The Cairngorms will suffer a substantial decline in its snow cover within a decade, according to a major new climate report.

Scientists believe rapidly melting snow will pose a flood risk in north-east Scotland starting in 2030.

Researchers at the James Hutton Institute and Scotland's Rural College in Aberdeen have crunched numbners for temperature and rain and snow for the last century.

They said man-made global heating would hit both snow cover and biodiversity in the park. It will also, warned community leaders, devastate the already marginal ski industry.

Chief executive of the Cairngorms National Park Authority, Grant Moir, told The Press and Journal work to tackle climate emergency needed to be "scaled up".

He told the paper: "There is much good work already being done in the park from woodland expansion and peatland restoration, to new infrastructure for active travel and renewable energy development, but this needs to be scaled-up to help tackle the climate emergency.

"We are taking our corporate responsibilities very seriously with changes to how we operate, such as switching to more environmentallyfriendly vehicles and other changes which will promote a reduction in emissions."

READ MORE: What climate change will mean for skiing in Scotland

The latest warnings come after The Herald revealed mounting fears that Scotland’s ‘glaciers’ – normally resilient layers of years-old snow which in some cases are thought to have melted only a handful of times – are now so thin they were struggling to last through summers.

One, known as Scotland’s Sphinx, at Garbh Choire Mor on Braeriach in the Cairngorms which is historically the longest-lasting snow patch in Scotland’s mountains, had shrunk to below 9m long and 9m wide by September.