Signs Of Climate Change In Nordic Nature

In the project we show that climate change is not only affecting a few individual species or habitats in the Nordic region, but that number of changes occur concurrently and at many scales.

Abstract: Not only is the climate changing, our natural world is already being affected by the increase in temperature, change in precipitation and wind pattern etc. already seen. In order to track these changes, as they occur across the Nordic region, we have identified a variety of climate change signs for the Nordic nature. We present for the first time a catalogue of 14 signs that shows the impact on several ecosystems including terrestrial, marine- and freshwater. The signs have been identified using a systematic and criteria based approach that is applicable to a variety of other regions as well. In the project we show that climate change is not only affecting a few individual species or habitats in the Nordic region, but that a number of changes occur concurrently and at many scales. Important signs of climate change include, pollen and growing seasons begin earlier, fish stocks shift northwards, some bird populations decrease in numbers and other adapt by a change in migration rhythm, sensitive nature types such as palsa mires are declining in distribution, and polar bears are threatened by earlier ice-break-up

The project Effects of Climate Change on Cultural Heritage Sites and Cultural Environments is a collaboration between the cultural heritage administrations of seven Nordic countries: Iceland, Greenland, the Faeroe Islands, Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Norway. The aim of the project has been to assist the cultural heritage administrators in meeting the anticipated climate change and to strengthen collaboration and network building between the Nordic cultural heritage administrators. This publication contains the main results of the project's work. The report consists of two parts, part one of which discusses the anticipated effects of climate change on cultural heritage sites and cultural environments in the Nordic countries. Part two addresses what consequences the climate change will have for the management of heritage sites and includes the project group's recommendations for handling these consequences.

We all depend on biodiversity, but we must make biodiversity relevant to people. The long-term loss of nature and biodiversity is, however, not as easily translated into clear messages, let alone economic opportunities, as are measures to tackle climate change. The changes are dispersed, and often act slowly and subtly. Connecting the economic problems and threats people face due to the degradation of our biological resources is also frequently hard to express in facts and figures, as we have seen with the efforts to replicate the review of the economic impacts of climate change. Yet we all see the impact of degradation and loss of biodiversity in our daily lives when we are hiking, fishing, hunting and enjoying nature. We must create a vision and a powerful metaphor, communicated to and understood by ordinary people, that describes our co-existence with and dependence upon nature and how the loss of nature reflects on ourselves as Nordic people and societies. The need to stop the loss of biodiversity does not end in 2010. What will we call upon now? That is our challenge. On 26-27 October 2009, the Nordic Council of Ministers hosted a Nordic symposium on biodiversity in Trondheim, Norway. The title chosen for this symposium was Nordic Biodiversity Beyond 2010 - Challenges and Experiences in Global Perspective. The aim was to take stock of Nordic biodiversity and look beyond 2010. About 70 participants from all the Nordic countries gathered in Trondheim for two days to start this work. They represented public authorities, non-governmental organizations and research institutions concerned with the goal of halting the loss of biodiversity in the Nordic countries. This report contains the results from this symposium as well as conclusions and recommendations for the future.