The Bird Protection League warns: the lack of water is disrupting the migration, reproduction and survival of wild animals. The waterways are at their lowest, the agricultural soils parched. Insects, amphibians, birds, fish, the whole biodiversity of our Aquitaine landscapes is threatened.
The League for the Protection of Birds (LPO) draws up a worrying assessment of the very concrete consequences of the shortage of water on wild species in the protected natural areas it manages and located mainly in the north-east of New Aquitaine. We already know that the swallow is one of the birds whose population has greatly decreased, but other lesser-known species are also affected.
The drought in spring and summer 2022, linked to too few rains, had a strong impact on these 10 sites in Charente-Maritime and Vendée, which cover more than 13,000 hectares: early and prolonged drying of ditches and wetlands, poor reproduction of some species of birds and in particular the black guffer… and no reproduction of certain species of amphibians and insects
Moreover, migrations are disrupted with, in certain areas, numbers of migrating waterbirds 19 times lower in August 2022 than on average.
If the lack of birds is visible to humans, other invisible populations are gradually disappearing. “Frogs and toads are globally endangered animals., explains Olivier Le Gall, delegate of the LPO in New Aquitaine. But it is the entire food chain and ecosystems that suffer directly or indirectly from drought. “Insects are very poorly understood. Species disappear before we even discover them! “, continues Olivier Le Gall.
“Nesting bird populations are very impacted, migrants are not stopping at certain reserves this year because they are dry… Populations of batrachians (Pelobate cultriped) and others (…) are not reproducing this year. The populations of certain insects such as dragonflies or butterflies are identified as in danger of extinction…”, he details.
However, the association manager tries to be positive. If the association organizes follow-ups with often alarming findings, it is also an actor in the protection of habitats in reserves, in Charente-Maritime and Vendée but also with Sepanso in Gironde.
Indeed, behind the dune belt from the Pointe de Grave in the North to the Landes, there is a wide lacustrine strip which stretches from north to south with all the characteristics of wetland ecosystems. Areas to preserve for their role”water purification”but also for their very special habitats for nesting and migrating birds, mammals and insects.
“For three weeks, we have caught up with more classic water levels for the season“. According to Xavier Chevillot, director of Sepanso Aquitaine, the pond of Cousseau, in the Médoc, is not necessarily representative of the phenomenon of lack of water. This problem will arise later in the season, at the time when “the swamp dries up faster and is therefore dry longer until the fall”. “This is where we can have difficulties with the vegetation, its recovery or its optimal development”, emphasizes the defender of the environment.
Here too, 2022 was a special year. It is above all the plant populations that suffer. “To see it from one year to the next is difficult. The trees and vegetation will be able to withstand a very dry year. But some species do not support and die immediately (…)
The accumulation of very dry periods which will have a strong impact on the environment. It will multiply, we know it. But how often?
Xavier Chevillot, director of Sepanso Aquitainewith web writing France 3 Aquitaine
The curator of the Cousseau pond nature reserve François Sargos confirms this concern: “we are relatively spared. That doesn’t mean that the levels are good (…) but the superficial aquifers recharged with the storms of June 2022. That saved the situation in part, he acknowledges. We had the heat wave in July-August, everything evaporated, we reached very, very low levels at the end of the summer (…) It was very winded all autumn… And there, for a month a month and a half, the levels have risen quite well“.
But he reminds “it’s extremely precarious.”There is a lot of evaporation, transpiration as the plants grow. And with the action of the East wind, a little dry, we don’t know where it will take us…”
Especially since, for about two years, the attention of Cousseau’s naturalists has been focused on an ecosystem typical of this ancient dune environment: the “barin”, with a typically Médoc name. Namely, small depressions or “parabolas”, nestled in the hollow of the dunes, where the water table is flush. “Environments extremely rich in biodiversity”, explains François Sargos, where we usually find small aquatic beetles, insects, amphibians, but also small birds, such as various teals. “These are environments that only survive through rainfall, when it rains enough in winter and spring.” continues the curator.
Or, for two years, more than 50% of these barins have shown a water deficit and fail to recharge. A threat to certain aquatic beetles and, if the situation persists, to this atypical ecosystem that are the “barins”.
Because if nature sometimes seems resilient, it sometimes suffers irreparable accidents. The water shock that may have been experienced last year could also very well be felt a few years later. Like the pedunculate oaks, which experienced a high mortality, nearly ten years after the 2003 heat wave…
“What the LPO requires isextend the perimeters of the reserves”, “to have easier control of water levels with the surroundings”, reminds Olivier Le Gall. Then he insists it’s “an effect of climate change” SO “a global effect”. “VSeach of us, through our daily actions, is an actor in this”, he insists.
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