Extensive Woodland Research Articles

Municipal woodland in Denmark: resources, governance and management

Urban woodlands are the subject of complex decision-making that requires a strategic overview of the resource. This article contributes a national study of municipal woodland in Denmark. Data were collected among all Danish municipalities through a postal survey (with a response rate of 52%). As much as 83% of the woodland units were located within urban settlements or at their fringe, emphasising that municipalities are important urban woodland providers. Municipal woodland resources were typically divided into many separate units of varying size. On average, the responding municipalities owned 12.6 woodland units with an allocated area of 265 ha, resulting in a mean size of 21.5 ha. A general lack of management plans, and a significant drop in recreational facilities provided with decreasing woodland size indicate that the recreational use potential of small woodland units was largely overlooked. Municipal woodland units frequently bordered other woodland or nature areas of different ownership. Thus even small municipal woodlands can play a key role in the development of multifunctional green infrastructures in the urban landscape. Only municipalities with extensive woodland property had issued a woodland policy, and/or certified woodland management. This indicates a need for development of governance and strategic management instruments attractive to municipalities with limited woodland property.

Ecology and long-term land-use, palaeoecology and archaeology – the usefulness of interdisciplinary studies for knowledge-based conservation and management of cultural landscapes

Natural and cultural heritage management is dependent on knowledge about present species and habitats and presence of cultural heritage sites, respectively. Knowledge about long-term development helps to identify factors explaining both biodiversity and cultural heritage and to predict future changes based on changes in, for example, climate or grazing regimes. In the present interdisciplinary study, vegetation surveys, pollen analysis from a bog and soil profiles within archaeological localities, archaeological test-excavations and historical data have been combined to elucidate cultural landscape development in an upland landscape of Erdalen in Stryn, western Norway. Activity in what is now the summer farm area started in the Bronze Age, followed by clearance and grazing in the Early Iron Age. After a period of reduced activity, most of the valley seems to have been utilised for summer farming in the Late Iron Age and first part of the Medieval Period. A regression period, probably related to the Black Death, is followed by new activity with extensive woodland clearings from the seventeenth century, whereas recent changes have resulted in increased tree cover. The investigations show a close relationship between land-use practices, presence of grassland species and vascular plant species richness. They also show the importance of continued management for existence of semi-natural habitats in the future, and for the visibility of archaeological sites.

Valuing the benefits of an afforestation project in a peri-urban area with choice experiments

Woodlands on the Veneto region plain have progressively disappeared since the 19th century. This has led to a decrease in environmental and landscape quality with fewer social benefits accruing from the rural land. The demand for environmental conservation and recreational areas has increased in recent years, especially in the urban context. In order to meet these needs the Venice City Council decided to establish an extensive woodland on the Venice hinterland. Due to the high costs of the project it was important to evaluate its benefits in monetary terms and whether a mixed landscape might produce a higher benefits flow than a dense woodland. The objectives of our study are to estimate the willingness to pay (WTP) for different surface allocations of the future Wood of Mestre and to better understand the influence on WTP of the delay in the benefits due to the time needed for tree growth. Our first finding was that people prefer a mixed solution in terms of surface allocation: the wood–meadow mix (75% woodland, 25% meadow) is at the top of the sample preferences. Second, the WTP of the preferred afforestation programme is €51year/family. The social benefits derived on a 10-year basis considering the presence of animals and lakes in the preferred scenario are €62,755/ha. The research highlighted how WTP has an inverse correlation with age. Nonetheless the WTP of older people is not negligible and this appears to support the hypothesis that the woodland will also have a bequest value. The WTP also tends to decline with the distance of the district where the interviewees live. Finally, CE proves to be a consistent and robust methodology for forest benefit evaluation that can provide both land management and quantitative information to policymakers.

