Britain and Ireland
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MacKinnon, K., G. Hatta, H. Halim, and A. Mangalik. The ecology of Kalimantan. Hong Kong: Periplus Editions. Morley, R. J. Origin and evolution of tropical rain forests. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. Muller, K. Borneo: journey into the tropical rainforest. Lincolnwood, IL: Passport Books (NTC Publishing Group). Rautner, M., M. Hardiono, and R. J. Alfred. Borneo: Treasure Island at risk. Status of forest, wildlife and related threats on the Island of Borneo. Frankfurt am Main, Germany: World Wildlife Fund. Available at http://www.panda.org/about_wwf/where_we_work/asia_pacifi c/our_ solutions/borneo_forests/publications/index.cfm?uNewsID= Taylor, D., P. Saksena, P. G. Sanderson, and K. Kucera. Environ- mental change and rain forests on the Sunda shelf of Southeast Asia: drought, fi re and the biological cooling of biodiversity hotspots. Biodi- versity and Conservation : –. BOUGAINVILLE SEE PACIFIC REGION BRITAIN AND IRELAND ROSEMARY G. GILLESPIE University of California, Berkeley MARK WILLIAMSON University of York, United Kingdom Britain and Ireland are a pair of archipelagoes of which FIGURE 1 Map of Britain and Ireland showing the main islands men- the island of Britain, which comprises most of England, tioned in the text. Scotland and Wales, is the largest (Fig. ). The next largest island is Ireland, comprising Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom (UK), and the Irish Repub- CLIMATE AND TOPOGRAPHY lic. The islands range from °′ N in the north (Muckle The islands vary from low-lying in eastern England Flugga, Shetland Islands) to °′ N (Pednathise Head, to mountainous in many parts of Wales, Scotland, Isles of Scilly) in the south, and from °′ W in the and Ireland. Important mountain chains include west (Tearaght Island, Kerry, Ireland) to °′ E in the Pennines, which form a ridge down northern the east (Lowestoft, Suffolk, England). The total area of the England; the Cambrian Mountains, which stretch UK is about , km (England, about , km; across Wales (Snowdon in the northwest rises to Scotland, , km; Wales, , km; and Northern , m); the Sperrin, Antrim, and Mourne Moun- Ireland, , km). The Irish Republic is about tains in Northern Ireland; a number of peaks such , km. The islands are well known for a long and as Errigal in Donegal, Croagh Patrick in Mayo, and complex political history, which is replicated by an equally the Twelve Bens in Galway, in the Irish Republic; complicated geological history. For example, in the con- and several ranges in Scotland, the highest being the text of islands, more than smaller islands ring the Grampian range with Ben Nevis (, m, the highest two largest, including the Isle of Man, the Hebrides, the point in the islands). Orkneys, and many others. Given the diversity and com- The climate is mild, cool-temperate, and oceanic, plexity of the islands, the following review is necessarily warmer than one might expect given the latitude, cursory. The interested reader left wanting more about largely as a result of the Gulf Stream, which warms the the biology and geology of Britain and Ireland should air currents across the Atlantic and makes the rainfall refer to the Further Reading at the end of this account. unpredictable. 116 BRITAIN AND IRELAND Gillespie08_B.indd 116 5/14/09 11:34:19 AM Before the end of the Devensian, the islands of Britain and Ireland were all part of continental Europe. The North Sea and almost all of those islands were covered with ice. The sea level was about m lower than it is today, and much of the English Channel consisted of low-lying tundra. The Thames, Seine, and Rhine joined and fl owed along the (above sea level) English Channel as a wide, slow river, eventually reaching the Atlantic Ocean. Ice sheets (about , m thick) covered north- ern Britain, Ireland, and much of the Continent and blocked the North Sea, creating a giant lake, which overfl owed, cutting deeper valleys through the “land bridge.” Scandinavian and British ice caps subsequently FIGURE 2 A reconstruction of the paleogeography of northwest merged during the glacial maximum and impounded a Europe during the early Middle Pleistocene. These sites provide a large lake fed by the Rhine. In the end the water poured record of intermittent early human occupation of ~300,000 years out through the lowest gap in the hills, with the deep- duration. Human remains are known from Mauer and Boxgrove. M = Miesenheim I, W = Westbury-sub-Mendip, WR = West Runton, WW = ening valleys becoming the Straits of Dover after the Ice Waverley Wood. Recent reports from fl int artifacts at Pakefi eld Age. As the climate warmed , years ago, the rivers (Suffolk), from an interglacial sequence provide the earliest again fl owed out to the North Sea (Fig. ). Early humans (–700,000 years old) evidence for human presence north of the Alps. From Parfi tt et al. (2005), reprinted by permission from Macmillan and animals returned to northern France and crossed to Publishers Ltd. England over the still-emergent English Channel. New forests