THE BRIDGE BETWEEN RESEARCH AND THE REAL WORLD

PHIL PUTWAIN – WITH THANKS TO TONY BRADSHAW, JO SAYERS AND IAN TRUEMAN

RESEARCH

REAL WORLD PROJECTS

A VISION OF ECOLOGICAL RESTORATION

Natural regeneration

Timespan?

Creative restoration

Faithful reinstatement

ECOLOGICAL RESTORATION / CREATIVE CONSERVATION

Natural regeneratio

n

Experimental techniques

Monitoring

TARGET COMMUNITY

PRACTICAL IMPLEMENTAT

ION

Improved methodolo

gy

NATURAL REGENERATION AFTER DISTURBANCE

Research informs strategic planning

Salisbury Plain Training Area

Annual and perennial forbes colonise

PLANT COMMUNITY DYNAMICS – TIME SERIES

Percentage similarity between disturbed and undisturbed samples

Solid red = CG3 community

Solid blue = MG1 community

Dotted = maximum similarity within undisturbedvegetation

CHINA CLAY (KAOLIN) AREA - LEGACY

AN ENGINEER’S SOLUTION

EARLY RESEARCH – NPK FACTORIAL EXPERIMENT

Nitrogen a key nutrient also calcium

Moribund vegetation after two years

FAILED RESTORATIONNUTRIENT SUPPLY NOT SUSTAINABLE

Initial establishment

Nitrogen has leached away

CELTIC (IRON AGE) CULTURAL LANDSCAPE

HISTORIC CULTURAL LANDSCAPE

WILD EXPANSE OF OPEN HEATHLAND

DERIVED FROM TRADITIONAL MANAGEMENTORIGINATING IN THE LATE BRONZE AGE

HISTORIC CULTURAL LANDSCAPE - TODAY

Woodland and scrub

Small fields enclosed by Cornish hedges

NATURAL COLONISATION – SUCCESSIONAL TRAJECTORIES

Heathland phase

Scrub phase

After 100-120 years

oak-birch woodland

NOT SEQUENTIAL

COMMUNITY ASSEMBLY – MULTIPLE TRAJECTORIES

DCA Ordination – there is no pattern for colonising sites – propagule dependent

STARTING POINT – SCIENTIFIC EXPERIMENTS

RESTORATION OF HEATHLAND - GENESIS

SMALL SCALE EXPERIMENTS COMMENCED IN 1976

AIM TO RESTORE CHARACTERISTIC HEATHLANDVEGETATION

RESTORATION OF HEATHLAND

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0 100 300 0 100 300 0 100 300 0 100 300

Control Lolium Agrostis Festuca Undisturbedheathland

Treatments (grass species and fertilizer application)

% c

ov

er

Erica tetralixErica cinerea

Calluna vulgaris

Heathland plant communities 17 years

after restoration

Seminal small-scale experiment commenced in 1976

View after 7 years (ungrazed)

LARGE SCALE EXPERIMENT ON SAND AND GRAVEL WORKINGS IN DORSET

Over onehectare

Agricultural

equipment

Site preparation

HEATHLAND PLANT COMMUNITIES AFTER 6 YEARS (UNGRAZED) ON SAND AND GRAVEL WORKINGS

TREATMENTS - ORDINATION AFTER 7 YEARS

Data supplied by Richard Pywell

CAERLOGGAS DOWNSTHE FIRST LARGE SCALE RESTORATION (60 Ha)

ON QUARTZ WASTE (in 1995)

RESTORED HEATHLAND AFTER 4 YEARS

(WHEN GRAZING COMMENCED)THE RETURN OF AN ECOLOGICALLY VIABLE

LANDSCAPE

LANDSCAPE SCALE RESTORATIONNEWLY SOWN SITE USING HARVESTED

SEED

LANDSCAPE SCALE RESTORATIONECOLOGICALLY FUNCTIONAL AND ECONOMICALLY

SUSTAINABLE

• Range grazing - beef cattle and sheep

• Local community use of the site

• View point for tourists

ECONOMICALLY SUSTAINABLE MANAGEMENT OF RESTORED HEATHLAND

IS ESSENTIAL

• Expanding market for heathland beef and lamb

• Quality breeds at premium prices

CREATION OF HAY MEADOWS – EXPERIMENT AND AFTERMATH

3m x 3m plots cropped with barley, potatoes, maize and fallow

Green hay strewn

Early years – contrast between treatments

Later years – seed exchange?

Plots become more similar

CREATION OF HAY MEADOWS USING STREWN GREEN HAY (WOLVERHAMPTON)

Bushbury Hill meadow after 2 years (1986). Source hay meadow SSSI Shropshire (Pennerley Meadows)

After 17 years (2001) cutting management

Another created meadow in Wolverhampton (grazing

management)

CREATIVE RESTORATION – WOODLAND GROUND FLORA

Collier’s Moss Common 1993 invading successional birch and willow. Sown with 13 species of woodland flora

7 years later well established primrose, bluebell, herb bennet,

yellow archangel

CREATIVE RESTORATION – WOODLAND GROUND FLORA

12 years later – from 4m2 to 200m2

ELEANOR COHN’S RESEARCHIS MORE SOPHISTICATED

Mersey Forest Bluebell project

THE REAL WORLD

Creative conservation and ecological restoration

require fundamental scientific understanding

Research contributes to our understanding of population dynamics through to

management at the landscape scale

The real world is the picture on the left