Landscape Of England Research Articles

Drivers and Consequences of Alternative Landscape Futures on Wildlife Distributions in New England, United States

In an era of rapid climate and land transformation, it is increasingly important to understand how future changes impact natural systems. Scenario studies can offer the structure and perspective needed to understand the impacts of change and help inform management and conservation decisions. We implemented a scenario-based approach to assess how two high impact drivers of landscape change influence the distributions of managed wildlife species (n = 10) in the New England region of the northeastern United States. We used expert derived species distribution models (SDMs) and scenarios developed by the New England Landscape Futures Project (NELFP) to estimate how species distributions change under various trajectories (n = 5) of landscape change. The NELFP scenarios were built around two primary drivers – Socio-Economic Connectedness (SEC) and Natural Resource Planning and Innovation (NRPI) – and provide plausible alternatives for how the New England region may change over fifty years (2010 to 2060). Our models generally resulted in species occurrence and richness declines by 2060. The majority of species (7 of 10) experienced declines in regional occurrence for all NELFP scenarios, and one species experienced a projected increase in mean regional occurrence for all scenarios. Our results indicate that the NRPI and SEC drivers strongly influenced projected distribution changes compared to baseline projections. NRPI had a greater impact on distribution change for five species (coyote, moose, striped skunk, white-tailed deer, and wild turkey), while SEC had a greater impact on four species (American black bear, bobcat, raccoon, and red fox); one species (gray fox) was equally influenced by both NRPI and SEC. These results emphasize the importance of integrating both natural resource planning and socio-economic factors when addressing issues of distribution change and offer insights that can inform proactive management and conservation planning.

Medieval English Multilingualisms

AbstractThis article introduces the nonmedievalist reader to the multilingual landscape of England 700–1400. Building on recent work exploring in particular the relationships among English, French, and Latin in medieval England, it discusses a series of “multilingual moments” from a range of sources, including letters, poems, travel writings, and French language teaching texts. Together, these examples build a picture of the complex interrelationships of languages, both spoken and written, that existed for medieval English people at home and when traveling abroad. Then, as now, people can be seen using their linguistic resources for pragmatic and creative effect. We demonstrate that multilingualism is nothing new. From a methodological perspective, our work also underlines the importance of viewing linguistic attitudes in their particular intellectual and historical contexts.

Surviving, thriving and reviving in leadership: The personal and professional development needs of educational leaders

Introduction: Within a context of recruitment and retention challenges, growing emotional demands and work intensification, this opinion piece argues that greater attention needs to be given to individual leaders’ personal development – their well-being and developing the personal qualities required to operate in such demanding conditions. It also asks how can we ensure their continuing effective performance, all the more important while working within a high-stakes accountability culture? In other words, what is needed for head teachers and other senior leaders to ‘survive’, ‘thrive’ and also ‘revive’ in the current performative educational landscape in England and other jurisdictions? Given the widely recognised importance of effective leadership for successful schools, this opinion piece suggests how the work of leaders can be more sustainable, ensuring they continue to operate successfully, both in the interests of their pupils and their own well-being.

In defence of natural beauty: Aesthetic obligation and the law on the designation of protected landscapes in England and Wales

Natural beauty has been the central legal criterion for the designation of ‘protected landscapes’ in England and Wales for over 70 years. This approach is subject to criticism that natural beauty is an outdated and subjective notion. Yet, there is surely merit in celebrating the beauty in nature that exists in these areas. Nevertheless, the legal approach necessitates some interrogation of the notion of natural beauty, its relationship to the landscape and the nature of the aesthetic exercise required to underline a regulatory system for the designation of protected landscapes. This article draws on literature in both aesthetic philosophy and landscape studies to provide such an analysis, arguing that an aesthetic observation of natural beauty can form the basis of a reasoned, robust and transparent process for the designation of protected landscapes and account for natural and cultural heritage concerns.

New England Forests Were Historically Shaped by Climate, Not People

A first-of-its-kind study combining paleoecology and archeology indicates that the New England landscape was not actively managed with fire prior to European arrival.

