School of Biodiversity, One Health & Veterinary Medicine

 

Research led by the University of Stirling could change the way woodland is created.

A new study has found that biodiversity benefits from woodland creation are improved if land managers are able to consider current and historic use of the landscape around proposed sites.

Factors such as the intensity of agriculture and loss of woodland in nearby areas over the course of the previous century can influence which species colonise new woodlands, and the speed at which they arrive.

 

The UK has set ambitious targets to create hundreds of thousands of hectares of woodland, and researchers say their study underlines why a strategic approach is vital.

 

Senior author, Professor Kirsty Park of the University of Stirling’s Division of Biological and Environmental Sciences, said the study could help the UK meet legally binding biodiversity targets.

 

She said: “Maximising the biodiversity benefits of new woodlands brings the greatest return for restoration expenditure, which is often funded by government incentive schemes. This will help the UK to reach biodiversity commitments, such as England’s Environment Act target to increase species abundance by 2042.”

Dr Tom Bradfer-Lawrence, Senior Conservation Scientist at Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, who led the study when he was a researcher at the University of Stirling, said: “UK government targets for woodland creation exceed 600,000 hectares over the next 25 years. This represents substantial land use change, but current approaches to new woodland placement are typically driven by constraints with limited emphasis on identifying strategic opportunities.

 

“Our research shows that the same management actions may result in unexpectedly different outcomes depending on the spatial and historical context. We studied beetles, birds, plants, and small mammals. Each group responded differently to the same contexts.

 

“If we can identify and quantify which factors are most important for which species, we can site new woodlands in the areas which will return the greatest biodiversity benefits for limited conservation expenditure. Failing to account for these factors, particularly historical legacy effects, gives a distorted view of habitat suitability.”

The research was a collaboration between the University of Stirling, Forest Research, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and the University of Glasgow.

 

The study used existing data from a wide range of sources – data on birds, plants, beetles and small terrestrial mammals was collected as part of the Woodland Creation and Ecological Networks (WrEN) project which started in 2013.

The team also used agricultural census data and historic land use maps to document how woodland has changed around the study sites over the last century.

The Leverhulme Trust directly funded the study, Spillovers and legacies of land management on temperate woodland biodiversity, which was published in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution.

 

Media enquiries to Peter Swindon, Communications Officer, at peter.swindon@stir.ac.uk or 07393249946.