An Investigation Into the Impact of Environmental Change Upon the Vegetation of Widdybank Fell, Upper Teesdale
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Durham E-Theses An investigation into the impact of environmental change upon the vegetation of Widdybank fell, upper Teesdale Lewthwaite, Katherine Jane How to cite: Lewthwaite, Katherine Jane (1999) An investigation into the impact of environmental change upon the vegetation of Widdybank fell, upper Teesdale, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/4407/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 2 An investigation into the impact of environmental change upon the vegetation of Widdybank Fell, Upper Teesdale by Katherine Jane Lewthwaite Department of Biological Sciences, University of Durham. 1999. The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without the written consent of the author and information derived from it should be acknowledged. Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy l? JAN ZOOO 1'And the waters prevailed, and were increased greatly upon the earth." (Genesis 17: 18) Frontispiece: Widdybank Fell and Cow Green Reservoir. Declaration The material contained within this thesis has not previously been submitted for a degree at the University of Durham or at any other University. The research reported within this thesis has been conducted by the author unless indicated otherwise. © The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without her prior written consent and information derived from it should be acknowledged. iii Abstract • Widdybank Fell is located in the Upper Teesdale National Nature Reserve in the Northern Pennines. It is internationally renowned for its unique late-glacial relict assemblage of plant species, particularly those on the "sugar limestone" outcrops. Cow Green Reservoir was constructed in the early 1970s and flooded the lower western slopes of Widdybank Fell. At the time there was concern amongst ecologists that the reservoir might alter the local climate and have adverse effects on the remaining vegetation. • A comprehensive vegetation survey of Widdybank Fell was carried out by Jones ( 1973 ). Aspects of this survey were repeated as part of the present study. There have been significant changes in the composition of some of the plant communities since the 1970s. These changes include a considerable loss of bryophyte diversity and lichen abundance. Overall there has been a decline in "stress tolerant" species, and a loss of calcicole species on the calcareous grasslands. Few of the nationally rare plant species have changed in abundance. • Using data from the meteorological stations at Widdybank Fell and from nearby Moor House, it has been demonstrated that the presence of Cow Green Reservoir has resulted in significant changes in the local climate. These changes are consistent with those expected by a classic "lake effect" and include the all year round moderation of minima (e.g. resulting in a reduction in the number of ground frosts). The reservoir has also produced cooler mean air temperatures in spring and warmer mean temperatures in autumn. • Despite the observed local climate impact of Cow Green Reservoir it seems most likely that other factors have been responsible for the observed vegetation changes. Acid deposition has probably caused the loss of calcicoles on the calcareous grasslands, and atmospheric nitrogen deposition could explain the loss of bryophyte diversity and lichen abundance. iv Acknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisors, Dr Bob Baxter and Professor Brian Huntley for their consistent support and enthusiasm throughout my project. I would also like to thank my colleagues in the Environmental Research Centre, particularly Dr Judy Allen, for their help and advice. Thanks are also due to Mr Eric Henderson for construction of the microcosm frames and point quadrat and for putting up with some less-than-ideal fieldwork conditions! Dr Margaret Bradshaw and Mrs Margaret Pullen both proved invaluable sources of botanical knowledge. Thanks are also due to a number of institutions and people who provided me with meterological data: Mr John Adamson, Ms Mandy Lane and Dr Terry Parr at the Environmental Change Network (Institute of Terrestrial Ecology, Merlewood), The British Atmospheric Data Centre, Mr Ian Findlay and Mr Andy Joyce. Mr Steven Willis kindly allowed