Help find over 300 coastal species in six hours!
On the 28th October 2023 we are holding a climate change focused bioblitz – Changing Tides, a community day of nature discovery, to celebrate the final season of our National Lottery Funded Blue Recovery project.
Falmouth & Plymouth communities
This is a joint event with concurrent activities in Falmouth and Plymouth. Both events supported by our amazing Blue Recovery communities in these locations.
We are aiming to record over 300 coastal species across the two locations during the six hours between 9am and 3pm, and we need your help!
Click here to discover how you record local wildlife for the Changing Tides bioblitz challenge.
Live streaming!
The event will be live streamed from our YouTube Channel. Join us online to see the six marine wildlife experts talking at our events, coastal discoveries as they come in and lots of fun bioblitz chat.
You can also join via Zoom.
Local climate change impacts
Climate change is a global issue that has local consequences for all of us and for our local wildlife. During the Changing Tides Bioblitz we will be lookng out for species impacted by climate change. Some will be disappearing from our coastline as conditions become less suited for them, others will be newly arriving.
The list below was kindly provided by Dr Nova Mieszkowska, an expert on how climate change is effecting UK coastal wildlife and a speaker at our Plymouth event.
Lusitanian - species arriving from the South
Toothed top shell – Phorcus lineatus
Increasing in abundance around SW England and Wales, expanding leading range edge along the north Welsh coastline and along the eastern English Channel
Goose neck barnacle – Pollicipes pollicipes
Increasing in abundance at leading range edge sites in far south of Cornwall (it is only recorded at a few sites, Sennen Cove having the largest population of about 8 individuals last time I surveyed there).
St Piran’s hermit crab – Clibanarius erythropus
Found in Cornwall and Devon in the 1950s but disappeared due to a combination of colder climate and Tributyltin toxins from anti-fouling paint causing the death of many dogwhelks whose shells they use as homes. Has been recorded again over the past ten years and is increasing in abundance.
Boreal - species retreating North
Dabberlocks – Alaria esculenta
Declining in abundance at sites in the SW close to the trailing range edge.
Northern rock barnacle – Semibalanus balanoides
Declining in abundance at sites in the SW close to the trailing range edge. Is a gregarious settler so needs adults present for juveniles to settle and successfully colonize a shore.
Invasive species that are influenced by climate change
Wakame – Undaria pinnatifida
Increasing in abundance at sites in the SW but does require a disturbance event to free up space amongst native Laminarians in the kelp forests in order to colonize and become established.
Okamura’s Pom-pom weed – Caulacanthus okamurae
Increasing across the SW, colonizing the holdfasts of brown algae, mainly fucoids in the lowshore.
Pacific oyster- Magallana gigas
Increasing across the SW, especially in estuarine habitats
References:
Brodie, J., Wilbraham, J., Maggs, C.A., Baldock, L., Bunker, F., Mieszkowska, N., Scanlan, C., Tittley, I., Wilkinson, M., & Yesson, C., 2023. Red List for British seaweeds: evaluating the IUCN methodology for non-standard marine organisms. Biodiversity and Conservation: 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-023-02649-0.
Mieszkowska, N., Burrows, M.T., Hawkins, S.J. & Sudgen, H., 2021. Impacts of pervasive climate change and extreme events on rocky intertidal communities: evidence from long-term data. Frontiers in Marine Ecology 8:642764 https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2021.642764.
Pack, K.E., Rius, M. & Mieszkowska, N., 2020. Long-term environmental tolerance of the non-indigenous Pacific oyster to expected contemporary climate change conditions. Marine Environmental Research, p.105226, doi:10.1016/j.marenvres.2020.105226.