Restoration in the Face of Climate Change: A Case Study from the Dorset Heaths

Abstract

This paper demonstrates the potential for restoring a range of habitats by comparing the efficacy of different techniques for restoring lowland dry Atlantic heathland in Dorset, UK, under current and future climatic conditions. The success of different treatments in reducing soil pH and concentrations of the most important macronutrient, phosphorus, on improved pasture adjacent to Hartland Moor National Reserve in Dorset are discussed. The treatments applied were soil removal, soil acidification using elemental sulfur, soil acidification using ferrous sulfate, and nutrient removal. The treatment that most successfully reduced extractable phosphate was soil removal. Nutrient removal produced no significant decrease in extractable phosphate over 7 years study. Soil acidification with sulfur most successfully reduced pH. Under the present climatic conditions, the elemental sulfur treatment produced far more abundant heather growth than soil removal. This study suggest that restoration techniques are likely to change in their relative effectiveness as climate changes and that this may have different consequences for low and high trophic level species.