me to make use of the vegetation data from his unpublished MSc thesis. The Photographic Unit at the Department of Biological Sciences, University of Durham provided the photographs used in Plates 2.1-2.6 & 7.1 and Dr John Daniell the photographs in Plates 7.3 and 7.4. The photographs comprising the frontispiece were provided by NERC. I would like to thank the past and present English Nature wardens of Widdybank Fell, Mr Ian Findlay and Mr Chris McCarty for their great help to me over the duration of this project. Thanks are also due to the Raby Estate for allowing me access to the Fell and to Dr Chris Spray at Northumbrian Water for the provision of the automatic weather station. This studentship was funded for two years by the Teesdale Trust and for the remaining year by the University of Durham. Finally I must thank my parents for their love, encouragement and support. This thesis is dedicated to the memory of my grandmother Maud Lewthwaite (1913- 1997). v Contents Page 1. Introduction 1 1.1 General background 1 1.2 Cow Green Reservoir 3 1.3 Vegetation surveys 4 1.4 The aims and outline of this thesis 5 1.5 Summary 7 2. Background to the study 8 2.1 Upper Teesdale in context with similar areas 8 2.2 Topography of the study area 10 2.3 Climate 10 2.4 Geology and soils 11 2.4.1 Bedrock 11 2.4.2 Soil types 12 2.5 Land use 15 2.6 Vegetation history and phytogeographical affinities of the flora 17 2.6.1 Vegetation history 17 2.6.2 Phytogeographical affinities of the flora 18 2. 7 Plant communities of Widdybank Fell 20 2.8 Summary 27 vi 3. Vegetation survey 28 3.1 Introduction 28 3.2 Methods 28 3.2.1 Survey methods 28 3.2.2 Additional quadrats 30 3.2.3 Data analysis 31 3.3 Results 32 3.4 Discussion 40 3.5 Conclusions 47 3.6 Summary 48 4. Examination of species ecological and physiological traits 49 4.1 Introduction 49 4.2 Methods 53 4.2.1 Species that had changed in frequency or abundance across several noda 53 4.2.2 Analysis of species groups 53 4.2.3 Investigation of species ecological and physiological traits 55 4.3 Results 56 4.3.1 Species groups 56 4.3.2 Results for groups of species 58 4.3.3 Investigation of ecological and physiological traits of species 58 4.4 Discussion 62 4.4.1 Groups of species 62 4.4.2 Species ecological and physiological traits 66 Vll 4.5 Conclusions and further hypotheses 66 4.6 Summary 67 5. Investigation of changes in the local climate produced by Cow Green Reservoir 68 5.1 Introduction 68 5.2 Methods 69 5.2.1 Comparison of climate data between Widdybank Fell and Moor House 69 5.2.2 Investigation of differences in grass minimum temperatures at Widdybank Fell with distance from the reservoir 75 5.2.3 Differences in vegetation composition with distance from the reservoir 75 5.3 Results 77 5.3.1 Climate data 77 5.3.2 Differences in grass minimum temperature with distance from the reservoir 85 5.3.3 Vegetation data 85 5.4 Discussion 87 5.5 Conclusions 91 5.6 Summary 92 6. Investigation of changes in the regional climate and other environmental factors 94 6.1 Introduction 94 6.2 Grazing 94 6.3 Regional climate 95 6.3.1 Introduction 95 VIII --------- ------------ List of Tables Page Chapter 2 2.1 Biogeography of the Widdybank flora 19 Chapter 3 3.1 Criteria for assessing changes in individual species frequency and 32 abundance between the original (Jones, 1973) and present surveys 3.2 Results from the CANOCO Monte Carlo simulation for each nodum 33 and Mann-Whitney U-tests carried out on individual species in each nodum 3.3 Results from Mann-Whitney U-tests comparing raw Domin data 34 between the present and original surveys for each species recorded Chapter 4 4.1 Summary data for groups of species across the nine noda 54 4.2 Chi-squared analysis of the distribution of significantly changed 59 species among the different species groups 4.3 Chi-squared analysis of ecological and physiological traits shared 60 by significantly changed species at Widdybank compared to the flora of the nine noda as a whole Chapter 5 5.1 The climate variables that were examined using meteorological data 71 from Widdybank Fell and Moor House 5.2 The two groups of releves from the present survey divided according 76 to distance from the reservoir margin 5.3 Results from single factor ANOV A comparing differences between 78 Widdybank Fell and Moor House in terms of monthly means of daily variables before and after reservoir construction.