Reading by Design: The Visual Interfaces of the English Renaissance Book

Reading by Design: The Visual Interfaces of the English Renaissance Book

The Fourth Industrial Revolution and a New Policy Agenda for Undergraduate Legal Education and Training in England And Wales

While the full impact of the Fourth Industrial Revolution remains uncertain, it is by now generally accepted that highly intelligent technologies and their applications – such as robotics, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, digitialisation, and big Data – will continue to fundamentally transform all aspects of our occupational and personal lives. Yet, in the realm of higher education policy and specifically with regard to non-STEM disciplines like law, thorough-going engagement with this most recent wave of technological development remains lacking. It is the aim of this article to set a policy agenda for legal education and training that is sensitive to the opportunities and potential negative outfall of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (now exacerbated by COVID-19), while also taking into consideration the distinctive nature of legal education and training in England and Wales. Set against the higher education policy landscape of England and Wales, a number of concrete recommendations are made for bringing legal education and training into the age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. These include, for example, a call for the radical transformation of the traditional, linear, and monodisciplinary LLB degree, addressing current and projected skills gaps and skills shortages by way of, inter alia, curriculum reform, and working towards greater mobility of law graduates between different legal jurisdictions and also within one jurisdiction but amongst different roles. These changes are necessary as legal education and training in England and Wales currently leave law graduates ill-equipped for the future labour market and do not adequately value and build on the job-tasks that legal professionals uniquely supply.

The Gyre Narrows, Again: Vernacular Buildings, Vernacular Landscapes, and Environmental History

The Gyre Narrows, AgainVernacular Buildings, Vernacular Landscapes, and Environmental History Michael J. Chiarappa (bio) While in graduate school, I listened to Henry Glassie’s lectures on Ireland’s vernacular landscapes and read about them in greater depth in his book Passing the Time in Ballymenone: Culture and History of an Ulster Community. Those familiar with this work know that its ethnographic depth is largely attributable to Glassie’s intimate immersion in the vernacular landscape. But since its publication thirty-eight years ago, I have often been struck by what I see as one of its most overlooked contributions to those who study every day buildings and everyday landscapes— its ecological resonance. Whether he is describing the repair of thatched roofs, the burning turf fires in houses, or the spatial logic of farmsteads nestled amidst undulating hills and the nearby lough, each feature assists in calibrating the bodies of Irish men and women to the biological rhythms and physical constraints of nature. When Charles W. Joyner— a historian and folklorist— assessed Passing the Time in Bally menone, he titled his review essay “The Narrowing Gyre,” inverting the frayed societal sensibility William Butler Yeats expressed in the line “the widening gyre” from the poem “The Second Coming” to praise Glassie’s ability to intellectually reconcile disciplines, a step in getting us to the heart of buildings’ uses and meanings.1 Joyner pointedly identified nature in this enterprise, citing a line from one of Glassie’s endnotes: “For I begin at texts [material and nonmaterial], at forms created by the people themselves, and move through them to the culture and the environment, and swing from the culture and the environment back to the texts . . . attempting to gain some understanding of the world as viewed from Ballymenone.”2 Such sentiment emerged from the influence of a line of thinking shaped by geographers and historians who made environment central to their inquiries of cultural landscapes: Carl Sauer, Fred Kniffen, E. Estyn Evans, and W. G. Hoskins. Perhaps most telling, Glassie’s ecologically-charged handling of Ballymenone’s wrought setting conveys a place that breathes, “where environment is inherently useful, and the human task is to discover through work the logic of its construction,” where organic, biological cognizance is honored in the measured crafting of “smooth meadows, trim hedges, trees in a line, crisp white houses arranged on a green field: the landscape of farmwork is a work of art.”3 But for me, the “narrowing gyre” was only beginning to take shape as I sought greater insight into how I might find congruence between the fields of vernacular architecture studies and environmental history. Coinciding with Glassie’s handling of landscapes in Ulster— and critically influenced by it— Robert St. George’s essay, “ ‘Set Thine House in Order’: The Domestication of the Yeomanry in Seventeenth-Century New England,” although rarely acknowledged as such, framed the treatment of vernacular architecture in terms that squarely connected with the concerns of American environmental historians. For St. George, the seventeenth-century New England landscape emerged from a view of nature deeply dialectical in scope— a divinely held notion of the “immanence and utilitarianism” contained in God’s earthly bounty. Belief in the perfectibility of nature forged a paradoxical [End Page 1] view that runs through the American vernacular landscape to this very day, one where, in St. George’s examination, the yeomanry embraced “the philosophical conservation of resources” and, at the same time, “their sanctioned exploitation.” Glorifying God’s design of nature meant understanding it. Collapsing disciplinary boundaries, St. George noted that “man learns the most about nature and God’s universe when he alters it” through artifice, and that “Puritans legitimized their mission as they symbolically broke open their landscape. As a result, the yeoman could improve his lands, build miles upon miles of stone walls, and turn trees into towns, while still heeding the words of his minister as he urged the detailed study of nature.”4 Such interpretation of vernacular landscape redounded with the emerging tide of American environmental history scholarship, and, perhaps not surprising, corresponded with another work dealing with the same region— William Cronon’s Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology...

