Securing Biodiversity in Breckland - European Commission

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Breckland MeresThe Devils PunchbowlMay 2007 November 2008September 2009 June 2010Breckland Meres are ground-water fed fluctuating water bodies, with percolation ofground-water through a semi-permeable base lagging behind groundwater recharge fromwinter rainfall. Successive flooding and draw-down results in concentric zoning ofvegetation. Pictured: The Devils Punchbowl in four successive years © N. Armour-Chelu(2007-09) & T. Pankhurst 2010Recently flooded margin© T. PankhurstGrazed meres support rare and distinctive species associated with re-flooding of droughtedsediments, such as the two-spined seed shrimp Cypris bispinosa, a Mediteranean species thatoccurs episodically in some Breckland Meres.20
Breckland Conservation and the Need for this AuditThe afforestation of Breckland and the loss of heathland was decried in the mid 1930s by theNorfolk Naturalists Trust and notable figures such as the biologist E.J. Salisbury and geographer L.D.Stamp, who campaigned to preserve some of the wild landscape to protect its character andbiodiversity. Their bold vision for a connected network spanning from STANTA in the north in abroad sweep of landscape joining remaining heaths in the east and south of Breckland (Sheail 1979)was never realised. However, a number of key sites were secured for conservation in perpetuity,beginning with the acquisition of East Wretham Heath by the Norfolk Naturalists Trust (now NorfolkWildlife Trust) in 1939, closely followed by Weeting Heath and Thetford Heath (purchased for theNorfolk Wildlife Trust by the philanthropist and conservationist Christopher Cadbury), in 1942 and1949 respectively. Supported by a legislative framework, nature conservation (the National Parksand Access to the Countryside Act 1949) came into being, the Nature Conservancy and its successoragencies (the Nature Conservancy Council, English Nature and most recently Natural England)designated a suite of key sites and secured their protection (see Table 4).The national and international importance of Breckland has been recognised by the designation offour National Nature Reserves (NNR) and 55 Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) that cover 40%of the land area. Of these more than 30 are heaths or contain a substantial heathland element. Thedesignation of many of these sites in the 1950s and 1960s coincided with a period of rapid andprofound ecological change on most heathland sites.The loss of livestock grazing, a consequence of the dominance in the farming economy of arablecropping, elevated the importance of rabbits in grazing the vegetation and preventing succession.The selective grazing and small-scale scraping and disturbance created by rabbits were crucial incontrolling both the plant species composition and the physical structure of the vegetation and thusthe range of micro-habitats available for invertebrates and plants (Farrow 1917a; Watt 1957; 1960;1962; 1981a; 1981b; Rodwell 1992). Following the introduction of myxomatosis to the UK in 1953and the translocation and release of infected animals by farmers seeking to control rabbits in theagricultural landscape, the rabbit populations had collapsed by 1955. The effects on bothvegetation and invertebrates were immediate and profound. Many heaths became grassy,overgrown and subject to scrub and pine invasion (e.g. Marrs Hicks and Fuller 1986) and it is likelythat some species and population extinctions can be directly attributed to these. In addition, theharvesting of heath products such as gorse, bracken and heather had also ceased during the early20 th century, allowing further invasive change to occur (Crompton and Sheail 1975; Rothera 1998).Conservation efforts have been successful in restoring grazing management regimes to the majorityof heathland SSSIs. At some sites rabbit populations rapidly recovered (e.g. Weeting Heath NNR);however, the destruction of rabbit populations on some key heathland sites following theirrecovery hindered conservation interests. STANTA has been sheep grazed since before the 1970s,while at some privately managed sites sheep grazing was introduced during the 1970s (e.g.Thetford Heath NNR). Establishment of grazing regimes was greatly helped by the introduction ofagri-environment support mechanisms. In 1988 the Breckland Environmentally Sensitive Area (ESA)scheme was established, providing area payments to landowners to graze heathland, combinedwith capital payments for grazing infrastructure such as fencing and control of scrub and bracken.The ESA scheme was closed to new applications in 2004 and has been followed by the introductionof Environmental Stewardship (ES) in 2005, providing a similar range of incentives with generally21
Page 1 and 2: Securing Biodiversityin BrecklandGu
Page 3 and 4: Commissioning GroupNeil Featherston
Page 5 and 6: Wind-blown sand guild .............
Page 7 and 8: milder winters and increased winter
Page 9 and 10: Creating broad ruderal and disturbe
Page 11 and 12: Introduction“Few of the lowland d
