PhD Thesis, 2007 - University College Cork

Chapter 4
Vegetation survey
In this study we aimed to quantify (1) the link between vegetation patterns and
environmental variation, and (2) the effect of artificial and natural borders on
variation in vegetation composition in an Atlantic blanket bog.
4.3 Material and methods
4.3.1 Study site
The study was conducted in a 220 ha Atlantic blanket bog located at ca. 150 m
above sea level near Glencar, County Kerry, in Southwest Ireland (Latitude: 51°
55' N, Longitude: 9° 55' W). In the study site, the average temperature for the
warmest month of the year (August) during the 2003-2006 period was 15.3 ºC, and
for the coldest (February) was 6.1 ºC. The average annual precipitation over the
same period was 2570 mm yr –1 , while the average number of rainy and wet days
was 270 and 209, respectively (see Sottocornola & Kiely, 2005). At the nearby Met
Eireann synoptic weather station at Valentia (30 km west of the study site), the air
temperature for the period 2003-2006 was about 0.9 ºC warmer and the rainfall was
8 % higher than its 30 years average
(http://www.meteireann.ie/climate/valentia.asp).
The vegetation survey was carried out over an area of about 70 ha, in the pristine
part of the bog. The study area is enclosed on the northern side by a road and on the
west by a bog stream. On the east the site is bordered by a peatland area, which had
previously been afforested and is under restoration since 2003. The southern limit
of the study site is marked by a fence, beyond which occasional sheep grazing
occurs. This area stretches for about 200 m on the blanket bog before meeting a
slope covered by few small patches of fertilized grassland on the side of a 300 m
high ridge. Hereafter this area is referred to as the “hill-grazing area”.
4.3.2 Vegetation survey
The vegetation survey was carried out between the 10 th and the 31 st of August 2005
using a grid design. The grid interval was 150 m and it was set along the fence
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