Ireland's State of the Environment Report 2024

175 Chapter 7: Nature Ireland has already had species (e.g. the winter stonefly, Capnia atra ) categorised as vulnerable to extinction due to climate change (see Feeley et al. , 2020), while other species, such as the emperor dragonfly, have seen significant increases in their distribution across Ireland in recent years (Figure 7.18) as average temperatures rise. Similarly, several studies (see Woodward et al. , 2015) have highlighted the significant effect of heavy 11 www.un.org/en/climatechange/science/climate-issues/biodiversity (accessed 2 April 2024). rainfall, flash flooding and related storm impacts on river biodiversity in Ireland, with the recovery of species often taking years to decades. Globally, the United Nations (UN) estimates that 8-41% of species are at risk of losing half their habitat owing to increasing temperatures, while live coral reefs have nearly halved in the past 150 years and further warming threatens to destroy almost all remaining reefs. 11 Figure 7.18  The geographical spread of the emperor dragonfly, Anax imperator , in Ireland. This species was first recorded here along the south and south-east coast in the period 2000-2003 (left) and has gradually spread north and north-west over the past 20 years (right) due to climate change Source: NBDC, 2023; some CEDaR-generated data is included in the maps