CLIMATE CHANGE CLUES REVIEWED IN NEW RESEARCH NOTE
Data collected over many years from the Environmental Change Network (ECN) site at Alice Holt Research Forest in Hampshire, England provide evidence of a changing climate, demonstrate trends in harmful pollutants such as ozone and sulphur dioxide, and demonstrate population dynamics of plant and animal communities, including moths, bats, beetles, birds and butterflies.
Now a new Research Note published by the Forestry Commission and entitled "The Environmental Change Network at Alice Holt Research Forest" reviews this data and explores the evidence for the impacts of climate change and pollution and their interactions with land management. It will be of interest to ecologists, forest managers, the scientific community, land-use policy makers and the public.
Meteorological data provide evidence of climate change, showing significant trends in summer rainfall (2005 was the driest summer since 1949), and that cold winter days halved in number from the 1950s. ECN data also show the effects that drought has on the growth of oak and Scots pine, reducing growth rates in both species for two to three years after drought events.
Dendrochronological data (collected by measuring the widths of tree rings) indicate that overall growth in oak has increased from the 1970s, which might be due to rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Measurements of forest exposure to ozone, a potentially harmful atmospheric pollutant, show that peak levels have risen, while levels of sulphur dioxide have declined to the point that they are no longer considered a threat.
Long-term records of moth populations and climate collected over 36 years were also assessed. The records showed that the total number of moth species within the woodland was declining by two species per year. The reasons for this are not clear - although warmer summers have a positive effect on moth numbers, the increase in winter rainfall has the opposite effect.
Bat activity at the site has more than doubled since 1994, whilst ground beetle numbers remain stable, and bird populations are generally increasing.
It is known that increasing temperatures with climate change should benefit butterfly numbers, but data from the ECN site at Alice Holt support a general view that other factors, such as management and land use, are over-riding the positive effects of temperature on butterfly numbers and emergence.
Sue Benham, project leader for the ECN site, said
“Alice Holt Research Forest provides a rare opportunity to gather information on the effects of management practices and land-use change. I am grateful to many colleagues, past and present, who have worked on the site over the past 50 years. As a result of their work and commitment to long-term monitoring we now have valuable ecological records. When used in association with its counterpart ECN sites around the UK and long-term monitoring work in Europe, it gives us an early warning system for environmental change."
- "The Environmental Change Network at Alice Holt Research Forest" Research Note can be downloaded from the Forestry Commission's website at www.forestry.gov.uk/publications. Free hard copies can be ordered from Forestry Commission Publications, P.O. Box 25, Wetherby, West Yorkshire LS23 7EW; telephone 0870 121 4180; fax: 0870 121 4181; email: forestry@twoten.com, quoting stock code FCRN 001.
NOTES TO EDITOR:
- The author, Sue Benham, is a project leader in the Environmental & Human Sciences Division at Forest Research. She took over the Environmental Change Network project based at Alice Holt in 1997. She also has responsibility for deposition monitoring as part of the International Co-operative Programme (ICP) for Assessment and Monitoring of the Effects of Air Pollution on Forests - Level II programme, and is a member of the expert panel on deposition.
- The ECN is a multi-agency programme sponsored by a consortium of government departments and agencies and co-ordinated on their behalf by the NERC Centre for Ecology & Hydrology. For further information, visit www.ecn.ac.uk
- The Forestry Commission is the government department for forestry in Great Britain. It supports woodland owners with grants, tree felling licences, regulation and advice; promotes the benefits of forests and forestry; and advises Ministers in the UK Government, the Scottish Executive and the Welsh Assembly Government on forestry policy. It manages more than a million hectares (2.56 million acres) of national forest land for multiple public benefits such as sustainable timber production, public recreation, nature conservation, and rural and community development. For further information, visit www.forestry.gov.uk.
- Forest Research is the Commission's agency that carries out world-class scientific research and technical development relevant to forestry for a range of internal and external clients. For further information, visit www.forestresearch.gov.uk.
NEWS MEDIA CONTACT: Charlton Clark, Forestry Commission press office, 0131 314 6500
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