Page 13 and 14: Inland DunesThe 1km wide dune and b
Page 15 and 16: Following the Black Death of the mi
Page 17 and 18: The area of grass-heath declined by
Page 19: PingosPingos are ground water fed p
Page 23 and 24: SSSI. The Breckland Forest SSSI cit
Page 25 and 26: The Breckland Biodiversity Audit ha
Page 27 and 28: The Breckland bio-geographic region
Page 29 and 30: polygons of alternating calcareous
Page 31 and 32: quality calcareous fen communities
Page 33 and 34: Figure 2. The extent of Breckland,
Page 35 and 36: Table 3. Grass-heath vegetation in
Page 37 and 38: The Conservation Resource: Designat
Page 39 and 40: All other SSSIs are less than 600 h
Page 41 and 42: GrasslandHeathWoodlandWetlandFlowin
Page 43 and 44: Calcicolous grasslandsShingle, stra
Page 45 and 46: Figure 4. Location of designated si
Page 47 and 48: Figure 6. Location of Plantlife’s
Page 49 and 50: Figure 7. Locations of stations in
Page 51 and 52: Scheme for Stilt & Stalk Flies, Dra
Page 53 and 54: Table 6. Rare vascular plant specie
Page 55 and 56: Recommendation BTO be commissioned
Page 57 and 58: Table 7. Species for which records
Page 59 and 60: Table 8. Descriptions of Red Data B
Page 61 and 62: If the sub-species was designated b
Page 63 and 64: Collating and Synthesising Species
Page 65 and 66: Table 11. Published, documentary an
Page 67 and 68: Baron de Worms, C.G.M. (1953) Colle
Page 69 and 70: Guild AnalysisA number of habitat a
Page 71 and 72:
The specific questions for the work
Page 73 and 74:
Findings of the Breckland Biodivers
Page 75 and 76:
Recording Effort and CoverageThere
Page 77 and 78:
Butterfly Conservation (Suffolk) 17
Page 79 and 80:
Norfolk Biodiversity InformationSer
Page 81 and 82:
Figure 11. Number of taxonomic grou
Page 83 and 84:
difference is partly attributable t
Page 85 and 86:
There were Breckland specialist spe
Page 87 and 88:
Figure 13. Proportion of Breckland
Page 89 and 90:
Distribution of Breckland Conservat
Page 91 and 92:
Figure 15. Number of Breckland cons
Page 93 and 94:
Evidence of Climatic Change: Long-T
Page 95 and 96:
Figure 17. Total seasonal precipita
Page 97 and 98:
Biodiversity Implications of the Ch
Page 99 and 100:
Ariel depositions to agricultural s
Page 101 and 102:
the status of Deschampsia flexuosa.
Page 103 and 104:
The relative effects of ploughing,
Page 105 and 106:
Trends in Species Status: Extinctio
Page 107 and 108:
HymenopteraHymenopteraHymenopteraCo
Page 109 and 110:
In addition to the loss of rare lic
Page 111 and 112:
edstraw Galium parisiense (Tansley
Page 113 and 114:
The relative extent of lichen rich
Page 115 and 116:
The Feasibility and Usefulness of t
Page 117 and 118:
Across patch arrangementLandscape c
Page 119 and 120:
Across patcharrangementJuxtapositio
Page 121 and 122:
Delivery of Multiple Species by Int
Page 123 and 124:
Page 125 and 126:
Mechanical disturbance to create br
Page 127 and 128:
Page 129 and 130:
estricted to road verges, with the
Page 131 and 132:
131
Page 133 and 134:
Records of species from this guild
Page 135 and 136:
© Jeremy Earlywww.natureconservati
Page 137 and 138:
Page 139 and 140:
Open with sward mosaics guildChryso
Page 141 and 142:
Grazing without physical disturbanc
Page 143 and 144:
Deadwood in an open-woodland ecoton
Page 145 and 146:
Specific Requirement in a Variety o
Page 147 and 148:
Management to Sustain Dry Terrestri
Page 149 and 150:
Heather should rather be considered
Page 151 and 152:
GrazingrequirementsLightly sheep-gr
Page 153 and 154:
a mosaic of overlapping ploughed, a
Page 155 and 156:
Wind-blown sandThere is great uncer
Page 157 and 158:
IntensityProcess Technique Immediat
Page 159 and 160:
Complex Sward MosaicsComplex sward
Page 161 and 162:
Management for Assemblages of Light
Page 163 and 164:
Management for Species of Physicall
Page 165 and 166:
Key Recommendations for Cultivated
Page 167 and 168:
Shallow cultivation is preferable t
Page 169 and 170:
Maidscross Hill is largely overgrow
Page 171 and 172:
Ecological Requirements of Wetland
Page 173 and 174:
numbers of conservation priority sp
Page 175 and 176:
Recommendation Requirements of wetl
Page 177 and 178:
Page 179 and 180:
Restored pingo complexAt Great Hock
Page 181 and 182:
Page 183 and 184:
the difficulties of achieving this
Page 185 and 186:
Strategic Challenges to Biodiversit
Page 187 and 188:
Table 22. Problems arising from poo
Page 189 and 190:
Recommendation: Natural England and
Page 191 and 192:
It is therefore vital to carefully
Page 193 and 194:
Creating networks for resilienceTo
Page 195 and 196:
More ambitious possibilities that c
Page 197 and 198:
Figure 34. Example of a potential c
Page 199 and 200:
Connectivity networks© Neal Armour
Page 201 and 202:
and consider whether these repeated
Page 203 and 204:
Ensure that scrub removal, ploughin
Page 205 and 206:
ReferencesADAS. (1997) Biological M
Page 207 and 208:
Haes, E. C. M. & Harding, P. T. (19
Page 209 and 210:
Sastre, B.(2003). Ground spider com
show all

Securing Biodiversity in Breckland - European Commission

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?