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While some producers are celebrating bumper crops courtesy of the early summer heatwave, others are advising producers look to embrace more exotic crops for long-term prosperity. Cherries are among this year’s big hits while wine producers are also raising a glass to the ideal conditions for their grapes. Although, ironically, it has proven too hot for some summer classics. Meanwhile, fruits traditionally associated with warmer parts of Europe – such as apricots, nectarines, and corn on the cob – are already being grown successfully here. There are even some variations on Kentish classics which are now blossoming. Apple varieties such as braeburn apples, which never used to survive in the UK, are already pushing out more traditional types. And scientists say it is all down to the effects of climate change.

Cheryl Martin, of Martin’s Organic Fruit Farm in Marden, said it had been a good year for cherries. “This year has been better than last year because we had all these long, hot days,” she said. She said the only problem to hit crops was the recent heavy downpours, which can cause ‘splitting’ on the cherries. Her farm sells produce wholesale to places including Choice Organic in London and Seasons in Forest Row. Biddenden Vineyards owner Julian Barnes said: “This year has been absolutely fantastic for us so far.” He said the warm, dry weather during flowering season meant that there were lots of grapes on the vines. The sun also creates more alcohol and of a better quality.

Climate change is starving Scotland’s seabirds into a drastic population decline that leaves some species dangerously close to extinction, the RSPB has warned. A major 10-year study by the Westminster Government’s conservation adviser found that the number of common gulls in the UK has fallen by almost half over the last decade. Scarcity of traditional food sources as sea temperatures rise may be forcing them to seek alternatives on land, which may be why residents of some seaside towns have complained that the birds, also called European herring gulls, are becoming more aggressive.

In its report, published today, the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) says that over a decade the number of breeding kittiwakes has fallen by 40%, while there has been a 38% decline in fulmars. The biggest drop affects the common gull, however, with a 43% reduction in breeding pairs between 1999 and 2009.

The JNCC’s Population Trends and Causes of Change 2010 report uses UK-wide figures, with no regional breakdown available, but the RSPB said anecdotal evidence in Scotland seemed to confirm an impact north of the border. “Early reports of seabird breeding performances on RSPB Scotland’s coastal reserves unfortunately seem to reflect this worrying trend, with things particularly tough in the Northern Isles,” said Doug Gilbert, the charity’s Scottish reserves ecologist.

June ended with below average rainfall and updated provisional figures show that January to June had average rainfall of around 362.5 mm, making it comparable with 1953 which had 361.1 mm. 1929 had the driest first six months of a year, when 275.7mm of rain was recorded.

long-term monitoring has shown that animal communities living at great depth on the seafloor can change radically over remarkably short periods, and that these events are ultimately driven by climate. Such faunal changes are exemplified by the 'Amperima Event' – the sudden mass occurrence of the sea cucumber (holothurian) Amperima rosea recorded on the Porcupine Abyssal Plain (PAP) situated off the southwest coast of Ireland in the northeast Atlantic. Communities of animals living on the seabed there at depths of nearly 5000 metres have been monitored from 1989 to the present day. A major change occurred in the PAP community between 1996 and 1999 involving a number of animal groups, including sea anemones, segmented worms, sea spiders, sea squirts, brittle stars, and sea cucumbers, all of which increased in abundance. However, the population explosion in the sea cucumber Amperima rosea (hereafter Amperima) was particularly striking – thus the 'Amperima Event'. Before 1996 the sea cucumber was found in only ones or twos. They were very rare. But by 1999, the sea cucumber reached such high densities that if you were able to walk on the deep seafloor, you would have difficulty in avoiding squashing them flat. Dr David Billet and his colleagues showed that the increase abundance and dominance of Amperima occurred over a very wide area, greater than the size of the UK. Changes are also apparent in the abundance of other animals living in the seabed, including the single-celled creatures inhabiting the sediments. The whole deep-sea world had been turned on its head. "What this strongly suggested," says Dr Billett, "is that the 'Amperima Event' did not simply reflect localised, chance changes in the abundances of one or two species. Instead, changes in the whole deep-sea animal community were driven by environmental factors."

