Members of the Isle of Wight Biodiversity Action Plan Steering Group have contributed items to Finest Landscapes, the AONB newsletter, under the ?Go Wild on Wight? banner relating to climate change and what it might mean for biodiversity on an Island scale.

Follow up:

The last cuckoo?
Most of us notice the first cuckoo of spring. It foretells pleasant summer days to come. Few of us notice birds departing. Swifts leave by the end of August, then swallows and lastly, house martins. In recent years, swallows have stayed later and are common well into October. House martins are frequent in November. The answer is simple - their food source of insects keeps them here. Cold weather deters flying insects, so their extended stay must be due to warmer weather.

Heavy winter snowfall is much less common these days. Two warblers that formerly migrated to Africa with swallows, now regularly over-winter on the island. These are blackcaps and chiffchaffs and can be seen in scrub and gardens surviving winter. Their benefit is that they avoid a long and hazardous migration during which many perish.

So, is climate change OK? It may seem so for these birds but they are only part of the story.

The springtime delight of our bluebell woods, unique to Britain, is under threat. Dappled light reaching the forest floor has, for millennia, been just perfect. This is a finely balanced goldilocks-effect; too much shade and bluebells won?t grow so abundantly. Records indicate that spring is arriving earlier, with swifter growth of shady leaf canopy that over time may destroy this wonderful spectacle. Unlike birds, plants cannot choose to migrate to a more suitable climate.

If the Gulf Stream that warms Britain fails, which is also a climate change possibility, our seas will turn cold and our climate will become like Scandinavia

If generations succeeding us are to enjoy the wildlife and scenery that we value, every one of us must reduce energy use to help safeguard our planet.

Les Street RSPB

Soil, biodiversity and climate change
In his final book, The Formation of Vegetable Mould, through the action of worms, with Observations on their Habits, Charles Darwin explored the importance of organic matter and the activity of worms in the health of the soil. It is this 'vegetable mould', which makes soil much more than just finely ground rock.

Market gardening on greensand soil Copyright Natural England Photographer Joe Low

Since Darwin's time, it has been found that soil is part of the subtle system that regulates the earth?s atmosphere. According to a recent government report, soil organic matter is the biggest pool of carbon in the UK, so looking after it, and increasing it, may help us reduce the impact of climate change.

The challenge for farming is to conserve soil, while cultivating it to produce food. It's the organic matter which makes it fertile and workable, and so increases crop yields and farm profits.

The government's most recent agri-environment schemes, Environmental Stewardship and the English Woodland Grant Scheme, can help in this process. I'd like to think Charles Darwin's spirit would approve.

Rowan Adams
Isle of Wight Land Care Project Manager

Climate Change in Geological Time
Greenhouse Earth: no polar ice caps, sea levels 300 metres higher than today, surface water temperatures 20 to 30?C, and just the highest mountain peaks of Scotland remains above the waves.

Not a Hollywood plot but reality - the reality of the Cretaceous world 100 to 65 million years ago. To visit that world all you need to do is stand and admire the chalk cliffs of Culver or Freshwater Bay .

Our magnificent white chalk cliffs started as ooze at the bottom of the sea. It was formed from the accumulation of countless microscopic remains of planktonic organisms at the bottom of the sea. The warm highly productive surface waters fed a rain of debris to the sea floor, where, way beyond the reach of daylight, lived a wide range of animals.

The Island?s beaches are made of pebbles of flint that has come from the erosion of the chalk cliffs. If you are very lucky you may find a fossilised sea urchin, but even after a brief look you will probably find a piece of flint with a hole running through it, which could be the remains of a sponge that lived in the depths of the Chalk sea.

Today the Chalk forms the highest ground on the Island. The downland ?backbone? is part of a continuous mass of chalk that links the Island?s landscape through the counties of southern England all the way to the coast of Yorkshire. So next time you drive along the Downs Road give a moment?s thought to the power of Greenhouse Earth to mould the landscape. Pick up a flint pebble and touch part of the Cretaceous sea

Martin Munt
Dinosaur Isle