The climate change crisis will displace wild cherries to areas of higher altitude and this will have effects on the brown bear and other species. This is the principal conclusion of a study, fruit of the collaboration between the Biodiversity Research Institute (IMIB) of the University of Oviedo, The University of Granada and the Brown Bear Foundation (FOP).

The work has just been published in the highly prestigious scientific journal Biological Conservation.  Click to access the press release from the University of Oviedo and the scientific article .

The wild cherry is a crucial species in the Cantabrian Mountains, since it provides food and refuge to numerous species, from small birds  to large mammals such as the brown bear. Predictive models indicate that between 20 and 40 years from now, the area potentially suitable for the species will decrease slightly, but over the longer period, between 60 and 80 years, this reduction will be more pronounced.

The results offer a practical application, given that they orientate where to carry out future planting of cherry trees, taking into account the possible predicted impacts deriving from climate change.

The study has been financed by the Ministry for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge (MITECO) and also by the Bears with Future LIFE project . This project, which is co-financed by the LIFE program of the European Union, is working precisely in order to improve the availability of food resources for the brown bear and to increased the production of fruits from tree and shrub species under a climate change scenario. The project is coordinated by the FOP,  in partnership with the Biodiversity Foundation of the MITECO and the Natural Heritage Foundation of Castilla y León, plus in collaboration with the Government of the Principality of Asturias  and the Pure Earth Foundation (Fundación Tierra Pura).