An "extinction crisis" is happening in Britain's temperate rainforests where some of the world's rarest mosses, lichens and liverworts are vanishing, ecologists have warned.
Also known as Celtic rainforests, temperate rainforests are found primarily along the UK's western coasts.
A survey of Welsh rainforests in 2024 found only 22% were in a good condition due to pollution, fragmentation and invasive species.
"When this tree came down, in a flash we lost a species," said ecologist Sabine Nouvet about a 500-year-old oak in Eryri National Park, also known as Snowdonia, which fell during Storm Darragh in December.
The tree was home to one of the UK's best known populations of a rare lichen, the loss of which was "symbolic of the species crisis, the extinction crisis, that we are facing now", said Ms Nouvet.
