á Natural Environment Research Council Institute of Terrestrial Ecology Annual Report 1980 2 © NERC Copyright 1981 First published 1981 Printed in Great Britain by The Lavenham Press Ltd., Lavenham, Suffolk ISBN 0 904282 54 6 Institute of Terrestrial Ecology 68 Hills Road Cambridge CB2 1LA 0223 (Cambridge) 69745 COVER PHOTOGRAPHS The cover shows clockwise from the top: a recently fledged kestrel, photogra-ph G Riddle; male spider, Eresus niger, photograph P Merrett; Japanese knotweed(Reynoutria sachalinensisl , one season's growth, photograph T V Callaghan; snout of a normal tadpole showing mouth and nostrils, photograph ITE Collection; aerial view of the scrub rotational management scheme at Castor Hanglands National Nature Reserve in 1978, when six plots had been cut. Plot 1 is smaller because of the difficulties in scrub clearance, photograph by kind permission of Dr J Mason, Nature Conservancy Council; stems ofFurnaria hygrometrica Hedw. growing on agar on a petri dish, photograph T D Murray; sheathing mycorrhiza ofHebeloma sacchariolens Ouélet, photograph P Mason; adult female Scolytus intricatus: photograph M G Yates; collection of silt for use in experimental work on radionuclides, photograph A D Horrill; otter (Lutra lutral , heads of male and female, photograph Beverley Trowbridge. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The Institute wishes to thank Miss Sue Nicholson for drawing the figures in this report. The work was carried out a part of her year's sandwich course at our Monks Wood Experimental Station, Huntingdon. Sue is a cartography student at the Luton College of Higher Education, Bedfordshire. The Institute of Terrestri3I Ecology (ITE) was established in 1973, from the former Nature Conservancy's research stations and staff, joined later by the Institute of Tree Biology and the Culture Centre of Algae and Protozoa. ITE contributes to and draws upon the collective knowledge of the fourteen sister institutes which make up theNatural Environment Research Council, spanning all the environmental sciences. The Institute studies the factors determining the structure, composition and processes of land and freshwater systems, and of individual plant and animal species. It is developing a sounder scientific basis for predicting and modelling environmental trends arising from natural or man-made change. The results of this research are available to those responsible for the protection, management and wise use of our natural resources. One quarter of ITE's work is research commissioned by customers, such as the Nature Conservancy Council, who require information for wildlife conservation, the Department of Energy and the Department of the Environment, and the EEC. The remainder is fundamental research supported by NERC. ITE's expertise is widely used by international organisations in overseas projects and programmes of research. 3 Contents Section I 7 INTRODUCTION—ECOLOGYIN THE 1980s Section II 14 LONGER RESEARCHREPORTS 15 Environmental variables and onset of breeding in the starling 17 Researchon puffins and PCBs 22 Conservation and improvement of tropical trees 28 An integrated system of land classification 34 Vegetation change in upland landscapes 36 Phosphorus in woodland soils 43 Nature conservation problems in south-east Europe Section III 45 RESEARCHOF THE INSTITUTE IN 1980 INVERTEBRATE ECOLOGY 45 Predation on zooplankton by young perch 47 The rediscovery of Eresus niger 47 The population biology of Scolytus intricatus 49 Management of scrub at Castor Hanglands NNR 50 The insect fauna of Nothofagus 53 Recovery of populations of grassland invertebrates from annual mowing VERTEBRATE ECOLOGY 54 Diet of individual oystercatchers on the Exe estuary 55 Badger populations and their food 56 Effect of large carnivores on livestock in northern iSenya 56 Experimental drive-counts of deer in a woodland enclosure 58 Otter dispersal and breeding in a river system in Aberdeenshire 60 Fluoride levels in foxes ANIMAL FUNCTION 60 Causesof mortality in sparrowhawks 63 Researchon kestrels 64 Viruses and stress in birds 65 Birds of prey and pollution 65 DDT and teratogenesis in frog tadpoles 68 Mass deaths of birds onthe Mersey estuary 70 Sublethal effects of cacimium on vertebrate kidney 71 Development of assays to measure rabbit pituitary hormones PLANT BIOLOGY 73 Genecology of Sphagnum 75 Population dynamics of buried seeds on mountains 76 Damage to lichens by trampling in the Cairngorm mountains 77 Environmental influence on shoot growth in Sitka spruce 78 The high rate of production achieved by a plantation of Sitka spruce 80 Fuels from natural vegetation and plants introduced to GB 82 Cultivation of mosses PLANT COMMUNITY ECOLOGY 83 Towards the end of the line? 84 Area and isolation 85 Population studies of terrestrial orchids 87 Amenity tree surveys—implications for conservation 4 88 Loch Leven phytoplankton succession 92 Sulphur air pollution 95 Reedswamp changes in the Norfolk Broads 96 Historical perspectives on land management 97 Establishing vegetation on unstable coastal cliffs at Highcliffe SOIL SCIENCE 99 Metal