Why Ancient Woodlands are so valuable?

Ancient woodlands are wooded areas that have been covered in the same native woodland cover since 1600 AD. These habitats are irreplaceable due to the many years of the native fauna  to evolve to the composition of these habitats to take full advantage of the many niches up for offer. 

These habitats compose of just 2% of the UK's landscape and so provide a unique habitat which provide the UK with photogenically rare fauna that are severely vulnerable to any disturbances and so the niches that don't overlap between the generalists will die along with the species. 

Half of all of the UK ancient woodlands, are severely degraded and in serious need of restoration. Instead, much of these forests are being replaced with non-native conifer plantations with little differentiation between species variation. These plantation pose little ecological benefit where it is shown these transformations reduces biodiversity in the native bird, reptile, and mammal species where the rare species are the most vulnerable due to their incapability to adapt and take up new niches. 

Although, restoration won't be capable of completely restoring the conservation value of the fully intact ancient woodland, if serious degradation/ destruction has occurred restoration is the best to do to mitigate the carbon emission and to provide a form of support for the surrounding biodiversity. These restoration programmes display varying results with the common denominator being the planting of photogenically distinct native flora to provide adequate supports for rare species as well as improving the multifunctionality of the woodland.

 

What happened to Mauritius?

The oil spill that the Mauritius coast suffered from had extended to a diameter of 15km making up a volume of 350km squared of their shore. The reason for such a large media coverage is due to the incorporation of many environmentally sensitive habitats and had been protected under the Ramsar Convention Wetlands of International importance as a biodiversity hotspot. 

The immediate impact of the spill isn't the concern but it will effect the ecosystem equally where for example, pressures will be put onto the coral species causing the zooxanthellae to expel which is responsible for the photosynthesizing of the corals and this pressure is known as coral bleaching. This will then put significant pressures  along the levels of the trophic cascade where these corals are often involved in a bottom up ecosystem. 

A big issue with oil spills in marine environments is the addition of currents which drags the oil to which was transporting the oil to more environmentally important habitats composed of seagrasses, corals, mangroves. providing shelter, food source, nurseries, wave control. Although, a small area had been initially exposed to the oil, the nature of our marine systems had resulted in long term, long spanning areas. Larger

The initial impact of this spill was poisoning of much of the fish biomass reducing the population of many species within the 15km diameter and the vegetation will have withered and died. The first group effected had been the filter feeders including molluscs, crustaceans etc. There has yet been all the deaths resulting from the oil spill expected and will have long spanning effects for decades to come. 

Corals take from 9-12 years to recover, however, due to significant declines of the herbiverous fish groom the corals to prevent coral bleaching and the consumption of older corals allows for the establishment of newer coral species. What is likely to occur is that algal turf will dominate the habitat, outcompeting all other aquatic flora. Larger grazing fish are likely to increase due to increase algal turf biomass, which will then in turn reduce energy transferred between the substrate and the fauna. It will then transfer energy between grazers to carnivores. Even with no effect on the fish population, it is highly likely that these corals would never return as they are known not to be profficient reproducers.

The oil spill has eradicated much of the light availability reaching the flora causing further light dependent species to simply wither and die. The soluble compounds from oil spills will then disolve in the water creating creating heavy residue onto the seabed preventing the establishment of aquatic floral species. 

As hundreds to thousands of fish wash up onto our shorelines, the seabirds are also effected due to a lack of viable food source but as well, the oil weighs them down preventing them from flying where they will die of starvation/ exhaustion.

Although, a small area had been initially exposed to the oil, the nature of our marine systems had resulted in long term, long spanning areas. Shell are planning on leaving 4 abandoned platforms storing 11,000 tonnes of oil in the North Sea. Mauritius has just been a warning, due to increased wave velocities and more oil will potentially do untold damage for our marine systems and will have global consequences for many decades to come. 

We never asked for a Mauritius part 2, so please spread the word and sign the petition below.

https://www.change.org/p/shell-stop-shell-north-sea-revolution?redirect=false

 

The Red Squirrel's are Back?!?!?!

As of the 15th of June, 2020, research led by National University of Ireland, Galway has recorded an increase in the native red squirrel population thanks to the growth in abundance to the native carnivore called pine martens in the Irish midlands. There is a significant correlation between the increase of pine martens and decrease of grey squirrels in habitats in the presence of red squirrels because of the grey squirrel's larger size, decreased agility and greater time spent on the ground foraging in comparison to the native red's. This interaction is a classic top-down trophic cascade where the top carnivores dictates the structure of the surrounding ecosystem. These pine martens were studied through a non-invasive, DNA analysis on the pine marten used to study the food consumed. It was discovered wood mice were the primary food source, followed by the grey squirrel and very few red squirrels. The reduction of the invasive American grey squirrel has resulted in an increase in the red squirrel population as grey's transmit a fatal parapox virus that they've built an immunity towards and they also consume all of the green acorns. Red squirrels can only consume green acorns as they  cannot digest mature acorns. This will put pressure onto the population of the red squirrels which will prevent them from breeding which will then increase grey squirrel populations further and so worsening the situation.

Queen's University, Belfast (QUB) also performed studies on this trophic cascade and back's this correlation between pine martens and grey squirrels. Studies performed in Northern Ireland (NI) are more important as it's predicted there will no longer be any red squirrels remaining in NI within the next few decades. This study predicts there will be an increase in grey squirrels in urban parks due to the lack of wooded areas in these parks. Joshua Twinning of QUB stated "As the pine maten does not occupy urban areas anywhere within it's European range, it (Pine martens) is not likely to be the sole solution to the invasive grey squirrel". 

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/first-they-cloned-dolly-the-sheep-now-they-are-targeting-grey-squirrels-xdjzm3rgb

References

• Nuigalway.ie. 2020. June - NUI Galway. [online] Available at: <http://www.nuigalway.ie/about-us/news-and-events/news-archive/2020/june/red-squirrels-making-comeback-as-return-of-native-pine-marten-spells-bad-news-for-invasive-grey-squirrel-1.html> [Accessed 16 July 2020].
• Dwyer, S., 2020. Pine Martens Could Be Solution To Saving Red Squirrels In Urban Areas. [online] TheJournal.ie. Available at: <https://www.thejournal.ie/grey-squirrel-and-pine-marten-relationship-5121288-Jun2020/> [Accessed 16 July 2020].
•   O'Sullivan, K., 2019. Good Neighbours: How Pine Martens Are Helping Red Squirrels Survive. [online] The Irish Times. Available at: <https://www.irishtimes.com/news/environment/good-neighbours-how-pine-martens-are-helping-red-squirrels-survive-1.3822153> [Accessed 16 July 2020].