heathland
In the Laboratory
The lab work is nearly complete.
I have been extremely busy over the last few months. I am not a chemist, but this PhD required a good chunk of chemistry. It has been a huge learning curve for me.
All my experiments so far have told me how well the heather is growing in the soils that I collected from around the country, all with different nitrogen deposition values. These new experiments will tell me WHY the plants grew the way that they did by telling me how much nitrogen and phosphorus they took in during growth. Both these elements are essential in plant growth.
During December, I was in the lab virtually every day trying to learn the tecniques involved. Things didn't always go to plan. I would fill fifty tubes with all the chemicals, only to find out that the reactions didn't take place. I remade all the reagents, but it still didn't work. It took over a week, and a great deal of research, to find out that one of the dry chemicals isn't stable in solution. It could work for three weeks, and then suddenly stop working.
During January and February I have been putting my techniques into practice. Data collection begun on January 11th. All has gone to well so far, and I hope to be finished by next week. After these experiments are complete I will hopefully start writing my first paper, and start to write my final thesis.
In the meantime, these two videos explain what I have been doing for the last few months.
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Harvesting Complete
All 514 seedlings have been harvested.
It took a good week or so to separate all the seedlings from the soil, dry them in an oven to remove the water, and then to weigh them.
It looks like the initial results are OK; there is some relationship between plant size and nitrogen deposition. However, there are still a great many factors that need to be included in the analysis which could explain the differences in plant size.
These include the vegetation survey data, plant chemistry, the size of heathlands, management strategies, and many others.
Currently I am analysing the plants for nitrogen and phosphorus content, both of which indicate soil fertility.
A new video coming soon....
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Protecting heathland with Young Diverse Minds
OPAL East Midlands has been working with a number of community groups in the area to raise awareness of the importance of heathland and the steps we can take to prevent its decline.
Young Diverse Minds (YDM) is one such group. Based in Nottingham, YDM supports people aged 16 to 30 from African, Caribbean, Asian or dual-heritage cultures who have mental health support needs. They place particular emphasis on helping people re-engage with their community.
As well as providing individual support, YDM also bring groups together to take part in activities. The OPAL East Midlands team recently joined up with YDM on a visit to Sherwood Pines to work with the Forestry Commission and learn about the growing concern over heathland fragmentation.
There are some important heathland fragments in Sherwood Pines, and OPAL has teamed up with YDM and other groups to carry out vegetation surveys and other analysis. This will help scientists research the best way to protect this vital habitat.
Daniel from YDM (shown in bottom left photo) created the following music track to describe the day.
For more information on protecting heathland and how you can help, see the East Midlands activities page.
YDM and OPAL East Midlands visit Sherwood Pines
In the lab and field
My seedlings in the lab have been growing for nearly four months.
Still the tallest plant is only a few centimeters tall.
This video shows the seedlings in June, just after they had germinated.
Four months on the video below shows the seedlings in all their glory. It's nearly time to begin harvesting them for analysis, but before that I need to spend a few days finishing up some work that took an entire summer to do.
I revisited all my sites again to collect vegetation data. This involved allocating a 50x50m area of heathland, dropping twenty 50x50cm squares (quadrats) within that area, and then recording all the plants, lichens and mosses within each quadrat.
Not only was this great fun, mainly because I got to fly in a helicopter to Lundy Island, and drive all the way up to Scotland, but it also provided me with a great deal of information about my sites.
Next comes the harvesting phase...
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Heathland research - Ed Tripp
My name's Ed Tripp and I'm an OPAL scientist at the University of Nottingham. I am researching the current state of heathland in the UK, and exploring the best ways to conserve this precious habitat. Read all about my research here, watch videos of my work and follow my progress in my blog.
The decline of heathland
Heathland habitats once extended over several million hectares in western Europe, but now they amount to less than 350,000 hectares. Not only is the total area of heathland in decline, but its becoming increasingly fragmented due to afforestation, conversion to agriculture, and urban development.
The damaging effects of pollution
Heathland communities are also being damaged by atmospheric pollution. The main cause of this is nitrogen from cars, industry and agriculture.
Pollution is reducing the ability of native heathland plants to grow better than invasive species. It may also lead to further invasion by non-heathland species.
What I want to find out
I want to identify the local and regional factors that determine heathland vegetation composition and how our heathland is likely to change in the future. Is pollution having a major impact? How are invasive species affecting heathland communities? What effect is climate change having?
Things I will investigate
- The diversity of plants, lichens and mosses in a range of heathland. I will determine the extent to which this is affected by heathland size, nitrogen pollution, geographical location and local environmental characteristics
- The extent to which the fertility of heathland soils has been modified by nitrogen pollution
- The recovery of heathland lichen communities
- The effects of climate change. By using heather seed stock gathered from different climatic regions, I can determine whether a species has adapted to local climate, and whether seed stock from warmer regions might be used in the future to sustain heathlands in a warmer climate
My research videos
I've tried to document my research as I go along with the following videos. Check back regularly for further updates.
Videos by Nottingham Science City and Test Tube.
