SNH Science Newsletter Issue 10, December 2014 Welcome from The
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sheep, which might weigh as much as ten pounds less when the time for slaughter arrived’. A similar account of the benefits to sheep of nutrients deposited by great skuas onto Faroese islands is presented in a Faroese school text book on biology published in the 1950s. There is a lot to be said for paying attention to ‘old wisdom’. SNH Science Newsletter Issue 10, December 2014 _________________________________ ____________________________________ Hot Topics Welcome from the Chair Bob Furness Seabird Indices Simon Foster One of my PhD students, Adam Cross, has just submitted his thesis. A cause for Latest indicator for Scotland’s celebration. Part of his thesis involves seabirds published nice work on nutrient input from seabirds (puffins and great skuas) onto coastal Scotland’s breeding seabirds are of grassland on Scottish islands (mainly international importance. They are useful Mingulay and St Kilda). His work and important indicators for assessing the sampled vegetation, and hair from sheep state of our marine environment. The and rabbits, in areas with and without indicator looks at the breeding numbers and succes of seabirds in Scotland. nesting seabirds. Carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratios show that a major The indicator uses data collected by part of the nutrients in vegetation around volunteers and professionals through the seabird colonies is derived from seabird Seabird Monitoring Programme. guano. Furthermore, sheep and rabbits selectively graze vegetation that has The numbers and breeding success of been fertilized by seabirds because it has seabirds in Scotland, 1986-2013 a higher protein content and is more digestible. Bioenergetics models and empirical data show that seabirds can deposit nutrients onto islands at a rate similar to that recommended for artificial fertilizer applications in agricultural land. So here is one small example of ‘ecosystem services’ provided by seabirds subsidising terrestrial habitat with marine resources. A novel bit of scientific research. However, we scientists need to be modest about our findings. This research, at non-trivial cost (Adam was funded by a UK Research Council and NTS), has shown something that was already long known by the sheep farmers of the Faroe Islands. To quote one account: ‘No one knew if the sandeels would be scarce this year and the puffin numbers would suffer. It had been noticed that when they had a bad breeding year the lack of guano fertilising the hillsides had a knock-on effect on the Year NOTE: The axis are not scaled to zero The results show that the seabird numbers extent present in 1983 was lost by 2011. The have declined by around 42% and the losses were mainly from NVC communities breeding success also shows a declining MG5 (flower-rich neutral grasslands), U4 trend. (short, usually sheep-grazed pastures) and Of the 12 species for which we can calculate M25 (fen meadows dominated by purple trends in their breeding numbers, 10 have moor-grass and rich in bryophytes). shown sustained declines mostly from around A second finding is that only 41% of non- 2000 onwards. The largest declines have designated species-rich grasslands are been for Arctic skua, declining by 82% from currently in good condition. Both loss and 1986 levels, black-legged kittiwake (77%) poor condition are caused by the same two and Sandwich tern (60%). Black guillemot contrasting factors: under-management remained stable and common gulls increased leading to the development of rank, species- by 9%. poor swards, and agricultural intensification. Breeding success varied amongst the 13 The total area of unimproved lowland species assessed. Five have declined: Arctic grassland in the 1980s was estimated to be skua; Atlantic puffin; black-legged kittiwake; in the order of 30,000 ha so the 16% loss common guillemot; and great skua. Seven leaves around 25,000 ha, just 2% of all have remained stable: Arctic tern; common Scottish farmland grassland. The challenge tern; herring gull; lesser black-backed gull; for SNH now is to find ways of securing the little tern; northern fulmar; and Sandwich tern. future of the remaining species-rich grassland One species, the northern gannet, has habitat and increasing biodiversity in the increased. species-poor 98%. Another recent grassland publication is the Full details can be found online revised Chapter 3 Lowland Grasslands of the http://www.snh.gov.uk/docs/B424907.pdf Guidelines for Selection of Biological SSSIs, For more information contact - Simon Foster which was published on the JNCC website in [email protected] November. The revised Guidelines place _________________________________ more emphasis on a minimum or critical standards approach, with