The Malvern Hills Conservators An NVC Survey of the Malvern Hills Conservators’ Holding 2013 855000 SEPTEMBER 2013 RSK GENERAL NOTES Project No.: 855000-1 (00) Title: A NVC Survey of the Malvern Hills Conservators’ Holding 2013 Client: Malvern Hills Conservators Date: 11th November 2013 Office: Coventry Status: Final version for issue Authors Dr Jonathan Mitchley/ Dr Technical Dr Richard Carter Steven Heathcote/ Matthew reviewer Davies Signature Signature Date: 11th November 2013 Date: 11th November 2013 Project manager Louise Denning Quality Dr Richard Carter reviewer Signature Signature Date: 11th November 2013 Date: 11th November 2013 RSK Environment (RSK) has prepared this report for the sole use of the client, showing reasonable skill and care, for the intended purposes as stated in the agreement under which this work was completed. The report may not be relied upon by any other party without the express agreement of the client and RSK. No other warranty, expressed or implied, is made as to the professional advice included in this report. Where any data supplied by the client or from other sources have been used, it has been assumed that the information is correct. No responsibility can be accepted by RSK for inaccuracies in the data supplied by any other party. The conclusions and recommendations in this report are based on the assumption that all relevant information has been supplied by those bodies from whom it was requested. No part of this report may be copied or duplicated without the express permission of RSK and the party for whom it was prepared. Where field investigations have been carried out, these have been restricted to a level of detail required to achieve the stated objectives of the work. This work has been undertaken in accordance with the quality management system of RSK Environment. Malvern Hills Conservators An NVC Survey of the Malvern Hills Conservators’ Holding 2013 i 855000 (00) CONTENTS 1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY..................................................................................................................1 2 INTRODUCTION ..............................................................................................................................4 2.1 Purpose of the Report ..............................................................................................................4 2.2 Project Brief ..............................................................................................................................4 2.3 Ecological Background.............................................................................................................4 2.4 Structure of the Report .............................................................................................................5 3 METHODS........................................................................................................................................6 3.1 General.....................................................................................................................................6 3.2 Changes to Survey Methods from the 2006 Survey ................................................................6 3.3 Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) Assessment Criteria.................................................7 3.4 Constraints and Site Coverage ................................................................................................7 3.5 Plant Nomenclature..................................................................................................................8 4 NVC TYPES .....................................................................................................................................9 4.1 General.....................................................................................................................................9 4.2 Synopsis of Previously Recorded NVC types ..........................................................................9 4.2.1 Calcicolous Grassland Communities............................................................................9 4.2.2 Calcifugous Grassland Communities ...........................................................................9 4.2.3 Heath Communities....................................................................................................10 4.2.4 Mesotrophic Grasslands.............................................................................................11 4.2.5 Tall-herb and Bracken Communities..........................................................................11 4.2.6 Scrub and Woodland Communities............................................................................12 4.3 Additional NVC Types identified during the 2013 survey.......................................................12 4.3.1 Mesotrophic Grasslands.............................................................................................12 4.3.2 Mire Communities.......................................................................................................21 4.3.3 Aquatic communities ..................................................................................................23 4.3.4 Scrub and Woodland Types .......................................................................................24 4.4 Areas of NVC types................................................................................................................27 4.5 Changes in NVC types ...........................................................................................................29 4.5.1 Introduction.................................................................................................................29 4.5.2 Changes in scrub vegetation: automated approaches...............................................30 4.5.3 Some field observations on vegetation change .........................................................32 5 NON-SSSI AREAS.........................................................................................................................35 5.1 Introduction.............................................................................................................................35 5.2 Woodland areas .....................................................................................................................35 5.3 Grassland areas .....................................................................................................................36 5.4 Malvern Common ...................................................................................................................37 5.4.1 General Description and Location..............................................................................37 5.4.2 Floristic Composition and Area ..................................................................................37 5.4.3 Assessment against SSSI Criteria .............................................................................39 5.4.4 Setting the Common Standards Monitoring targets ...................................................40 6 NOTABLE PLANT SPECIES.........................................................................................................45 7 REFERENCES ...............................................................................................................................52 Malvern Hills Conservators An NVC Survey of the Malvern Hills Conservators’ Holding 2013 ii 855000 (00) TABLES Table 3-1 Grouping of vegetation types for hard-copy mapping, with notes where communities have been grouped. .......................................................................................................................................6 Table 4-1 Vegetation referable to the NVC type MG1 Arrhenatherum elatius grassland ....................13 Table 4-2 Vegetation referable to the MG5 Cynosurus cristatus-Centaurea nigra grassland .............15 Table 4-3 Vegetation referable to the MG6 Lolium perenne-Cynosurus cristatus grassland ..............17 Table 4-4 Vegetation referable to the NVC type MG9a Holcus lanatus-Deschampsia cespitosa grassland, Poa trivialis sub-community.................................................................................................21 Table 4-5 Vegetation referable to the NVC type M23a Juncus effusus/acutiflorus-Galium palustre rush-pasture, Juncus acutiflorus sub-community.. ...............................................................................22 Table 5-1: Selected quadrats recorded from Malvern Common...........................................................38 Table 5-2: Quadrat data from mire vegetation on Malvern Common ...................................................39 Table 5-3. Common Standard Monitoring targets for the MG5 grassland in the proposed Malvern Common SSSI ......................................................................................................................................41 Table 5-4. Common Standards Monitoring guidance for the M23 community found on Malvern Common based on the guidance for "Lowland Rush Pastures"...........................................................43 Table 6-1 Details of rare and notable plant species recorded during the 2013 survey. .......................46 FIGURES FIGURE 1 SURVEY AREA, MALVERN HILLS CONSERVATORS LAND HOLDINGS FIGURE 2 GROUPED NVC COMMUNITIES (MAP 1 TO 12) FIGURE 3 NEW AREAS OF SCRUB SINCE 2006 (MAP 1 TO 8) FIGURE 4 TARGET AREAS FOR SCRUB CLEARANCE (MAP 1 TO 8) FIGURE 5 NEW AREAS OF GRASSLAND SINCE 2006 (MAP 1 TO 8) FIGURE