BiologicalFlora of theBritishIsles:Fagus sylvatica

SummaryThis account presents information on all aspects of the biology ofFagus sylvaticaL. that are relevant to understanding its ecological characteristics and behaviour. The main topics are presented within the standard framework of theBiologicalFlora of theBritishIsles: distribution, habitat, communities, responses to biotic factors, responses to environment, structure and physiology, phenology, floral and seed characters, herbivores and disease, history and conservation.Fagus sylvatica(Beech) is a large usually single‐stemmed deciduous tree native to south‐eastEngland but now growing over almost the whole of theBritish Isles, often planted as a forestry tree on all but the wettest soils. It forms extensive woodlands, where it is dominant over a large altitudinal range, competing primarily withQuercus robur. The outcome of this competition is determined by local soil and climatic conditions leading to a gradation into oak woodlands. It is monoecious, wind‐pollinated and notable for its periodic large seed numbers (mast years); seed is dispersed by birds and mammals but mostly drops below the parent tree.Fagus sylvaticais hardy, very shade tolerant, casts a deep shade and is fairly resistant to browsing but susceptible to spring frosts.Due to its shallow rooting and intensive rather than extensive mode of soil water exploitation, it is also susceptible to drought, and this is likely to be the main factor controlling its expected response to climate change.Fagus sylvaticais facing few conservation problems, and indeed, its range is currently expanding into central Europe. However, in the face of climate change, its range is likely to contract from its extremes in all but the north, andPhytophthoradiseases may become more serious.

Prediciendo la distribución de Polylepis: bosques Andinos vulnerables y cada vez más importantes

Polylepis woodlands are a vital resource for preserving biodiversity and hydrological functions, which will be altered by climate change and challenge the sustainability of local human communities. However, these highaltitude Andean ecosystems are becoming increasingly vulnerable due to anthropogenic pressure including fragmentation, deforestation and the increase in livestock. Predicting the distribution of native woodlands has become increasingly important to counteract the negative effects of climate change through reforestation and conservation. The objective of this study was to develop and analyze the distribution models of two species that form extensive woodlands along the Andes, namely Polylepis sericea and P. weberbaueri. This study utilized the program Maxent, climate and remotely sensed environmental layers at 1 km resolution. The predicted distribution model for P. sericea indicated that the species could be located in a variety of habitats along the Andean Cordillera, while P. weberbaueri was restricted to the high elevations of southern Peru and Bolivia. For both species, elevation and temperature metrics were the most significant factors for predicted distribution. Further model refinement of Polylepis and other Andean species using increasingly available satellite data demonstrate the potential to help define areas of diversity and improve conservation strategies for the Andes.

Simulating the nature of vegetation communities at the opening of the Neolithic on Achill Island, Co. Mayo, Ireland — the potential role of models of pollen dispersal and deposition

The landscapes of the extreme western fringe of the European seaboard provide significant challenges to the reconstruction of prehistoric landscapes. The landscapes that exist today often bear little resemblance to those that existed in the middle Holocene owing to a combination of climatic and human influences on the landscape, and there are few surviving landscapes which offer an analogous vegetation situation. The coast of Co. Mayo in Ireland provides perhaps one of the biggest challenges in this regard, being now virtually treeless and covered with extensive tracts of ombrotrophic peat. Palaeoecological data sets indicate extensive woodland in the past in these areas, and the archaeological record shows that the region supported Neolithic populations practising early forms of agriculture. Landscape reconstruction using models that relate pollen dispersal to vegetation communities offers a potential stochastic insight into the nature of former landscapes. The results presented here from a modelling approach to reconstructing earlier prehistoric landscapes clearly demonstrate likely spatial vegetation patterning which could produce pollen assemblages comparable to those in the sub-fossil record. Areas such as Achill Island would have had extensive woodland cover dominated by taxa such as pine, oak and elm, a landscape substantially different from that which exists today. It is argued that at the onset of clearance during the Neolithic the area would have been significantly more attractive to agriculture than it is today.