‘A1: Britain on the Verge’, Art Bermondsey Project Space, London, 16 January 2018 – 20 January 2018

Peter Dench’s recent exhibition at Art Bermondsey Project Space has a contentious title, ‘A1: Britain on the Verge’. Taking its name, on the Verge, from the preface to Paul Graham’s 1983 photobook, A1: The Great North Road, Dench’s project is a study of Britain in the wake of the European Union membership referendum. If Dench’s task, as he implies, is to comprehend the complex and contradictory motives that compelled voters on June 23, 2016, how – if at all – does he achieve this aim? Thirty years on from Graham’s project, how does Dench chart the shifting socio-political and economic landscape in Britain in the referendum’s aftermath? Ultimately, this review argues that Dench’s project is limited by his failure to seriously engage with documentary and its histories.

PCN490 MAKING OUTCOME-BASED PAYMENT A REALITY IN THE NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE FOR ENGLAND

Many cancer medicines are made available on the National Health Service for England (NHS) based on a price discount agreed between the NHS and the manufacturer. However, such negotiations can have a power imbalance, lack transparency, and be protracted thus delay patient access. More innovative ways for the NHS to pay for medicines, such as Outcome-Based Payment (OBP), which links a medicine’s price to NHS patients’ treatment outcomes, could provide a solution. This research explores the feasibility of introducing an OBP approach for new cancer drugs in England. A literature review explores the current funding landscape in England, the available evidence on existing OBP schemes internationally, and which outcomes cancer patients value most. Two focus groups and an online survey with patients and carers, as well as interviews with NHS and government stakeholders, healthcare professionals, and pharmaceutical industry representatives, provided additional evidence on the feasibility and suitability of OBP schemes. Implementation of OBP in the NHS is desirable and particularly suitable for medicines with the following characteristics: potentially large benefit to patients receiving the medicine; small to moderately-sized patient populations; immature clinical trials data; and a disease profile where improvements in outcomes measurable in the short-term (including overall survival and non-progression/relapse) are particularly valuable. As part of any future OBP schemes negotiated between NHS purchasers of cancer medicines and manufacturers, specific metrics should be included to measure the drug’s effects on patients in the NHS, on the following four types of outcomes as standard: survival; disease progression, relapse or recurrence; long-term side effects; and return to normal activities. Significant advances in understanding the principles on which an OBP approach might be based for new cancer medicines for the NHS in England have been achieved. Future research will establish the necessary steps for implementing a pilot OBP scheme.

