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State of Natural Resources Report Technical Annex to Support Chapter 3

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State of Natural Resources Report Technical Annex to Support Chapter 3 The State of Natural Resources Report (SoNaRR): Assessment of the Sustainable Management of Natural Resources. Annex Technical Annex for Chapter 3 Natural Resources Wales Final Report Date www.naturalresourceswales.gov.uk About Natural Resources Wales We look after Wales’ environment so that it can look after nature, people and the economy. Our air, land, water, wildlife, plants and soil – our natural resources - provide us with our basic needs, including food, energy, health and enjoyment. When cared for in the right way, they can help us to reduce flooding, improve air quality and provide materials for construction. They also provide a home for some rare and beautiful wildlife and iconic landscapes we can enjoy and which boost the economy. But they are coming under increasing pressure – from climate change, from a growing population and the need for energy production. We aim to find better solutions to these challenges and create a more successful, healthy and resilient Wales. www.naturalresourceswales.gov.uk Evidence at Natural Resources Wales Natural Resources Wales is an evidence based organisation. We seek to ensure that our strategy, decisions, operations and advice to Welsh Government and others are underpinned by sound and quality-assured evidence. We recognise that it is critically important to have a good understanding of our changing environment. We will realise this vision by: Maintaining and developing the technical specialist skills of our staff; Securing our data and information; Having a well resourced proactive programme of evidence work; Continuing to review and add to our evidence to ensure it is fit for the challenges facing us; and Communicating our evidence in an open and transparent way. www.naturalresourceswales.gov.uk Page 2 The State of Natural Resources Report (SoNaRR) Report Contents This document is one of six annexes to the State of Natural Resources Report. Chapter 1 Introduction to the State of Natural Resources Report (SoNaRR): An assessment of sustainable management of natural resources Chapter 2 Understanding drivers of change in natural resource use Chapter 3 Summary of extent, condition and trends of natural resources and ecosystems in Wales Chapter 4 Resilient Ecosystems Chapter 5 Well-being in Wales Chapter 6 Identifying Unsustainable Management Chapter 7 Towards sustainable management of natural resources Chapter 8 Assessment of the sustainable management of natural resources Annex Technical Annex for Chapter 3 Annex Technical Annex for Chapter 7 (Part 1) Annex Technical Annex for Chapter 7 (Part 2) Annex Method for assigning confidence to evidence presented Annex Record of confidence assessments Annex Acronyms and Glossary of terms All of the SoNaRR documents can be downloaded from the NRW website: www.naturalresources.wales/sonarr. Recommended citation for this report: Natural Resources Wales. 2016. State of Natural Resources Report (SoNaRR): Assessment of the Sustainable Management of Natural Resources. Technical Report. Natural Resources Wales. Copyrights All graphs, maps, tables and other images are © Natural Resources Wales unless otherwise stated. All maps containing the Wales boundary: © Crown Copyright and database right 2016. Ordnance Survey licence number 100019741. All maps containing marine aspects: © British Crown and OceanWise Ltd, 2016. All rights reserved. License No. EK001- 20120402. Not to be used for Navigation. www.naturalresourceswales.gov.uk Page 3 Contents Supporting evidence for Chapter 3 .............................................................................. 8 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 8 Part A – Natural Resources .................................................................................. 8 Animals, plants and other organisms ......................................................... 8 Air Quality ................................................................................................ 29 Water Resources and Hydrological Processes – Freshwater and Marine ................................................................................................................. 42 Soils ......................................................................................................... 49 3.5. Geodiversity ............................................................................................. 56 Part B: Ecosystem Evidence ............................................................................... 62 Mountains, moorlands and heath ............................................................. 62 Semi-natural grasslands .......................................................................... 69 Enclosed Farmland .................................................................................. 75 Woodlands ............................................................................................... 84 Freshwater ............................................................................................... 96 Urban Environments .............................................................................. 109 Coastal margins ..................................................................................... 120 Marine .................................................................................................... 125 Coastal and marine waters ............................................................................... 125 Intertidal ............................................................................................................ 128 Subtidal ............................................................................................................. 130 Part C – Presenting Integrated Evidence Around Place ................................... 133 References for Technical Annex for Chapter 3 ................................................. 134 www.naturalresourceswales.gov.uk Page 4 List of Figures Figure 1 Red list chart for Vascular plants in Wales. ................................................. 10 Figure 2 Salmon river condition. ................................................................................ 13 Figure 3 Salmon stock Assessment 2015) ................................................................ 13 Figure 4 Afon Tywi Declared Salmon Rod Catch ...................................................... 14 Figure 5 Egg deposition estimates, Afon Dyfi. The blue line represents the number of eggs required to be deposited to sustain a healthy salmon stock. The black line represents the 80% trend line, with associated confidence limits. ............................. 15 Figure 6 UK single species action plan trends ........................................................... 20 Figure 7 Summary indicator trends for farmland birds in Wales, derived from the BTO/JNCC/RSPB Breeding Bird Survey, both combined and divided into lowland and upland species (BBS 2016),. ..................................................................................... 24 Figure 8 Juvenile salmon Salmo salar density on the Afon Dyfi. ............................... 27 Figure 9 Juvenile brown/sea trout Salmo trutta density on the Afon Dyfi. .................. 27 Figure 10 Reduction in PM10 Pollution Trends in Cardiff Centre since 1992, produced by calculating monthly mean values from daily and hourly higher time resolution data. ........................................................................................................................... 31 67 Figure 11 Wales Sulphur Dioxide (SO2) Emissions by Source Sector .................... 32 67 Figure 12 Wales Ammonia (NH3) Emissions by Source Sector .............................. 34 Figure 13 Wales Emissions of Non-Methyl Volatile Organic Compounds by source sector67 ...................................................................................................................... 36 Figure 14 Wales Emissions of Carbon Monoxide by source sector67 ........................ 37 Figure 15 Welsh Emissions of Lead in air67 ............................................................... 38 Figure 16 Annual average dose of radioactive substances to the UK population. ..... 40 Figure 17 Impermeable surfaces in a Cardiff suburb ................................................. 44 Figure 18 The geology map of Wales highlights the diverse nature of the underlying geology. Each colour represents rocks from the different geological periods. Contains British Geological Survey materials © NERC [2016]. ................................................ 56 Figure 19 Protected geodiversity sites vary widely in their nature and include working quarries, abandoned mines, coastal cliffs, fossil-rich sites and the highest waterfall in Wales. ........................................................................................................................ 58 Figure 20 The mineral resource map of Wales. Contains British Geological Survey materials © NERC [2016]. ......................................................................................... 59 Figure 21 Geological SSSI before site clearance before (left) and after (right) .......... 61 Figure 22 The six biogeographical zones defined for habitats in the Welsh uplands . 63 Figure 23 Ongoing trends in a) extent of mountain, moor and heath including extent of a selection of habitats which contribute to this habitat suite and b) trends in habitat condition. Habitats included in the overall extent assessment are bracken, dwarf shrub heath,
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