Rockingham Forest, Northamptonshire: The Evolution of a Landscape

The Rockingham Forest Project created detailed digital mapping, from archaeological fieldwork, historic map, and aerial photographic evidence, to chart the evolution over the last millennium of the landscape of the greater part of the medieval Forest of Rockingham, Northamptonshire. It has revealed a landscape where the physical geography, especially the geology acting via the soils, was the primary determinant of land use, but where the administrative units, particularly the townships, controlled how land-use change was structured. The townships were typically self-contained units combining a balance of resources, with adjacent townships often following quite different trajectories, sometimes for hundreds of years.This landscape appears to have been extensively replanned in the late Anglo-Saxon and early medieval periods; saw continuing settlement expansion and sometimes extensive woodland clearance until the early fourteenth century; then in the late medieval and post-medieval periods experienced a growing rate of reorganisation through enclosure, reaching its height during Parliamentary enclosure in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Throughout this period woodland was in decline, though at greatly varying rates, until by the twentieth century it had been totally destroyed as a distinctive landscape zone. The process has been one of the progressive decoupling of land use from physical geography, most intensively during the last 150 years with processes such as rapid urbanisation and mineral extraction, creating a wholly new landscape.

A Holocene pollen and diatom record from Vanderlin Island, Gulf of Carpentaria, lowland tropical Australia

Sedimentary, palynological and diatom data from a dunefield lake deposit in the interior of Vanderlin Island in the Gulf of Carpentaria are presented. Prior to the formation of present perennial lake conditions, the intensified Australian monsoon associated with the early Holocene marine transgression allowed Cyperaceae sedges to colonise the alluvial margins of an expansive salt flat surrounded by an open Eucalyptus woodland. As sea level stabilised between 7500 and 4500 cal yr B.P. coastal dunes ceased to develop allowing dense Melaleuca forest to establish in a Restionaceae swamp. Dune-sand input into the swamp was diminished further as the increasingly dense vegetation prevented fluvial and aeolian transported sand arriving from coastal sources. This same process impounded the drainage basin allowing a perennial lake to form between 5500 and 4000 cal yr B.P. Myriophyllum and other aquatic taxa colonised the lake periphery under the most extensive woodland recorded for the Holocene. The palynological data support an effective precipitation model proposed for northern Australia that suggests more variable conditions in the late Holocene. A more precise measure of effective precipitation change is provided by diatom-based inferences that indicate few changes in lake hydrology. Such interpretations are explained in terms of palynological sensitivity to adjustments in local fire regimes where regional precipitation change may only be recorded indirectly through fire promoting mechanisms, including intensified ENSO periodicity and human impact.

Polarimetric classification of land cover for Glen Affric radar project

In recent years two polarimetric decompositions methods, the A/E method (Cloude and Pottier, 1997) and the three-component decomposition method (Freeman and Durden, 1998) have become the main methods of the polarimetric synthetic aperture radar data classification in radar imagery applications. In both methods the structural composition of the land cover is modelled using the main backscatter responses, as a function of the polarised channels, the level of energy received and the associated backscatter angles. To enhance the coherence in the polarimetric decompositions, data are generally multi-looked and de-speckled. The authors have applied and compared the 'Freeman' three-component decomposition followed by the Wishart complex classifier with the A/E decomposition algorithms to the de-speckled and edge-enhanced Glen Affric, fully polarimetric L-band radar data. The Glen Affric radar site was chosen for its extensive and diverse semi-natural woodlands of native Scots Pine, and its varied topography. The application results demonstrate the response of the radar classification from a semi-natural land cover on a rapid topography.

Plant cultivation and forest clearance by prehistoric North Americans: pollen evidence from Fort Ancient, Ohio, USA

Archaeological records show that, as early as 2000–1500 bc, Native Americans in the eastern USA domesticated a group of native plant species with starchy or oily seeds that helped support extensive Woodland societies. Previously, the location and extent of cultivation of these ancient crop plants has been unknown, but was hypothesized to be small clearances on river floodplains. Here, pollen analyses of two 2000-year-old sediment records from Fort Ancient, an upland Hopewell archaeological site in southwestern Ohio, show exceptionally high amounts of pollen from cultigens- Iva annua, Polygonum erectum and Chenopodium – deposited during Hopewell occupation of the site (100 bc to ad 400). It is likely that this earthwork is a site of prehistoric cultivation, not exclusively a ceremonial structure. Pollen spectra indicate the area surrounding the ponds was largely deforested, and the sediment record indicates high rates of erosion during this time. Therefore, North American Woodland societies were likely modifying vegetation more extensively through agriculture and other land-clearing activities than has been assumed previously.