Former metal mining landscapes in England and Wales: Five perspectives from local residents

This study uses Q Method to examine how those living in former metal mining landscapes value this heritage and their preferences for the long-term management of abandoned mine waste. There are around 5000 former metal mines in England and Wales, many of which are protected for their ecological, geological or cultural value. Q Method is used to examine subjective viewpoints, in this study we asked 38 residents of six mining areas in England and Wales to ‘sort’ a series of statements based on their resonance with the resident’s perspective. The statements covered a range of opinions of the mining legacy, its value and options for its management. This was supplemented with a qualitative questionnaire including their willingness to pay to manage the mining heritage in the long-term. Analysis revealed five perspectives on the mining heritage and differing priorities for long-term management. Preservationists felt the mines should be left alone to preserve the cultural heritage, whereas Nature enthusiasts, Environmentalists and Landscape lovers placed different emphasis on restoring the sites for nature conservation, to improve water quality or the visual appearance of the mines. In contrast the Industry supporters felt the potential contribution that reworking the mines could make to the local economy should be the priority. This research suggests that the views of local people are varied; they value their mining heritage in different ways and opinion is split on the most effective way to manage these sites especially where there is a need to revegetate or remediate the site.

“Through variously tinted cosmopolitan glasses”: Vernon Lee’s travel writing of the British Isles

ABSTRACT Vernon Lee is regularly upheld as a model of late-Victorian cosmopolitanism, with her travel writing, in particular that dealing with Italy, displaying an openness to other places and cultures. Yet, as this essay argues, there is in Lee’s model of topographical writing a neglect of the people who live and dwell within landscapes. Examining in detail her critically neglected travel writing of the British Isles, published between 1899 and 1916, the essay surveys her hostility towards English landscapes and towards the forces of industrial modernity that shape them. From her antipathy to London to her celebration of the empty landscapes of Northern England, Lee’s travel writing suggests her cosmopolitanism raises ethical questions about her relationship to those people and places that do not accord with her aesthetic taste.

Mesolithic Fireplaces and the Enculturation of Early Holocene Landscapes in Britain, with a Case Study from Western Scotland

In light of the enculturation of landscapes by ethnographically documented hunter-gatherers, we should expect Mesolithic hunter-gatherers to have endowed their early Holocene landscapes with meaning. Attempts to find evidence for this have focussed on the unusual and exotic – those aspects of the archaeological record that seem immediately unrelated to subsistence. In this contribution, I suggest that fireplaces, ubiquitous on Mesolithic sites and often swiftly passed over in site reports as evidence for cooking alone, had played a key role in the process of landscape enculturation. Although we cannot reconstruct the specific meanings once attached to early Holocene landscapes, by appreciating the social and cultural significance of fireplaces we gain a more holistic view of the Mesolithic than is currently the case, whether in those studies that focus on settlement and subsistence or those that cite examples of ritual. In the course of making this argument, I summarise the evidence for fireplaces from Mesolithic Britain, noting the need for more systematic reporting. Finally, I provide a case study from western Scotland that seeks to view a suite of fireplaces in the context of the landscape topography, early Holocene environments, subsistence economy, and by drawing on selected ethnographic analogies.

Road verges support pollinators in agricultural landscapes, but are diminished by heavy traffic and summer cutting

Abstract Supporting pollinators in agricultural landscapes is important for reversing their global decline. Road verges and hedges are used by pollinators for feeding and reproduction, but few studies consider entire pollinator communities, and it remains unclear how they are distributed across adjacent verges, hedges and fields, or how they are affected by traffic and verge cutting. We surveyed flowers and pollinators, using transect counts and pan traps, to explore the role of road verges and their associated hedges in supporting pollinators in an agricultural landscape in southwest England, and the impacts of traffic and verge cutting. At 19 sites, we surveyed the road verge (verge edge and verge centre), the verge hedge (both sides), a field hedge and the field interior. Road verges and hedges had a much greater flower abundance, flower species richness and pollinator abundance than field interiors. Verge hedges had far less woody cover than field hedges, but greater flower species richness. There were fewer pollinators along verge edges (next to roads) than along verge centres (2–11 m from roads) and fewer pollinators in road verges next to busier roads. Road verges were generally cut once (in summer), and cuttings were never removed. There were substantially fewer flowers and pollinators in road verges that had been cut, even though surveys often took place many weeks after cutting. Synthesis and applications. Road verges and their associated hedges can provide hotspots of resources for pollinators in agricultural landscapes, but their capacity to do so is reduced by heavy traffic and summer verge cutting. We recommend that beneficial management for pollinators should prioritize wider road verges (at least 2 m wide), roads with less traffic, and areas away from the immediate vicinity of the road. Where possible, verge cutting should not be carried out during peak flowering times.