Students use GPS to help save heathland
OPAL is working with school students in the East Midlands region to map heathland and help in its conservation.
Heathland is one of the rarest habitats in the world, and home to an exciting range of plants and animals. Climate change, pollution, tree encroachment and human interference have been causing heathland to decline rapidly. Many large areas of heathland have now become fragmented into isolated patches.
Pupils from Hadden Park High School in Bilborough and Nottingham Emmanuel School are using GPS technology to map the 10 isolated patches of heathland at Sherwood Pines Forest Park. This information will be used to develop ‘habitat corridors’ - passages of land that enable animals to travel safely from one heathland site to another. This is vital for the survival of animals living in heathland when threatened by changing conditions and the effects of climate change.
The students will give their results to the Forestry Commission to aid conservation management decisions.
OPAL community scientist, Dr Amy Rogers, from the University of Nottingham, said, “The idea is to decide how best to link heathland fragments together with a corridor. Habitat corridors are becoming more important with the threat of climate change, as organisms will need to move to match environmental conditions. If they are trapped on isolated islands this won't be possible. As heathland is one of the rarest habitats we have, it's even more important that species can move to new, safe homes.”
You can help save our heathland too. Our OPAL East Midlands team organises many conservation activities that you can get involved in. Visit the OPAL East Midlands activity page to find out more.
Soil sample month
Two hundred and fifty-seven samples collected!
It took four weeks, and a good few thousand miles, but finally all the soil samples have been collected. These have now been placed in pots, and two heather seedlings are growing in each sample.
Currently the seedlings are less than 3mm high, but within the next six months they will grow slowly, to around 5cm!
The next step is to collect some other data from the soil. I dry a sample in an oven at 85°C, and then combust it in a furnace for eight hours at 550°C. This will provide loss on combustion data, which essentially tells me how much organic matter is in the soil, as opposed to mineral matter, such as sand. This might affect how the heather grows, but I will have to wait another six months to find that out!
Now I am preparing for a summer of vegetation surveys around my heathland sites. If you want to see me in action collecting soils, check out this video:
There is also more fun science-related stuff on TestTube...
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From Inverness to Lundy Island
The last few months has been spent travelling from one end of the UK to the other in order to find heathland sites.
I can't use just any sites. I want to study whether soil fertility is affected by nitrogen pollution. This pollution can come from factories, cities or farming, and too much of it can cause heathlands to disappear. My heathland sites must have a certain nitrogen deposition (fertility), they can't have too much rainfall, they can't be too high up, they can't contain plants which affect nitrogen concentration in the soil...the list goes on.
But I have found 26 great sites so far, from near Inverness in Scotland, to The Lizard in Cornwall, to Lundy Island! The next step is to start collecting soils.
Here I am surveying one site in the East Midlands! In the background you can see one plant which affects nitrogen concentration in the soil: Ulex europaeus, more commonly known as gorse.
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A-Level students help conserve heathland
The Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust will be using data collected by A-Level students on Strawberry Heath near Mansfield to see how effective their heathland management techniques are.
Heathlands are vital habitats but are in decline throughout the UK. They are home to some of Britain’s rarest and most exciting wildlife, including smooth snakes and adders.
A-Level students from High Pavement Sixth Form College recorded vegetation data from heathland areas that had been cut back and weed-wiped, and compared this with adjacent heathland areas that had not been managed.
Strawberry Heath is owned by the Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust, which is interested in gathering data about the site following conservation efforts in parts of the heath over the past couple of years.
Pupils will present their results to an audience that includes Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust and Nottingham University scientists at a celebration event later this year.
If you want to help conserve our heathland, then get in touch with the OPAL East Midlands team who are organising a number of activities that you can get involved with.
East Midlands
Help conserve our precious heathland
Join in activities throughout the East Midlands to discover more about heathland, and help protect one of the rarest habitats in the world.
Heathland in decline
Heathland is in severe decline in the UK, and this is thought to be largely due to pollution. We want to learn more about the impact of pollution and how the size of the heathland area affects its diversity and survival.
Ultimately we hope to find ways to conserve this important habitat, and you can help!
Get involved
From practical conservation tasks to reptile hunts and butterfly surveys, there are many ways that you can get involved in this project.
Come to one of our events or ask us along to your society, group or school. See the event listings below or get in touch.
What is heathland?
Heathland is open landscape dominated by plants such as heathers, gorse and grasses. It is home to some of Britain’s rarest and most exciting wildlife, including smooth snakes and nightjars.
OPAL East Midlands film their team exploring Oak Tree Heath in Mansfield
Follow Ed Tripp's heathland research
Scientist Ed Tripp is studying the health of heathland in the UK. Visit his project page to learn all about his work, watch videos of him in action and follow his blog.
Contact us
opaleastmidlands@nottingham.ac.uk
Upcoming events
OPAL East Midlands is led by the University of Nottingham
East Midlands partners:Federation of City Farms and Community Gardens, The National Forest, Nottinghamshire Biodiversity Action Group, The Sherwood Forest Trust