Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) has started a project to monitor climate change using measurements taken in some of the highest corries.
The Snowbed Project will use sites in the Cairngorms and on Aonach Mor, Ben Dearg, Ben Alder and Ben Wyvis to investigate the effects of less snow and warmer conditions on plants such as moss and liverwort, and impacts further up the food chain on birds such as snow bunting. Climate change models predict a decrease in the amount of snow on the mountains into the summer. SNH say that snow patches that remain on the high mountain corries for much of the year had been smaller and shorter lived in the past 10 years than in the preceding 25.
SNH’s David Genney said: “The impact of climate change on the lower plants and bryophytes which characterise these areas will also affect the whole snowbed ecosystem. Our preliminary results indicate that these communities are already being colonised by larger flowering plants that risk replacing these characteristic mosses and liverworts.
“Any loss of this habitat will pose a direct threat to birds such as ptarmigan, snow bunting and dotterel which feed on the insects that live in the moss, and so the impact will spread.”