A Floristic Survey of Fair Isle
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Edinburgh Research Explorer A floristic survey of Fair Isle Citation for published version: Quinteros Peñafiel, CV, Riddiford, N & Twyford, A 2017, 'A floristic survey of Fair Isle', New Journal of Botany, vol. 7, no. 2-3, pp. 101-111. https://doi.org/10.1080/20423489.2017.1393191 Digital Object Identifier (DOI): 10.1080/20423489.2017.1393191 Link: Link to publication record in Edinburgh Research Explorer Document Version: Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Published In: New Journal of Botany General rights Copyright for the publications made accessible via the Edinburgh Research Explorer is retained by the author(s) and / or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing these publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. Take down policy The University of Edinburgh has made every reasonable effort to ensure that Edinburgh Research Explorer content complies with UK legislation. If you believe that the public display of this file breaches copyright please contact [email protected] providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 09. Oct. 2021 New Journal of Botany Journal of the Botanical Society of Britain & Ireland ISSN: 2042-3489 (Print) 2042-3497 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ynjb20 A floristic survey of Fair Isle C. V. Quinteros Peñafiel, N. J. Riddiford & A. D. Twyford To cite this article: C. V. Quinteros Peñafiel, N. J. Riddiford & A. D. Twyford (2017) A floristic survey of Fair Isle, New Journal of Botany, 7:2-3, 101-111, DOI: 10.1080/20423489.2017.1393191 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/20423489.2017.1393191 © 2017 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group View supplementary material Published online: 22 Dec 2017. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 210 View related articles View Crossmark data Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=ynjb20 Download by: [The University of Edinburgh] Date: 09 January 2018, At: 01:43 A floristic survey of Fair Isle C. V. Quinteros Peñafiel1*, N. J. Riddiford2 and A. D. Twyford3 1Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, 20A Inverleith Row, Edinburgh EH3 5LR, UK 2Schoolton, Fair Isle, Shetland ZE2 9JU, UK 3Institute of Evolutionary Biology, The University of Edinburgh, Ashworth Laboratories, Charlotte Auerbach Road, Edinburgh EH9 3FL, UK Fair Isle is a small isolated island located off the northern tip of Great Britain. Recognised internationally for rare migratory birds and important seabird colonies, the flora of Fair Isle has received far less attention. To rectify this, we present the first comprehensive floristic study of the island. A botanical survey was performed for each monad, and habitat information was collated following the NCC Phase 1 habitat survey method. These data were compiled to give a comprehensive checklist of 318 species, classified into 31 orders, 68 families and 191 genera according to APG IV. Of the total number of species, 255 are native to Great Britain and the remaining 63 are aliens. The list includes 10 species under threat, seven nationally scarce and one nationally rare species. Our results reveal that even though Fair Isle is about 200 times smaller than the full archipelago of Shetland, it holds over one-third the number of species. The island is also notable for its complex mosaic of habitats, which include a range of communities that are rare or under threat elsewhere in the British Isles. We provide a detailed commentary of island diversity, and recommendations for future monitoring to record changes in land-use and the effects of climate change. Keywords: island biodiversity, Shetland, island biogeography, alien plants, colonisation Introduction The United Kingdom of Great Britain and North- Oceanic islands provide many spectacular examples of ern Ireland (UK), has the best documented flora in unpredicted colonisation events and adaptation to the world (Plantlife, 2014), in part due to its long his- challenging conditions. An important reason why tory of botanical interest and also to the restricted islands are so biologically interesting is that their vari- species number as a product of its recent glacial history. ation in size, shape, degree of isolation and ecology Great Britain is surrounded by over 1000 smaller make them excellent natural laboratories that allow islands and islets, with more than 100 islands of greatly researchers to study ideas, generate hypotheses, and varying size in the sub-Arctic Archipelago of Shetland test and make predictions about dispersal and estab- (part of Vice-County 112). The flora of Shetland is lishment (MacArthur & Wilson, 1967; Berry, 2009). well-documented