A Self-triggered Device to Catch Elk as Early as the Neolithic: A Study from an Archaeological and Ethnological Point of View

The paper deals with equipment and methods used by Stone Age man in hunting elk in the extensive woodlands of interior Norrland, northern Sweden. The prevailing division into active hunting and trapping is applied. Ethnological source material is used to exemplify various ways of hunting elk. The methods discussed are: (1) active hunting on skis in winter, (2) driving the animal into an enclosure on bare ground, (3) catching in a pitfall, (4) snaring, and (5) trapping by a self-triggered spear/arrow. A rock carving at Na¨mforsen, Ångermanland, northern Sweden, is evidence that a self-triggered device to catch elk with a spear or arrow was in use even in the Neolithic. It is generally known that the elk was a very important prey for Stone Age man in the forests of Norrland. This is evident from figural portrayals and food remains alike. It is easy to suspect other uses for elk, but they are difficult to prove. Occasionally, however, parts of tools made from elk antler and bone have been found.

Palaeoclimate and palaeoenvironmental responses in the western Mediterranean over the last 140 ka: evidence from Mallorca, Spain

Climatic change in the western Mediterranean basin over the last 140 ka has been investigated from sediment and soil sequences along the coast of the northeastern part of Mallorca, Spain. Palaeoclimate and palaeoenvironments are reconstructed from sediment and soil structures, marine and terrestrial molluscan fauna, grain size distributions, mineral magnetics, sediment and soil chemistry, SEM and oxygen isotope values. Dating is by OSL and amino acid geochronometry along with marine molluscan faunal assemblages. All Oxygen Isotope stages and substages from OIS 6 to 1 are recorded. Mean annual temperatures (m.a.t.) of c. 19.2°C for the climatic optimum of the Last Interglacial compare with c. 17.3°C for the present, and are associated with high sea level, extensive woodland and stable soils, although wide temperature ranges are detected during this stage with values as low as c. 10.3°C. Through OIS 5d to 5a m.a.t. fluctuated from 8.2°C to 17.9°C. Low sea level, open vegetation, effective river activity and aeolian sand and dust deposition characterize 5d and 5b while relatively high sea-level and soil development on stable landscapes dominate OIS 5c and 5a. OIS 4 is represented by m.a.t. of c. 4.9°C with aeolian sand and loess deposition, limited river activity and weak soil development. Loess deposition persisted into OIS 3, but at this time the m.a.t. was c. 13°C and with higher humidity and vegetation growth. During the LGM (OIS 2) m.a.t. was c. 8.1°C and effective river, slope and aeolian processes, along with associated with limited vegetation cover, were responsible for the most extensive changes in the landscape. Major rates of change occur during periods of climatic deterioration when the high levels of geomorphic energy were imposed on a landscape undergoing a breakdown of vegetation cover.

Behaviour in the post‐nestling dependence period of radio‐tagged Common Buzzards Buteo buteo

Behaviour of 26 young Common Buzzards Buteo buteo was studied by systematic radiotracking during July and August 1991. After hatching between 11 May and 18 June, the young buzzards fledged when they were 43–54 days old. Distances travelled from the nest increased abruptly after birds were 65 days old, when their flight feathers had completed growth: buzzards were located more than 500 m from the nest in only 2% of records within 65 days of hatching but in 26% of records when they were older. Before their 65th day, there was an increase with age in distance from the nest, time spent flying and time spent calling, especially for buzzards with continuous woodland around the nest. The increases in distance and areas covered were greatest for broods where parents were most often present, which was at nests with the most grass and arable farmland nearby. Between their 65th and 100th days, buzzards showed no increase in activity with age and called less, especially where there was extensive woodland, and travelled farthest from nests with least neighbouring grassland; broods with few young most often had parents nearby. Young buzzards associated strongly with each other between leaving the nest and completing feather growth, but some broods later became much less cohesive. Variation in activity was not linked to sex or to the presence of 30 g back‐pack radio‐tags compared with 12‐g leg‐mounted radio‐tags.

