The extreme heat
The summer of 2022 was the hottest so far recorded in Europe, according to the EU’s climate monitoring program Copernicus. Large parts of the continent have been hit hard by record temperatures, drought and extensive forest fires.
North America has also been affected by heat waves and China has had over two months of extreme heat and drought, with temperatures around or above 40 degrees. Something that in eastern China has caused hens to go on “egg strike” – they eat less in the heat and thus lay fewer eggs.
According to the researchers, it is clear that a warmer climate leads to more and more intense heat waves. However, it is not possible to state with certainty that an individual heat wave is due to climate change. However, experts warn that early heat waves could become the norm in Europe in the future.
Large parts of Europe were paralyzed during the summer by extreme heat and drought. For both humans and animals, the climate has meant great stress. Here are five examples of animal species that have been hit hard by the heat and drought in southern Europe in recent months.
The barnacles’ nests became like ovens in the heat. Archive image.
1. Kestrels and other migratory birds
For many, the screeching of swifts is a classic sign of summer. In June, however, reports came from Spain that the unusually early and strong heat had taken a toll on their young. Nests under roof tiles and in wall cavities became like ovens.
– Hundreds of children have been found who probably died of overheating. Because many birds within a species breed at roughly the same time, a heat wave can hit reproduction hard, says Anderas Nord, who is associate professor at Lund University and who researches how animals are affected by climate change, among other things.
Even in France, researchers have warned that the heat has killed many baby birds, according to Andreas Nord.
How the birds in Europe are affected by extreme heat is relatively unexplored, according to Andreas Nord. But one effect is that migratory birds may find it more difficult to find food, making them less equipped for the demanding long flights. Birds also become easily overheated and when the temperatures rise, this can lead, among other things, to the parents not being able to feed their young as often as they should.
The mass death of birds seen in other parts of the world during extreme heat is now also noticeable on our continent, according to Andreas Nord.
– There have been big problems for the birds this summer in southern Europe – we are talking about biblical proportions in some places.
The butterflies may find it difficult to find food when herbs and other plants are burned away in the drought. Here is a redcurrant that is found in large parts of both Sweden and the rest of Europe. Archive image.
2. Butterflies
Many butterflies may find it difficult to find food for themselves and their larvae when the drought has burned away the plants they feed on. Even in Sweden, certain butterfly species were hit hard during the drought in 2018, according to Andreas Nord. Among other things, the number of scented grass butterflies was halved, and almost no larvae of the already-threatened weed net butterfly were found on Gotland, where it has its strongest stronghold.
— They have managed to recover now, but basically their entire reproduction was knocked out that year.
When the worms escape the drought, the hedgehogs find it difficult to find a jaw. Archive image.
3. Hedgehogs
During the summer, a nature conservation association in Germany raised the alarm about starvation among hedgehogs, which found it difficult to find food as the worms dug deeper into the soil to escape the drought, at the same time that the insects became fewer.
“This type of animal that eats insects and worms can have a hard time when the drought causes the food to disappear,” says Andreas Nord.
The heat waves are troublesome for the bumblebees and it also affects the pollination of crops. Archive image.
4. Bumblebees
The chubby bumblebees are at risk of overheating in the same way as birds, and research shows that heat waves hit the bumblebees hard, which also affects the pollination of crops. And it is serious because wild pollinators are already in decline due to pesticides and shrinking habitats, points out Andreas Nord.
Insects in general find it difficult to adapt to rising temperatures and are more affected by global warming than previously thought, according to a recent study that includes more than a hundred different insect species.
Dried up lakes and warmer seas pose major challenges for many fish species.
5. Fishes
From France and Austria, among others, there have been reports of mass deaths of fish as a result of reduced water flows and dried up lakes.
Higher temperatures also make heat waves in the oceans more common, which has been shown to trigger mass deaths among marine animal species. The water becomes less oxygenated when it is heated – everything living below the surface finds it harder to breathe. And since most fish are thermophilic, and their body temperature is largely controlled by water temperature, heat affects their entire function.
As dry and hot summers are becoming more common in the wake of climate change, according to the scientific community, the problems for the animals will only get worse.
“What we saw this summer is just a foretaste of what the future will bring,” says Andreas Nord.
But, he points out, many species have the ability to recover – if given the chance:
— It is based on the fact that there is some leeway, for example that they can move to where there is more food after a period of drought. But today we have used so much of the forest and land that there is hardly anywhere to go. If species are to have a chance to recover, we need to protect more of the land – because the pressure on the animals will only increase.
Many animals have a hard time when the climate gets warmer, according to Andreas Nord, associate professor at Lund University.