By John Ross A LACK of food due to climate change has been blamed for a 19 per cent drop in Scotland’s seabird population over the past eight years. Experts say the decline, which is much greater than the 9 per cent drop for the UK as a whole, highlights a deeply worrying trend. The stark picture is revealed in a report from the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC), together with the latest figures for 2000 to 2008 from Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH). The JNCC said the figures represented a “turning of the tide” for seabirds breeding in Scotland, which increased in numbers from the late 1960s to the end of the 1990s. The major cause of the problem is almost certainly a shortage of small fish, such as sand eels, which are likely being affected by rising sea temperatures, they said. It means fewer adult birds are surviving from one year to the next, and not enough chicks are being produced to replace them. … Douglas Gilbert, RSPB reserve ecologist, said if the declines continued, many of Scotland’s “seabird cities” could be almost deserted within a decade. …
Climate blamed as one in five seabirds dies
