In its annual report on the impact of the weather on flora and fauna, the trust highlights that numbers of bees and butterflies have "crashed" in some areas of the UK in 2024.
It describes the apparent decline of birds such as the globally threatened arctic tern as "very shocking" and mentions diseases affecting white-clawed crayfish and sycamores.
There were a few bright spots, including a new breeding grey seal colony on the east coast of England, and the charity also recorded encouraging numbers of owls and other birds of prey.
The trust's head of nature conservation and restoration ecology, Ben McCarthy, said the lurch from drier conditions of the summer of 2022 and through 2023 to a very wet and mild 2024 - bookended by fierce storms - had had a "devastating impact".
This story is from the December 27, 2024 edition of The Guardian.
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This story is from the December 27, 2024 edition of The Guardian.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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