with 827 species distributed across Remote islands are often under-surveyed due to their 15 habitat types. However, much of Shetland’s native isolated nature; however, the small size of many such flora is threatened by grazing, drainage and habitat Downloaded by [The University of Edinburgh] at 01:43 09 January 2018 islands makes it possible to compile full biological change (Scott & Palmer, 1987; P.V. Harvey, pers. inventories and gain a comprehensive understanding comm.; W. Scott, pers. comm.). of their biodiversity. To fully understand island biodi- Fair Isle is a small, remote island half way between versity requires surveys of all groups of island biota, Orkney (42 km away) and Shetland (39 km away) not just charismatic birds and mammals, with floristic (see Fig. 1), though politically belonging to Shetland. surveys being particularly valuable for understanding The island is 5 km (3 miles) long by 2.5 km (1.5 habitat diversity. These surveys can reveal whether miles) wide, with an area of 768 hectares. Its oceanic remote islands harbour rare species negatively affected climate is greatly influenced by its small size and by development on the mainland, or if the degree of location, close to a major offshoot of the North Atlan- isolation is effectively filtering alien species that com- tic Current (NAC), and the island is one of the windiest pete with natives elsewhere (Berry, 2009; Stace & lowland sites in the British Isles. Despite its remote Crawley, 2015). nature and small size, Fair Isle is important for its bio- diversity as well as for attracting visitors. It is interna- tionally recognised as a seabird breeding site and stop- over place for migrant birds (Archer et al., 2011; Har- *Corresponding author. C. V. Quinteros Peñafiel. Email: vaiteacq@hotmail. vey & Nason, 2015). It has rugged and attractive com © 2017 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by- nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. DOI 10.1080/20423489.2017.1393191 New Journal of Botany 2017 VOL.7 NOS.2–3 101 Quinteros Peñafiel et al. A floristic survey of Fair Isle Figure 1 Map of Fair Isle and its location within Shetland. scenery that attracts many visitors, with large areas of This included some doubtful species in need of verifica- the island entirely unspoilt, while other parts are used tion, and a list of 15 widespread species found com- for traditional crofting. monly across the rest of Shetland but absent from Downloaded by [The University of Edinburgh] at 01:43 09 January 2018 Fair Isle has a long but intermittent history of bota- Fair Isle. An island-wide habitat survey in 1991–92 nical surveys. The first published floristic work was (Riddiford, unpublished manuscript, 1992) recorded produced by James Trail in 1906, who compiled a list 218 taxa, including eight species known to be planted of 136 species made by previous observers. Pritchard and one hybrid, with three species, Spergularia marina, (1957) contributed to our understanding of the botany Drosera rotundifolia and Mertensia maritima, of Fair Isle in a paper listing 183 plant species. This additional to those listed in Scott (1972). A further included 48 plant species not recorded by Trail, while study, in 2002, used the National Vegetation Classifi- 26 species recorded by Trail were not seen by him. Fit- cation (NVC) methodology to describe habitats ter (1959) reanalysed previous records and added 64 (O’Hanrahan, 2003) but this was limited to the Site plant species to the list. Currie (1960) published of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in the northern detailed notes on the plants of Fair Isle, reporting 12 part of the Isle. While relatively comprehensive in new records and confirming many previous obser- their coverage, none of these historical botanical vations. Palmer & Scott (1965), published an account studies give detailed accounts of the distribution of with 24 new records, but cast doubt on some species species across the island, nor directly relate this to observed by Fitter (1959). The last exhaustive pub- the diversity of habitats. lished study of the botany of Fair Isle was by Walter The current study looks to update and consolidate Scott (1972), whose account included some 238 taxa. previous work, while filling the knowledge gap in 102 New Journal of Botany 2017 VOL.7 NOS.2–3 Quinteros Peñafiel et al. A floristic survey of Fair Isle habitat diversity. The first major aim is to assess the grassland/heath mosaic. The only other deviation from flora of Fair Isle through a qualitative floristic survey. the protocol involved the incorporation of prominent This will allow the generation of a comprehensive bryophyte and lichen communities into the habitat checklist of the Flora of Fair Isle, updated with the assessment.