Colloquy: Attention, Anxiety, and Audition's Histories

### FRANCESCA BRITTAN and CARMEL RAZ > Fiction may struggle to hold us spellbound in the manner of music, but its prompting of more diverted states of mind, and its depictions of the richness and freedom found in the sloppiness of drifting thought, suggests how constricted a world can be that

Seasonal variation in energy gain explains patterns of resource use by avian herbivores in an agricultural landscape: Insights from a mechanistic model

Our understanding of how energy shapes animal behavioural decisions has been limited by the difficulty of measuring directly the energy gain and expenditure in free-living animals. Mechanistic models that simulate energy gain and expenditure from estimable parameters can overcome these limitations and hence could help scientists to gain a predictive understanding of animal behaviour. Such models could be used to test mechanistic explanations of observed patterns of resource use within a landscape, such as behavioural decisions to switch among food resources. Here, we developed mechanistic models of the instantaneous and daily rates of net energy gain for two species of migratory swans, the Bewick’s swan (Cygnus columbianus bewickii) and whooper swan (Cygnus cygnus), that feed on root and cereal crops within an agricultural landscape in eastern England. Field data show that both species shift from using predominantly root crops (e.g. sugar beet and potatoes) in early winter to using mostly cereals (e.g. wheat) in late winter. Our models correspondingly predicted that swans could achieve the greatest rates of net energy gain on root crops in early winter and on cereal crops in late winter. The change from root crops to cereal crops providing the greatest net rates of energy gain was predicted to occur at the same time as the birds’ switch from feeding predominantly on root crops to predominantly cereal crops (between December and January). We used Monte Carlo simulations to account for variance in model parameters on predictions of energy gain and profitability. A sensitivity analysis indicated that predictions of net energy gain were most sensitive to variance in the intake rate and food quantity parameters. The agreement between our model estimates of energy gain and the observed shifts in resource use observed among the overwintering swans suggests that maximising net rates of energy gain is an important resource selection strategy among overwintering birds. A mechanistic understanding of where and when birds will use food resources can inform the conservation management of key feeding areas for species of conservation concern, as well as the deployment of crop protection strategies.

Mid-Devensian climate and landscape in England: new data from Finningley, South Yorkshire.

While there is extensive evidence for the Late Devensian, less is known about Early and Middle Devensian (approx. 110–30 ka) climates and environments in the UK. The Greenland ice-core record suggests the UK should have endured multiple changes, but the terrestrial palaeo-record lacks sufficient detail for confirmation from sites in the British Isles. Data from deposits at Finningley, South Yorkshire, can help redress this. A channel with organic silts, dated 40 314–39 552 cal a BP, contained plant macrofossil and insect remains showing tundra with dwarf-shrub heath and bare ground. Soil moisture conditions varied from free draining to riparian, with ponds and wetter vegetated areas. The climate was probably low arctic with snow cover during the winter. Mutual climatic range (MCR), based on Coleoptera, shows the mean monthly winter temperatures of −22 to −2°C and summer ones of 8–14°C. Periglacial structures within the basal gravel deposits and beyond the glacial limits indicate cold-climate conditions, including permafrost. A compilation of MCR reconstructions for other Middle Devensian English sites shows that marine isotope stage 3—between 59 and 28 ka—experienced substantial variation in climate consistent with the Greenland ice-core record. The exact correlation is hampered by temporal resolution, but the Finningley site stadial at approximately 40 ka may correlate with the one of the Greenland stadials 7–11.

