The English Channel prevents many rockpool species ‘making the jump’ from Europe to the UK, new research shows.

With sea temperatures expected to rise due to climate change, many rockpool species in south-west England are threatened.

Creatures from warmer waters to the south could replace them — but the study, by the University of Exeter, suggests Channel currents mean many animals and plants cannot survive the crossing.

The study focussed on the St Piran’s hermit crab, which appeared in Cornwall in 2016 and was named by viewers of BBC Springwatch.

«The crab larvae almost certainly came from Brittany in northern France,» said Christophe Patterson, of the Centre for Ecology and Conservation on Exeter’s Penryn Campus in Cornwall.

«We modelled how ocean currents could carry larvae from Brittany to the south-west UK, and we found very few opportunities for this to happen.

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