What sort of ecosystem is Wareham forest?

• Mosaic landscape

• Mixture of heathland, conifer plantations and bogs

• Acidic soils

• Undulating topography with accumulation of water in hollows

Who is responsible for management?

• Managed by Forestry England

• Forestry commission -> Forest Enterprise (1996) -> Forest Enterprise England (2003) -> Forestry England (2019)

• “Connect everyone with the nation’s forests by creating and caring for our forests for people to enjoy, wildlife to flourish and businesses to grow.”

What was the original mission of the forestry commission?

• Formed in 1919 (after WW2)
• Increase the amount of productive woodland by buying land
• Promoted productive forestry
• Around 1/3 of all available timber in the UK cut down during WW2
• After the war the forestry commission saw its role as ensuring the timber supply
• Planted fast growing conifers
• Countryside act in 1968 led to the forestry commission taking an interest in recreation. Camp sites, rides and cycle paths encouraged.

What is the current management strategy?

• Forestry England now takes a broader view. Acts as steward. Takes conservation of biodiversity seriously.
• Remains committed to promoting and permitting recreation.
• 26% of the UK woodland (0.86 million hectares) is managed by Forestry England and devolved forestry bodies.
• Continues to take a long view (25 years +) of management inherited from timber production.

Which ecosystem services does Wareham forest provide?

• Aesthetic and recreational value
• Carbon storage (in trees and soil)
• Regulation of the local hydrology
• Biodiversity
• Conservation of species of special concern

Historical value

• Woolsbarrow hill fort
• Late bronze age, early iron age (8th–5th centuries BC)

What is the rarest species on Wareham forest?

• The rarest species reported is arguably the short tailed blue butterfly (Everes argiades)
• “Boxworth blue”
• Last recorded in 1952 and not seen since
• Rare migrant from the continent

Which notable species are found in Wareham forest?

• Nightjar
• Sand lizard
• Smooth snake
• Dartford warbler

What is planned by the management?

Is this a landscape mosaic?

How frequently is this sort of landscape affected by fire?

• Mainly depends on management

• Lowland heaths were traditionally burned intentionally, but only occasionally

• Upland heaths (moorland) in the pennines and Scotland burned very frequently

• Some evidence from pollen records at nearby Studland (Howlett et al. 2022)

Spur bog pollen record

When did the fire take place?

• Mid may 2020

What is a podzol?

• Decomposition of organic matter is inhibited -> acidic organic surface (mor) layers builds up. -> Nutrient deficiency leads to more slowing of microbial degradation of organic complexing agents.
• Deep organic layer comprising litter, fermenting organic matter and humus under forest or heath
• An ash-grey, structureless, silica rich eluvial horizon
• Humus (Bh) and/or iron/aluminium (Bs) enriched illuvial horizons, generally strong brown colours
• High carbon to nitrogen ratio
• The process in heathland has long been well understood (Andersen and Dimbleby 1963)

What happens to a podzol after fire?

• Surface layer dries. Organic matter may be oxidised
• Ash reduces pH slightly
• “pyrogenic” carbon increases soil porosity
• May experience a short lived increase in fertility
• Carbon to nitrogen ratio may decrease slightly
• Can allow grasses to increase in dominance.

How are podzols converted to agriculture?

• Removal of organic matter

• Liming

• Fertilization and improvement

• Maintenance through grazing

Edge of Wareham forest

Which key plants do I need to recognise?

• Gorse (Ulex europaeus) Flowers in spring. Long furrowed spines (>1cm)
• Dwarf gorse (Ulex minor) Flowers in autumn. Shorter unfurrowed spines(<1cm)
• Heather (Caluna vulgaris) Small flowers
• Bell heather (Erica cinerea) 3 leaves in whorl. Dark purple flowers
• Cross leaved heath (Erica tetralix) 4 leaves in whorl. Lighter flowers
• Dorset heath (uncommon Erica ciliaris) Flowers in spike

Trees

Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) Reddish bark

Corsican pine (Pinus nigra subsp laricio) Darker, no red on bark

English oak (Quercus robur) leaves with very short petioles (Quercus petrea has long petioles)

Red oak - introduced (Quercus rubra) Bright red leaves in autumn

Is this a suitable way to map resilience?

http://r.bournemouth.ac.uk:82/Ecosystems/papers/Lvschal-2022-Mapping-the-ecological-resilience-o.pdf

• Very poor paper (Løvschal and Damgaard 2022)

• Is this sentence useful?

• "Their rate of loss, is alarming. Currently, we know little about the heathlands’ actual span of resilience affordances and their association with abiotic and anthropogenic factors, including how much additional intervention they need to persist.

Can landscape scale approaches to ecosystem management resolve tradeoffs between biodiversity and services?

• Paper co-authored by professor Adrian Newton

• Analysed the biodiversity value and provision of selected ecosystem services (carbon storage, recreation, aesthetic and timber value)

• Trade-offs Biodiversity values were significantly lower in woodland than in dry and humid heath, timber, carbon storage and aesthetic values were highest in woodland.(Cordingley et al. 2015)

Biodiversity

Services

Are carbon stocks in the soil being monitored correctly?

“Just the investigation of topsoils is not sufficient to understand the regional pattern of organic matter in forest soils - unless the subsoil becomes Included as well It is hypothesized that for Europe, the Impact of site factors such as climate, texture and relief are difficult to extract from such a database” (Baritz et al. 2010)

Why is it important to measure soil carbon stocks correctly?

• If the government really does adopt net zero by 2050 there would be calls to reforest heathlands.

• These may be based on assuming that most carbon is held above ground.

• This may influence the design of management plans.

Suggested future UK

Source

https://www.withouthotair.com/synopsis10.pdf