Floodplain Meadows – Beauty and Utility Photo: © John Barratt © John Photo: a Technical Handbook
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F loodplain Meadows – Beauty and Utility. A Technical Handbook Handbook A Technical Utility. and – Beauty Meadows loodplain Floodplain Meadows – Beauty and Utility Photo: © John Barratt A Technical Handbook Floodplain Meadows – Beauty and Utility A Technical Handbook A brand new handbook on species-rich floodplain meadows. Comprehensive and beautifully illustrated, the handbook covers everything you need to know about the history, management, restoration and creation of this vitally important, yet threatened, habitat. Once very widespread, these iconic sites now occupy less than 1,500 ha in the UK. Floodplain meadows are both part of our heritage and inspirational wildlife habitats. They support a diversity of plant species rarely seen elsewhere, offering a home for a wealth of wildlife including birds, bees, butterflies and other pollinating insects. They are the product of a long agricultural tradition of managing floodplains to Gowing David Sophie Lake, Rothero, Emma Editors: Principal produce a valuable crop, and thereby provide a rich seam of rural history to explore. Floodplain meadows require no artificial fertilisers yet remain productive during droughts and recover rapidly after floods. In addition, they supply many additional benefits to society for free, including storage and cleansing of floodwaters, sequestration of carbon and a very aesthetic contribution to the landscape. Mindful of the frequency of extreme flood events that have affected Britain in the period 2000–2015, encouraging resilient agricultural systems that can accommodate flood storage, yet bounce back to provide a crop that delivers both biodiversity and an economic return, is becoming an increasingly important priority. This book is aimed at anyone managing, restoring, or re-creating floodplain meadows, and those with a general interest in rural history and how it has influenced the floodplain wildlife we have today. The Floodplain Meadows Partnership was established in 2007 to help protect and restore this stunning and diverse habitat through collection, analysis and sharing of scientifically collected data from floodplain meadows across the UK. The Partnership is hosted and directed by the Open University and steered by the Environment Agency, Natural England, the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, the RSPB, The Wildlife Trusts, the Field Studies Council, People Need Nature and the National Trust. Floodplain Meadows – Beauty and Utility. A Technical Handbook Principal Editors Emma Rothero, Sophie Lake, David Gowing pnn eople need nature Floodplain Meadows – beauty and utility: a technical handbook i Authored by The Floodplain Meadows Partnership Citation For bibliographic purposes this book should be referred to as Rothero, E., Lake, S. and Gowing, D. (eds) (2016). Floodplain Meadows – Beauty and Utility. A Technical Handbook. Milton Keynes, Floodplain Meadows Partnership. First published 2016. Copyright © 2016 The Open University The Open University Walton Hall, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA United Kingdom All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted or utilised in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher or a licence from the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd. Details of such licences (for reprographic reproduction) may be obtained from the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd, Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS (www.cla.co.uk). ISBN 978-1-4730-2066-5 (paperback) ISBN 978-1-4730-2067-2 (PDF version) Disclaimer Every effort has been made to contact copyright holders. If any have been inadvertently overlooked the publisher will make the necessary amendments at the first opportunity. Drawings and maps credits Figure 1.1 © Crown Copyright and Database Right [December 2015]. Ordnance Survey (Digimap Licence). Figure 3.1 Map held by Cambridgeshire Archives and Local Studies, with thanks to Pat Doody for the current hay-cutting pattern overlay. Figure 4.1 Mapping package MapInfo, http://www.mapinfo.com/ Figure 5.1 From Open University Environmental Science, Block 3 (S216). Figure 5.3 From Open University Environmental Science, Block 3 (S216). Figure 7.1 From Open University ecosystems (S396) module. Figure 7.7 © Natural England 1000046223 (2006). Figure 7.10 © Crown Copyright and Database Right [December 2015]. Ordnance Survey (Digimap Licence). Chapter 8 All UK outline maps are from mapping package MapInfo, http://www.mapinfo.com/ with outlines sourced from Ordnance Survey. Figure 9.4 © Natural England 1000046223 (2006) with drawn outlines courtesy of Alisa Swanson. Figure 10.5 Mapping package MapInfo, http://www.mapinfo.com/ Figure 11.6 © Crown Copyright and Database Right [December 2015]. Ordnance Survey (Digimap Licence). Figure 11.8 © Crown Copyright and Database Right [December 2015]. Ordnance Survey (Digimap Licence). Figure 11.9 © Crown Copyright and Database Right [December 2015]. Ordnance Survey (Digimap Licence). Figure 11.12 © Crown Copyright and Database Right [December 2015]. Ordnance Survey (Digimap Licence). Printed and bound in the United Kingdom by Henry Ling Ltd Front cover artwork: linocut by Robert Gillmor Design and typesetting: Naturebureau ii Floodplain Meadows – Beauty and Utility. A Technical Handbook Contents Preface ......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................vii Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................................................................................................................................... viii Chapter 1 Introduction............................................................................................................................................................................................................1 What are floodplain meadows? ......................................................................................................................................................................................2 Evolution and historic management ............................................................................................................................................................................2 Management, restoration, creation and monitoring ..............................................................................................................................................3 Using this handbook ...........................................................................................................................................................................................................4 Nomenclature ................................................................................................................................................................................................................4 Chapter 2 The wildlife of floodplain meadows...............................................................................................................................................................5 The plants and vegetation of floodplain meadows ................................................................................................................................................5 Origins ...............................................................................................................................................................................................................................5 Modern plant communities ......................................................................................................................................................................................5 Special plants .................................................................................................................................................................................................................5 Invertebrates ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................7 Birds ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................8 Mammals .........................................................................................................................................................................................................................9 Chapter 3 History and changing value of floodplain meadows .........................................................................................................................10 Ancient meadows ..............................................................................................................................................................................................................10 The rural economy ............................................................................................................................................................................................................11 Traditional management of floodplain meadows .................................................................................................................................................11