Botanic Gardens director warns climate change is not just about carbon emissions, but will have a big environmental impact, writes Fiona Gartland
NEW PLANTS, pests and diseases arriving as a result of climate change have the potential to damage Ireland's native flora, the director of the National Botanic Gardens told a conference in Dublin yesterday.
Speaking at the Climate Change and Systematics conference in Trinity College, Dr Peter Wyse Jackson said that more than 170 native Irish plants could also be at risk from the effects of predicted warmer, wetter winters and drier summers.
He said the public needed to be aware that climate change was not purely about carbon emissions.
"There are going to be big implications for the environment in Ireland, there will be species which are no longer able to thrive in this climate," he said.
"There will be new species arriving which are going to impact on natural habitat and ecosystems. Pests and diseases that aren't in the country at the moment may be encouraged by higher temperatures."
One pest, the horse chestnut leaf miner, a moth whose larva destroys the leaves of the horse chestnut tree, is already widespread in Europe and Britain, Dr Wyse Jackson said.
"If that arrives in Ireland it could be devastating," he said.
He said it was possible that climate change may result in species that are not currently considered invasive becoming invasive.
"The giant rhubarb or gunnera is now a major problem in the west of Ireland and has invaded Achill," he said.
"Bringing in alien species is a little like minding mice at the crossroads; you never know what will take off."
The current greatest risks are from invasive aquatic plants escaping into the waterways, he said, after people have dumped them from fish aquariums. They have a potential to destroy native plants and have a negative effect on waterways.
"People need to be vigilant and avoid buying plants that could be potentially invasive," he said.
"We are trying to suggest non-invasive alternatives, such as native aquatic plants like the flowering rush or the yellow flag iris."
Dr Wyse Jackson said he would not discourage gardeners from growing exotic plants, but they should be vigilant.
"It is about growing exotic plants with our eyes open, so we do not end up growing species like the fuchsia, that is now so common in the southwest that people think it is native," he added.
In the face of a changing climate, plants must migrate, adapt or become extinct, Dr Wyse Jackson said. Some 20 per cent of native Irish flora could be affected.
A rise in sea levels could affect plant life on our coasts, such as otanthus maritimus or cottonweed and crambe maritime or sea kale.
And alpine plants, which grow in a cooler climate, could become extinct.
Dr Wyse Jackson said trees such as birch and holly were suffering in the south of England because of warmer temperatures.
"It is quite possible that southeast England represents what Ireland could be in 50 years' time," Dr Wyse Jackson said. "We may lose many of our native trees and shrubs."