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Features almost 300 colour photographs and brings together more than 60 years of research by a leading voice in British woodland ecology. Trees define woodland. They provide a complex, multi-layered habitat for a great range of wildlife, yet they are wildlife themselves, reacting to their circumstances and each other. Woodlands are important to people, supplying timber, food and fuel, accumulating carbon, and offering places of refuge and refreshment. But they are also under threat: some stand in the way of 'progress' and all are becoming increasingly vulnerable to neglect, disease and climate change. Trees and Woodlands brings together decades of research to explore the ecology, nature cons...
In 1944 Lady Park Wood (45 hectares of woodland in Gloucestershire and Monmouthshire, UK) was set aside indefinitely by the Forestry Commission so that ecologists could study how woodland develops naturally. Since then, in a unique long-term study, individual trees and shrubs have been recorded at intervals, accumulating a detailed record of more than 20,000 individual beech, sessile oak, ash, wych elm, small-leaved lime, large-leaved lime, birch, hazel, yew and other species. In the seven decades since the study started, the wood has changed; trees grew, died and regenerated, and drought, disease and other events shaped its destiny. Each tree and shrub species reacted in its own way to chan...
A fascinating account of woodland natural history for all those concerned with woodland management and ecology.
The second volume of a major new series of books on British natural history. Meadows provide one of the most wide-ranging and eloquent treatments of this most quintessential British habitat. Yet the flower-rich hay meadows that have inspired writers and artists for hundreds of years have almost disappeared from our countryside. In this exceptional work, George Peterken, one of our most respected ecologists, brings together years of research and discovery from his travels across Britain and Europe, as well as an understanding borne out of caring for his own meadows, to produce a book that will put this often misunderstood habitat back in the public's eye. Filled with beautiful images of meadows and their denizens, this is a book everyone with an interest in this iconic habitat will want to own.
Professor John Harper, in his recent Population Biology of Plants (1977), made a comment and asked a question which effectively states the theme of this book. Noting that 'one of the consequences of the development of the theory of vegetational climax has been to guide the observer's mind forwards', i. e. that 'vegetation is interpreted as a stage on the way to something' , he commented that 'it might be more healthy and scientifically more sound to look more often backwards and search for the explanation of the present in the past, to explain systems in relation to their history rather than their goal'. He went on to contrast the 'disaster theory' of plant succession, which holds that commu...
A definitive natural history of the Wye Valley, from its appeal to the enthusiastic naturalist, to the geology, geomorphology, conservation and ecological history of this diverse area.
'A meticulously researched, important and beautiful volume that goes well beyond the scope of its title to describe the hitherto neglected subject of woodland flora and place it in a broad ecological and historical context.' - Stehan Buczacki Observing the plants of the forest floor – the flowers, ferns, sedges and grasses – can be a vital way of understanding our relationship with British woodland. They tell us stories about its history and past management, and can be a visible sign of progress when we get conservation right. For centuries, woodland plants have also been part of our lives in practical ways as food and medicines, and they have influenced our culture through poetry, perfu...
This Handbook, first published in 2005, provides standard procedures for planning and conducting a survey of any species or habitat and for evaluating the data.