and grasslands covered the lowland, and humans were attracted to the abundant game. A key factor in shaping biodiversity in Britain was the QUATERNARY HISTORY transition from hunting to husbandry and the spread of The ancient geologic history of Great Britain and Ireland economic and cultural elements associated with Neolithic is closely related to that of eastern North America and is farming across Europe between the seventh and fourth covered elsewhere in the volume. Since its separation from millennia BC, with associated management of woodlands. North America, one of the key geological periods affecting Although practices differed in England, as compared to the biology of the region was the Quaternary. This period was dominated by a series of recent ice ages, resulting in U-shaped valleys in highland areas carved by glaciers, and 310 yielding fertile, stony soils in southern Britain. Cromerian Hoxnian Ipswichian Britain has been occupied by humans intermittently 290 for at least , years. During that time sea levels have dropped and returned to near-current levels, repeatedly 270 linking the country to continental Europe. The richest 250 Paleolithic record is found during the fi rst Hoxnian Inter- (ppm) CO2 glacial, about , years ago (Fig. ). The subsequent 230 period, the Lower–Middle Paleolithic transition about 210 ,–, years ago, marked the fi rst appearance of the new Levallois fl int knapping technique. The popu- 190 Beestonian Anglian Wolstonian Devensian lation collapsed during the Middle Paleolithic, between 170 -650 -600 -550 -500 -450 -400 -3 -300 -250 -200 -150 -100 -50 , and , years ago. Humans recolonized 50 Thousands of Years BP Britain before the height of the most recent glacial of First occupation of Britain Human absence Human absence ,–, years ago. During the late Devensian, the Lower middle Middle-Early Upper Recolonization after Palaeolithic Transition Palaeolithic Transition last Glacial Maximum period of maximum ice advance, polar desert conditions likely precluded human habitation. Recolonization again FIGURE 3 Late Pleistocene in Britain: Atmospheric CO2 (ppm) and glacial cycles (650,000 years ago–present). Glacial periods affecting occurred after the last glacial maximum, between , the UK during the Quaternary. Data from Petit et al. (1999); Raynaud and , years ago. et al. (2000); Thompson (2000). BRITAIN AND IRELAND 117 Gillespie08_B.indd 117 4/13/09 2:50:49 PM Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, overall woodland cover survey showed that % of native plant species have in the British Isles declined from an estimated % in decreased in Britain over the past years, and % BC to % in AD and to only % in the of native bird species and % of butterfl y species have early twentieth century, based on data from the Forestry decreased over the last ∼ years. In , in response to Commission/Countryside Commission (); however, the Rio Convention, the UK Biodiversity Action Plan recent years show increased cover (currently close to %). was established to deal with biodiversity conservation. Given the long history of fragmentation, any species with The unit is charged with describing the UK’s biologi- large area requirements would have been lost long ago, cal resources and planning for the protection of these with the remaining species adapted to the fragmented resources. These tasks are well under way (see http:// landscape. Initiatives now under way will recreate wood- www.ukbap.org.uk/). land networks and combat ecological isolation without the need for large-scale expansion of woodland. FLORA Early and middle Holocene events dramatically Repeated glaciation and recolonization has led to a infl uenced the landscape and vegetation of today. Even depauperate fl ora, though, using an estimate of more recent events, many part of written history, under- recognizable (morphologically distinct) species and well score that ecosystem changes have been dictated by over microspecies (often morphologically indistin- human land use. There remain no true “natural areas.” guishable) and hybrids (many sterile), the islands For example, the late eighteenth century heralded major are estimated to contain about species of native changes in the Scottish Highlands economy with the fl owering plants and ferns (see Fig. B for patterns of creation of extensive sheep farms, setting aside land for diversity). The number of endemic species is contro- recreation. As people left the Highlands (the “Highland versial, as it depends on the taxonomic status of micro- Clearances”), sheep, and deer and capercaillie (extinct in species (i.e., apomictically reproducing plants that are Scotland since , subsequently reintroduced), man- genetically identical from one generation to the next, aged for game species, created apparent “natural wood- so that each has diagnostic characters as in true species, lands” and “native species” that are actually replacements but differences between such species are much smaller or reintroductions, often from different parts of Britain than usual, making them very diffi cult to identify). Such or Europe.