"Whether it is the quality or the quality of the organic matter, or both, that matter," says Dr Billett, "it appears that changes in the density of animals such as Amperima are related to phytoplankton productivity in the overlying surface waters, which is affected by climate change."

The coastal fog along the Californian coast has declined by a third over the past 100 years – the equivalent of three hours cover a day, new research shows. And it is not just bad for scenery, the reduction in the cooling effect of the fog could damage the health of the huge Redwood Forests nearby.

"Since 1901, the average number of hours of fog along the coast in summer has dropped from 56 per cent to 42 per cent, which is a loss of about three hours per day," said the study leader Dr James Johnstone at the University of California. He said that it was unclear whether this is part of a natural cycle of the result of human activity, but the fog is receding because of a reduction in the difference between the temperature of the sea and the land. "A cool coast and warm interior is one of the defining characteristics of California's coastal climate, but the temperature difference between the coast and interior has declined substantially in the last century, in step with the decline in summer fog," he added.

Professor Todd Dawson, co-author, said the decline could be disastrous for the nearby ecosystems.

Space buffs know that Earth orbit is littered with junk, including defunct satellites, spent rocket boosters, and other random debris--about 11,500 objects bigger than 4 inches across

every one of these speeding bits of hardware could potentially damage, or even smash up a working satellite. The latter could create a lot more debris, potentially triggering something called the Kessler Syndrome, in which fragments of a smashed satellite go on to smash more satellites, creating fragments that go on to smash more...and so on.

turns out that if you warm the lower atmosphere by trapping infrared radiation--the essence of the greenhouse effect--the upper atmosphere should actually get cooler.

Extreme heat wave in Africa and Asia continues to set all-time high temperature recordsA withering heat wave of unprecedented intensity and areal covered continues to smash all-time high temperatures Asia and Africa. As I reported earlier this week, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Chad, Niger, Pakistan, and Myanmar have all set new records for their hottest temperatures of all time over the past six weeks. The remarkable heat continued over Africa and Asia late this week. The Asian portion of Russia recorded its highest temperate in history yesterday, when the mercury hit 42.3°C (108.1°F) at Belogorsk, near the Amur River border with China. The previous record was 41.7°C (107.1°F) at nearby Aksha on July 21, 2004. (The record for European Russia is 43.8°C--110.8°F--set on August 6, 1940, at Alexandrov Gaj near the border with Kazakhstan.) Also, on Thursday, Sudan recorded its hottest temperature in its history when the mercury rose to 49.6°C (121.3°F) at Dongola. The previous record was 49.5°C (121.1°F) set in July 1987 in Aba Hamed.We've now had seven countries in Asia and Africa, plus the Asian portion of Russia, that have beaten their all-time hottest temperature record during the past two months. This includes Asia's hottest temperature of all-time, the astonishing 53.5°C (128.3°F) mark set on May 26 in Pakistan. All of these records are unofficial, and will need to be certified by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). According to Chris Burt, author of Extreme Weather, setting six national heat records in one month is eight in one summer is unprecedented. The only year which can compare is 2003, when five countries (the UK, France, Portugal, Germany, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein) all broke their all-time heat records during that year's notorious summer heat wave. Fortunately, the residents of the countries affected by this summer's heat wave in Asia and Africa are more adapted to extreme high temperatures, and we are not seeing the kind of death tolls experienced during the 2003 European heat wave (30,000 killed.) This week's heat wave in Africa and the Middle East is partially a consequence of the fact that Earth has now seen three straight months with its warmest temperatures on record, according to NOAA's National Climatic Data Center. It will be interesting to see if the demise of El Niño in May will keep June from becoming the globe's fourth straight warmest month on record.