the presumption SSSI Guidelines on Grasslands that all examples of rare grassland Jane Mackintosh communities of at least 0.5 ha in size should be selected for notification. Loss and condition in Scotland’s species-rich lowland grasslands Information: [email protected] Lowland grasslands are one of the most Scotland’s People and Nature threatened of semi-natural habitats because Survey – Understanding how they can so easily be converted to arable or people in Scotland use, value and grass ley. They are also one of the hardest to enjoy the natural environment monitor because of the difficulty of separating Aileen Armstrong grasslands that are unimproved and species- rich from those that are semi-improved and species-poor - remote sensing still cannot Scotland’s People and Nature Survey reliably distinguish these types. SNH set out to gather information on the current state of The findings from the first year of Scotland’s lowland grasslands by re-visiting a sample of People and Nature Survey (SPANS) will be grasslands surveyed in the 1980s and 1990s. published in December 2014, providing SNH We excluded SSSIs, which are already and other partners working in the natural monitored under the SCM programme. We environment sector with access to a single, visited 227 sites, 30% of those originally comprehensive set of data on how people recorded. The results of this study were living in Scotland use, value and enjoy the published recently as SNH Commissioned outdoors. Report 571: The extent and condition of non- designated species-rich lowland grasslands SPANS was commissioned by SNH in 2013 in Scotland. with support from Forestry Commission Scotland, Loch Lomond and the Trossachs Our main finding is that species-rich National Park Authority, Cairngorms National grasslands have continued to decline in the Park Authority and Greenspace Scotland. era of agri-environment schemes: 16% of the SPANS replaced two earlier surveys (the Scottish Recreation Survey and the The SPANS end-year report will be available Greenspace Use and Attitudes survey), on the SNH website before the end of the absorbed questions from a number of other year and will be accompanied by standard surveys and is designed to complement data tables and a series of short special outputs from Scottish Government surveys interest reports; the raw survey data will be such as the Scottish Household Survey and available on request, enabling interested the Scottish Health Survey. parties to conduct their own detailed analyses of the findings. SPANS will run once every three years for a period of ten years, enabling us to monitor Information: [email protected] people’s behaviour and attitudes over the longer term; the next wave of annual Commissioned Report progress fieldwork is planned for 2016. Kamila Fraser A large-scale quantitative survey Reports published recently Fieldwork for the first year of the SPANS was conducted between March 2013 and The following SNH Commissioned Research February 2014 and involved in-home Reports have been published in the last few interviews with a representative sample of months. All are on the SNH website and more than 12,000 adults aged 16 and over searchable at: living in Scotland. Survey respondents http://www.snh.gov.uk/publications-data-and- answered questions on a range of subjects, research/publications/search-the- including visits to the outdoors, the provision catalogue/?q=commissioned%20report of woods and forests for recreation, rating of local greenspace, wider types of engagement CR452 Simulation model for the with the natural environment, perceptions of management of American mink, Neovison national and local landscapes and attitudes to vison, on Harris and Lewis environmental issues. CR541 Water vole survey of Beinn Eighe National Nature Reserve Detailed analysis CR627 A modelling assessment of control strategies to prevent/reduce Squirrelpox spread As the survey also collected a range of other CR688 The Scottish Beaver Trial: information about respondents, the findings Monitoring of aquatic vegetation and can be analysed by standard demographics associated features of the Knapdale lochs such as age, gender, working status and 2008-2013 final report social grade, as well as other variables such CR756 Status and population viability of as ethnicity, self-reported health and Svalbard barnacle geese in Scotland disability. Use of the Scottish Government’s CR768 Survey and scoping of wildcat Urban/Rural classification and the Scottish priority areas Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) also CR783 Understanding the potential effects enables us to consider the impact of of wave energy devices on kelp biotopes residency and affluence on people’s attitudes CR788 The Scottish Beaver Trial: and behaviours. Woodland monitoring 2009-2013 final report How partners will use