular relevance:

• To compensate for inter-tidal habitat losses due to coastal squeeze, opportunities for managed re-alignment of the Humber estuary should continue to be sought i.e. through tidal inundation of adjacent agricultural land.
• Planners and policy makers should ensure that land is available which can either be converted back to wetland or for the creation of new wetland. This will improve habitat connectivity and enable species to migrate to suitable areas. Such wetland would also reduce the effects of flooding and drought and also support other habitats and species nearby.

 

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The adaptation measures identified at the regional level will also apply to the wide range of habitats found in South Yorkshire sub-region. Of particular importance however are:

• The continued restoration, and if possible expansion, of the Lowland Raised Bog and fen complexes at Thorne and Hatfield Moors.
• The sustainable management and expansion of the Ancient Woodland dominated woodland habitat networks.

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