Polar bears threatening geese as diet ravaged by climate shift Premium Article ! Your account has been frozen. For your available options click the below button. Options Premium Article ! To read this article in full you must have registered and have a Premium Content Subscription with the The Scotsman site. Subscribe Registered Article ! To read this article in full you must be registered with the site. Sign In Register « Previous « Previous Next » Next » View Gallery Published Date: 18 June 2010 By Emily Beament A CONSERVATION success which has seen barnacle geese numbers bounce back from the brink could be under threat from hungry polar bears struggling to cope with cl

A CONSERVATION success which has seen barnacle geese numbers bounce back from the brink could be under threat from hungry polar bears struggling to cope with climate change, experts said yesterday. The number of Svalbard barnacle goslings that overwintered in the Solway Firth this year was just half that expected, according to the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT).

on eggs in the nests

the ice has been melting earlier in the spring and forming later in the autumn, so that the bears are now spending on average three more weeks on land per year, without food, than they did three decades ago, the researchers say. As a consequence, their body weight in that time has dropped by 60lb, females have lost 10 per cent of their body length, and the west Hudson Bay population has declined from 1,200 animals to 900.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has declared a state of emergency in seven Russian regions because of wildfires fuelled by a heatwave. The death toll from the fires has risen to at least 34. The Russian emergencies ministry said 500 new blazes had been discovered over a 24-hour period, but most had been extinguished. Homes have been burnt in 14 regions of Russia, the worst-hit being Nizhny Novgorod, Voronezh and Ryazan. The state of emergency was announced in a decree that also restricted public access to the regions affected. Moscow is again shrouded in smoke from peat and forest fires outside the city. The fires, caused by record temperatures and a drought, have affected cereal harvests, driving wheat prices up.

Russians are bracing themselves for another week of high temperatures, with forecasts of up to 40C (104F) for central and southern regions. Officials also expect stronger winds in some regions, which will fan the flames. By Sunday night, wildfires were still raging across some 128,000 ha (316,000 acres).

Thousands of people have lost their homes and nearly a quarter of a million emergency workers have been deployed to fight the flames. President Medvedev described the situation on Saturday as a "natural disaster of the kind that probably only happens every 30 or 40 years". Moscow doctors say the elderly and toddlers should wear gauze masks outdoors.

The Three Gorges dam on China's longest river, the Yangtze, is standing up to its biggest flood control test since completion last year, officials say. Floodwaters in the giant reservoir rose 4m (13ft) overnight, and are now just 20m below the dam's maximum capacity.

The flow of the water overnight was the fastest ever recorded, at 70,000 cubic metres per second. Dr Cao Guangjing, head of China Three Gorges Corporation, told the BBC that 40,000 cubic metres/second were released, with 30,000 cubic metres/second of water held back in the reservoir.

More than 35 million people across China have been affected by the poor weather and 1.2 million have been relocated. China is facing its worst floods since 1998, when more than 4,000 people died, and 18 million people were displaced, the China Daily newspaper said.

June SSTs in the tropical Atlantic set a new recordSea Surface Temperatures (SSTs) in the Atlantic's Main Development Region for hurricanes had their warmest June on record, according to an analysis I did of historical SST data from the UK Hadley Center. SST data goes back to 1850, though there is much missing data before 1910 and during WWI and WWII. SSTs in the Main Development Region (10°N to 20°N and 20°W to 80°W) were 1.33°C above average during June, beating the previous record of 1.26°C set in June 2005. June 2010 is the fifth straight record warm month in the tropical Atlantic, and the third warmest anomaly measured for any month in history. The only warmer anomalies were 1.51°C and 1.46°C, set in May 2010 and April 2010, respectively.

The dead sea: Global warming blamed for 40 per cent decline in the ocean's phytoplankton Microscopic life crucial to the marine food chain is dying out. The consequences could be catastrophic

The microscopic plants that support all life in the oceans are dying off at a dramatic rate, according to a study that has documented for the first time a disturbing and unprecedented change at the base of the marine food web. Scientists have discovered that the phytoplankton of the oceans has declined by about 40 per cent over the past century, with much of the loss occurring since the 1950s. They believe the change is linked with rising sea temperatures and global warming.

If the findings are confirmed by further studies it will represent the single biggest change to the global biosphere in modern times, even bigger than the destruction of the tropical rainforests and coral reefs, the scientists said yesterday.