Fencing the Forest: Conservation and Ecological Change in India's Central Provinces, 1860–1914. By Mahesh Rangarajan. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996. xii + 245 pp. Maps, notes, bibliography, index. $23.00

The extensive woodlands of the Central Provinces of India became vital to imperial interests in the late nineteenth century, and this book argues that it was protection of these interests, rather than conservation per se that was at the heart of imperial forestry in India.

Trees on farms in Malawi: Private investment, public policy, and farmer choice

Agricultural intensification in Malawi has proceeded at the expense of the country's extensive woodlands. Rather than clear their farmlands of all trees however, farmers plant or leave preferred species in fields and around households. A number of indigenous and exotic agroforestry species are being promoted through extension. An analysis of potential capital and management costs vis-á-vis increased potential production of local and hybrid maize shows that investments in tree planting are most favorable when they involve low costs and low risks. In order to reduce the farmer's costs of tree planting, government introduced a Tree Planting Bonus scheme which has provided cash payments as an incentive for farmers to plant trees. The program has been costly to administer and has had a limited impact. Survey data suggest that existing markets for poles and other wood products probably provide better tree planting incentives. Planners need to carefully consider household resource allocation processes with regard to trees and tree based products before they can expect to achieve a significant impact in encouraging rural afforestation.

Wildlife of Lancewood (Acacia Shirleyi) Thickets and Woodlands in Northern Australia. 2. Comparisons With Other Environments of the Region (Acacia Woodlands, Eucalyptus Savanna Woodlands and Monsoon Rainforests).

Embedded in the extensive Eucalyptus open forests and savanna woodlands that dominate the northern Australian landscape are patches of monsoon rain forest and Acacia thickets and woodlands. In this paper, the vertebrate species composition of patches of lancewood (Acacia shirleyi) thickets and woodlands of the Northern Territory was compared with that of other environments of this region: pindan woodlands (A. eriopoda and A. tumida), gidgee woodlands (A. georginae), patches of monsoon rain forests and the extensive Eucalyptus open forests and woodlands. The vertebrate fauna of lancewood thickets is distinct for that of Eucalyptus open forests, and has fewer species. Differences in species composition and richness are associated with substantial differences in resource availability, with lancewood thickets having far less grass cover (and hence relatively few granivorous birds and rodents, but more ground-feeding insectivorous and omnivorous birds), fewer nectar-bearing flowers (and hence fewer nectarivorous birds) and lower structural and floristic diversity than Eucalyptus forests. There was little difference in species richness or total abundance between the three types of Acacia woodlands sampled. Lancewood thickets had fewer species than monsoon rain forests to coastal dry monsoon rain forests to inland dry monsoon rain forests to lancewood thickets to pindan woodlands to gidgee woodlands, in accord with the pronounced rainfall gradient of this region and with canopy cover and height. Within this broad continuum the three Acacia woodlands were most closely grouped. Species turnover along this gradient consisted of substantial decrease or loss of some foraging groups (e.g. frugivorous birds) or replacement of species within broad foraging groups. The faunal relationship of the monsoon rain forests and Acacia communities provides some support for considering these fire-sensitive environments as fragments of a formerly extensive continuum. Three species (Pomatostomus temporalis, Struthidea cinerea and Melanodryas cucullata), all ground-foraging insectivorous or omnivorous birds, were significantly associated with lancewood in this region, but all three have extensive ranges beyond this area.

Vegetation history of Orkney, Scotland; pollen records from two small basins in west Mainland

summaryPollen analysis was carried cut on sediment sequences from two small basins situated 6 km apart in the hills of west Mainland, Orkney, At both sites, vegetation development from the late glacial until after the arrival of Neolithic people is recorded. An initial late glacial heath, interrupted by a herbaceous phase indicating the Younger Dryas, was replaced by tallherb and grassland vegetation. The Saksunarvatn ash layer was recorded, coinciding with the arrival of Corylus avellana in the islands at around 9.2 ka BP. Extensive woodland developed at about 8000 yr BP, predominantly Betula–Coryhus with Salix, alnus glutinosa. Quercus and Pinus sylvestris occasionally present. The woodland was locally affected by Mesolithic human activity and finally lost at around 5kaBP, partly as a consequence of Neolithic human activity. Mire development was actively proceeding in both basins after the woodland decline. The records illustrate the importance of human activity in the development of the treeless, varied landscape seen in Orkney today.

