Scenarios of the future – Scotland Under Climate Change: Setting : Hills and Moors

This report considers the possible impacts of climate change from low and high emissions scenarios for the year 2025. If there are no dramatic policy, social, economic or environmental changes, with climate change occurring as indicated in the scenarios, there will probably be no major noticeable effects on hill and moor habitats. However, currently degraded habitats may continue to degrade, such as through substrate erosion. Any major increases in current degradation, or new large-scale and easily observed changes will probably be attributable to alterations to management regimes brought about by other driving forces, such as CAP reform. In addition, extreme events may have a very unpredictable and profound impact, depending on their frequency and intensity, and deserve further consideration. Even in the absence of other drivers and extreme events and with no apparent change in hill and moor habitats, there will still be a climate-induced ‘momentum’ for change slowly building up in all communities that will exert increasing effects as the century progresses.