Early autumn clear sign of climate change Surrey charity warns
This year due to the dry summer, trees and plants started displaying autumnal habits about a month earlier than expected.
Following this year's false autumn, Surrey Wildlife Trust is warning that global warming is forcing animals to adapt or face extinction.
This year due to the dry summer, trees and plants started displaying autumnal habits about a month earlier than expected.
Daniel Banks from Surrey Wildlife Trust says that although it might be pleasing to see acorns and autumn arriving, the fact that it's arrived early is clear evidence of global warming.
"It's nice to see lots of acorns on the trees and lots of seeds everywhere and the animals are being able to thrive in some situations. It's just worth noting that it is a process of global warming
Global warming is is going to be affecting us all eventually, so it's already starting to affect nature and everything is out of sync."
Banks says that this change could lead to multiple issues down the line, for example, how it could effect the trees themselves.
"With global warming, one of the issues is the drier soil and some of our trees like the Beech tree for example, is a shallow rooted tree and if the ground is dry and there's no compaction there, those trees can start falling over. I mean, September's been quite unsettled for weather and it has been quite windy.
When you see the news and you see the wind storms coming through, there are far more trees falling over now. That's just an issue in itself because it's a safety issue at the end of the day."
Banks added that these seasonal shifts can put animals in difficult positions
"It's really out of kilter and a lot of plants and animals have to adapt to that and whether or not they can in time is a really big question
It's the global warming that's really driving this and if those animals can adapt, they will be fine, but if they can't adapt, then sadly it's looking like extinction could be possible for a lot of these species."
Daniel Banks mainly works with birds and he used them as clear example of the way habitats are changing
"A Scandinavian thrush basically migrates down to the UK every year and we get thousands of them passing through the UK.
They're already arriving and they're usually an arrival in mid-October. It's starting much earlier than it normally would
At this time of year, it's beneficial for those birds because they're coming into the country to feed up, but actually it's not necessarily beneficial for the tree or later on down the line in winter when all of the berries have gone because the birds have arrived early to feed on those berries. Our species diversity is going to change over the coming years."