Inclusive educational leadership to establish a co-operative school cluster trust? Exploring perspectives and making links with leadership for learning

ABSTRACTOne remarkable feature of the contemporary school landscape in England is the number of schools that have chosen the co-operative framework to shape their work and relationships. When a group of schools decides to become a co-operative trust, leadership challenges arise both in the process of establishing an inclusive collaborative cluster and in living out co-operative values. To add to the limited literature on co-operative school leadership, a study in a school cluster trust explored headteachers’, governors’ and teachers’ perspectives and beliefs through interviews, group discussions and questionnaires. These data sources revealed some of the motivations for, benefits of, and strategies to support inter-school collaboration guided by the co-operative values of democracy, solidarity, equality, equity, self-help and self-responsibility. Importantly, a range of perspectives on the extent to which leadership was viewed as, and appeared to be, an inclusive practice undertaken by all members of the cluster was identified. A particular contribution of this work is that it exemplifies resonances between the values and principles of the co-operative movement and those of the Leadership for Learning framework. Since these two models are being increasingly adopted and integrated into a variety of educational settings, the research findings may inform leadership practice more widely.

Nutrient and carbon cycling along nitrogen deposition gradients in broadleaf and conifer forest stands in the east of England

Forest fragmentation dominates the landscape in England and there is a concern about the associated forest edge effect especially in areas with high N inputs. This study quantifies this effect and the impact of high N deposition on forest and soil biogeochemical processes under 26 year old Corsican pine and 72 year old beech forest stands at Thetford forest, the lowest rainfall area of East Anglia, UK. Nutrient and C cycling were studied along 200 m N deposition gradients away from intensive pig and chicken rearing units, over five years. The site is underlain by argillic brown sand over chalk. Total N deposition at the Corsican pine was 46 kg N ha−1 at the edge reducing to 22 kg N ha−1 in the inner forest, composed of 70% dry deposition, with 50% NH4-N. Under the beech total N deposition was 36 kg N ha−1 at the edge, reducing to 22 kg N ha−1 at 200 m, of which 63% was dry N deposition at the edge, composed of one third NH4-N.The results indicate a strong edge effect with an N deposition gradient along which soil acidity and soil available N (as NO3-N and NH4-N) significantly increased under both pine and beech. Tree N uptake also increased with increasing N deposition, which reduced the uptake of P and K. Uptake of Ca and Mg was not affected. Nitrogen deposition stimulated the growth of both species and enhanced litter and fine root decomposition at the beech but inhibited decomposition at the pine site. This had a positive effect on soil C storage under pine, which was negative under beech. Tree physiological responses to N deposition included an increase of beech flowering and Corsican pine coning, but reduced beech seeding.The edge effect was detectable across 200 m in these stands. Coniferous and broadleaved species in this study responded differently to N addition, due to different N cycling processes both above and belowground. Coniferous systems are more prone to N saturation than broadleaved through scavenging by forest canopy and soils, but they could be the more effective tree type/species choice in N abatement natural strategies. Local effects of N deposition should be accounted for in forest design plans in order to minimise edge effect impacts on the forest environment.

Congregational Membership, Church Purity, and Presbyterian and Congregationalist Polemics During the Puritan Revolution

During the revolutionary decade of the 1640s, intra-Puritan conflict over ecclesiology, or the theological issue of church government, dominated the ecclesiastical landscape of England. Owing to the leading Puritans’ lack of support for complete separatism as an ecclesiological alternative, the conflict pitted mainly the Presbyterians against the Congregationalists. This divergence of opinion over ecclesiastical system of governance has fascinated historians. Yet what this article finds is that, somewhat surprisingly, church purity, which was an issue closely linked to church system of governance and emerged as another highly contested theme vis-à-vis ecclesiology among contemporary polemicists, has not received the attention it deserves. Both Presbyterian and Congregationalist polemicists discoursed at length about the imperative of setting up pure churches, safeguarding the purity of churches from spiritual contamination, and maintaining the religious integrity of both its members and divine ordinances; yet, in many important ways, they differed over the precise means and mechanisms to achieve such a state of purity and integrity for the life of the church. It is hoped that a detailed examination of this theme of church purity as discoursed and debated by the Presbyterians and Congregationalists will add fresh perspectives on earlier works on religious conflict amongst the Puritans as it unfolded over the course of the revolutionary decade of the 1640s as well as the subsequent decade.