Landscape and Biodiversity Research Group

Adrian Stott

Project Title:
Plant reproductive ecology in fragmented ancient woodland habitats
(Full time, University of Northampton bursary)

It is well established in the literature that biodiversity is increasingly likely to suffer as a result of habitat fragmentation across all types of natural habitat. Plant diversity, for example, is declining in many natural and semi-natural communities and there is growing concern that declines in pollinator diversity and abundance are negatively affecting natural plant communities as well as agricultural systems; pollinators are an important functional group required by many wild plants and commercial crops for seed production.

The limited research published todate concerning the impact of habitat fragmentation on plant-pollinator systems has primarily focussed on grassland habitats. In contrast, little work has been undertaken within woodlands, particularly ancient semi-natural woodlands.

Since the 1930's, we have lost 45% of our remaining ancient semi-natural woods; of those remaining, some 83% measure less than 20 ha. This habitat contains more than 78 threatened species, which is higher than any other habitat in the United Kingdom, making it a high conservation priority. Unfortunately, conservation efforts are severely hampered by a lack of information with regard to plant and invertebrate distribution patterns and the factors responsible for them in this habitat. Distribution patterns of flora and fauna can result from local, individual responses to a range of factors including habitat structure, competition and light levels, and from population and community responses to resource availability, matrix heterogeneity and reproductive opportunities and output. Other factors may also include nested habitat distributions, isolation and differential colonisation as well as the influence of woodland size, dispersion, and the surrounding matrix upon plant and animal movement.

This project examines the relationships between plants and pollinators of ancient semi-natural woodlands within a fragmented landscape at a variety of scales and configurations to try to understand how habitat fragmentation affects interactions between plants and their flower visitors, and subsequent plant reproductive output.

Objectives

Determine the patterns of species richness and abundance of woodland plant species and invertebrate flower visitors within different sized fragments of woodland.
Identify the landscape variables (fragment size, isolation, surrounding land uses, etc.) having an impact on these patterns as well as on pollination and reproductive success.
Assess the interactions between these plants and their pollinators and the relationship with reproductive output via pollen and seeds.
Create a model to combine patch size frequency distribution, matrix type, species distribution between patches and fecundity and reproductive strategy of species in response to patch and landscape variables, as well as visitor taxonomy.
Use this model as a predictive tool in determining how woodland fragmentation is likely to affect plant population survival.

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