CLIMATE change may have already irreversibly changed some of Scotland's mountainous landscapes, scientists have warned.
New research has found that native plants and vegetation are disappearing from the hills and mountains of north-west Scotland and are being replaced by other native species which prefer warmer, drier, more acidic conditions.
It was already known that Scotland had lost 25% of its heather since the 1940s, but it has been established over the past 50 years that grasses in particular have been increasing at the expense of dwarf shrubs, flowering plants and lichens.
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