An improved direct method of rubber cracking analysis for estimating 24-hour ozone levels

None of the numerous referenced experiments carried out since the 1940s for the study of the characteristic ozone-induced cracking that occurs on the surface of rubber materials subjected to strain, are appropriate for the estimation of moderate to low ozone concentrations in air over 24-h periods. Given this situation, a methodology based on the image analysis technique has been developed, which allows daily ozone averages of less than 60 ppb to be differentiated. Given the simplicity and low cost of this technique, it is especially suitable for the control of the harmful presence of ozone over extensive woodland or areas of agricultural crops. The proposed method uses two formulations simultaneously on the basis of a single type of rubber, one with 0.5% of antiozonant and the other with 1%. The rubber samples used are shaped such that the stresses throughout them are not constant. The tests were performed inside a chamber in which different daily ozone evolutions, typical of those observed during the summer in rural areas of the central part of the Iberian peninsula, were simulated. The results obtained show a close relation between 24-h O 3 averages and the dimensional distribution of the cracks observed at different locations on the surface of the rubber samples. Also, in the case of typical daily unimodal ozone evolutions, there would appear to be a certain relationship between the maximum hourly concentration reached during the exposure period and certain crack characteristics.

Biogeography of White-Tailed Ptarmigan (Lagopus leucurus): Implications from an Introduced Population in the Sierra Nevada

The alpine community of the Sierra Nevada, California, U.S.A., presents a unique set of biogeographic questions in that numerous cosmopolitan species and species present in other North American cordillera are absent in this range. The white-tailed ptarmigan (Lagopus leucurus (Richardson) is a primary alpine species that was historically absent in the Sierra Nevada until seventy-two birds were introduced in 1971-72 from the Rocky Mountains, Colorado, U.S.A. This study investigates whether ptarmigan could have once inhabited the Sierra Nevada and later become extinct in the range or if the species never successfully colonized the Sierra Nevada. The strongest argument for the former absence of this species in the Sierra Nevada is that barriers east and north prevented the birds from colonizing the range. Pollen records and fossil evidence indicate that the Great Basin presented this terrestrial alpine species with many dispersal barriers between the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada. From the Mid-Pleistocene to the present, barriers in the Great Basin have existed in forms ranging from extensive woodlands and great pluvial lakes to deserts. From the Pleistocene to the present, the principle barriers to ptarmigan movements from the north were the Columbia River and its gorge and the relatively low altitude of the South Cascades which provide a paucity of suitable alpine

Contact Zones of Avian Congeners on the Southern Great Plains

This paper examines the contacts of hybridizing taxa and potentially interacting congeners on the southern portion of the Great Plains. Environmental differences between the northern and southern (Oklahoma, Texas) Great Plains include increasing evaporation southward, extensive scarp woodlands, mesquite savanna, and discontinuous riparian timber in the south. Four of the five pairs of taxa that hybridize prominently on the northern plains have disjunct ranges south of the Red River. Only the Golden-fronted (Melanerpes aurifrons) and Red-bellied (M. carolinus) woodpeckers, and the forms of the Tufted Titmouse (Parus bicolor) and Northern Oriole (Icterus galbula) are known to interbreed in Texas. Sympatry of Western (Otus kennicotti) and Eastern (0. asio) screech-owls on the western Edwards Plateau has been reported, but interbreeding has not been documented there. Reported displacement of eastern populations of the Tufted Titmouse by the western (black-crested) form appears unfounded. Both upland and riparian timber of the southern and eastern Edwards Plateau provide a corridor for interchange of eastern and western avifaunal elements that is more extensive than that in either the discontinuous woodlands in north-central Texas or the Niobrara drainage in Nebraska. In the northern plains congeners meet along ribbons of streamcourse timber that are isolated from one another by intervening grasslands. In the southern Great Plains the western taxa of hybridizing or potentially interacting pairs occupy diverse woodlands. Many of their eastern counterparts have restricted access across prairies and meet their congeners on a broad front.