A new publication from the Llyn Brianne Stream Observatory has shown how warmer and wetter winters affect the stability of insect populations and communities.
Drawing on four decades of observations, the team at Cardiff University show how positive phases of the North Atlantic Ocean bring greater rainfall and higher temperatures that increase discharge and temperature in the Brianne streams. The results also show how variability increases in the stream chemistry, and fluctuations synchronise in invertebrate abundance that destabilises communities from year to year.
Warmer and wetter winters are increasing in frequency over the UK as climate change takes effect so these results are a warning of things to come. Interestingly, the most functionally diverse streams were least affected suggesting that biodiversity conservation might reduce adverse impacts.
This is the latest in a series of studies on the climate and climate change effects at Llyn Brianne which was first detected in the early 1990s. It is also one of the longest-running replicated catchment-scale investigations of streams globally.