tolerance in birch clones 100 Mycorrhizal succession and growth of birch 100 Epidemiology of sheathing (ecto-) mycorrhizas 101 Effects of Lumbricus rubelluson moorland soils colonized by birch 102 Geochemical cycling 102 Immunofluorescence of Mycena galopus 102 Distribution of a saprophytic basidiomycete under Sitka spruce 103 Primary production, decomposition and nutrient cycling in bracken: a training programme DATA AND INFORMATION SERVICES 104 Computing 104 Biometrics and mathematical modelling 104 Ecobase 105 Micro-Processors RESEARCH 105 Biological losses due to the operation of a pumped storage scheme SUBDIVISION OF CHEMISTRY AND INSTRUMENTATION SERVICES 105 Analytical chemistry— Merlewood Monks Wood 107 Radiochemistry 107 Engineering 108 Plant culture 109 Photography RESEARCH 109 Monitoring of aquatic pollutants 110 Anodic stripping voltammeter 110 Chemistry of epicuticular wax 111 Micro-analysis by XR FS 111 Radionuclides in terrestrial ecosystems 112 129lodine in the terrestrial environment 112 Open-top chambers 112 Cotton strip fraying machine 113 Use of a dye technique to determine pore space in soil thin-sections by image analysis 113 A portable data logging system CULTURE CENTRE OF ALGAE AND PROTOZOA 114 General review 115 Systematics of the Eustigmatophyceae 116 Phytoplankton in the tidal Thames 116 Free-living protozoa 117 Direct observations of cells during freezing and thawing Section IV 119 PROJECTS Section V 126 STAFF LIST 5 Section VI 130 PUBLICATIONS Section VII 137 CONTRACT REPORTS Section VIII 139 COMMISSIONED RESEARCH CONTRACTS Section IX 140 PUBLICATIONS FOR SALE á 7 Section I Ecology in the 1980s 1. Introduction ment, without, hopefully, suffering the disadvantages As we enter the 1980s, there are at least 4 questions which have been experienced by the nations which that ecologists need to ask about their role in this have already seen the consequences of that decade: development. It seems likely, also, that there will be an i.What are likely to be the important environmental increased emphasis on the reduction of waste in problems of the 1980s? industrial and commercial practices, including the ii.What research needs are these problems likely to management of forest, agricultural, and horticultural generate, • if ecologists are to make a worthwhile crops. contribution to planning and policy-making? iii.What particular role should ITE play in meeting In the rural environment, the increased attention to these research needs? resource utilization is likely to place a major emphjsis on iv. How can ITE best collaborate with other research land use, including the re-evaluation of policies for institutes, and with universities, in seeking solu- agriculture and forestry, and nowhere is this emphasis tions for the environmental problems of the 1980s. more likely to be felt than in Britain, where we have a These questions have been a particular focus for high population and a relatively small land area with discussion within ITE during the year reviewed in this many competing users. Table 1 shows the present Annual Report. An attempt has been made to develop a estimates for land use in the United Kingdom. consensus and, in reaching this consensus, it has been necessary to identify the priorities for new research, a task which has itself involved the review of the relevance of ITE's present research programme. In short, we are concerned to increase the relevance of Table 1. Total area in hectares x 106 and percentages of United ITE's research to the problems in the 1980s. Kingdom by land use. In making this review, it has been important to Grassland 7.21 recognise that ITE, as a component institute of NERC, (29.6%) is an integral part of the world-wide scientific pro- fession. It is therefore necessary to ensure that we Arable collaborate with colleagues elsewhere so as to make the Cultivated 4.74 best use of our strengths, and to complement the work 13.4 (19.4%) (55.0%) that others are doing both nationally and internationally. Forest 1-42 2. Environmental problems of the 1980s 15.8%) Perhaps the major environmental problem of the 1980s will be the need to ensure that the limited resources of Orchards -053 the world are used to the best advantage, leading to an Rural 10.2%) understanding that our use of these resources will place 22.6 an even greater pressure on the environment in the (92.4%) Rough grazing future. Much of the concern is likely to be focused on 6.56 the development of energy resources, including oil, (26.9%) coal, and nuclear power, for which exploration and Total UK Woodland exploitation are likely to have major effects. Coupled 24.4 Natural and .64 with this search for and development of new sources of (100%) semi-natural (2.6%) energy, pollution from new and existing industrial 9.14 processes will continue to attract attention and will 137.4%) Inland water .31 require critical research, especially in the fields of air and (1.3%) water pollution, the use of pesticides and herbicides, identification of pathways of radionuclides, and deter- Other semi-natural mination of effects of heavy metals.