Irish Vegetation Classification Technical Progress Report No. 5 Prepared by Philip M. Perrin BEC Consultants Ltd 29th November 2019 Irish Vegetation Classification Technical Report No. 5 1 Scope This document reports on progress made during the fifth phase of the development of the Irish Vegetation Classification (IVC). Work was conducted by BEC Consultants Ltd under agreement with the National Biodiversity Data Centre (NBDC) between August and November 2019. The proposal for this phase specified several tasks which are summarised here: 1. Production of web page content (.docx, .jpeg, .png format) for each of the communities defined within the targeted divisions of the classification, including photographs, distribution maps and descriptive text; 2. Production of community synopses (.pdf format) for each of the communities defined within the targeted divisions of the classification, including photographs, distribution maps and data, descriptive text, synoptic tables, proxy environmental values and affinities with other classifications; 3. Production of an updated version of the ERICA application (.zip format) allowing analysis of data from the targeted habitats; 4. Production of an updated version of the ERICA manual (.pdf format within the application); 5. Production of a technical report detailing all work conducted (.pdf format). Work conducted to complete these tasks is reported in sections 2 to 4 of this report. Section 5 makes recommendations for the subsequent phases of the project. Technical Progress Reports (TPRs) #1-#4 should be consulted for background information on the project and the methods used. 2 Classification process 2.1 Remit and approach The remit of this phase of the project was defined as including vegetation of (i) sand dunes, (ii) strandline and shingle, (iii) coastal rocks, (iv) scrub, (v) herb fringes and (vi) ruderal communities. The analysis was initially split into two subphases: subphase Va tackled (i) and (ii) above, subphase Vb tackled (iii), (iv), (v) and (vi) above. Ultimately, a third subphase, Vc, was required to draw out some of the target communities. No national-scale plot-based classifications have previously been proposed for these habitats. 2.2 Collation of data The National Vegetation Database (NVD) was screened for relevant data with the aid of the habitat type notes in the NVD bibliography dated 2013. Within most of the constituent databases of the NVD, plots have been classified using the Guide to Habitats in Ireland (Fossitt, 2000, hereafter GHI) either by NBDC staff upon entry of the data into the NVD or by the original authors. Within subphase Va, special consideration was thus given to plots labelled as SD (sand dunes), CB (shingle and gravel banks) and LS (littoral sediment) to check if they fell within the remit of this section of work. Within subphase Vb, special consideration was given to CS (sea 2 Irish Vegetation Classification Technical Report No. 5 cliffs and islets), WS (scrub), HD (bracken), ED (disturbed ground), BL (built land) and BC (cultivated land). In addition to using the NVD, data were utilised from a limited number of additional relevant sources: (i) the Sand Dunes Monitoring Project (SDMP) whose dataset contained full plot data from a subset of the sites surveyed by that project; (ii) data from dunes recorded as part of the recent national Vertigo survey; (iii) a national dataset on dune slacks from provided by A. Delaney; (iv) a dataset on the dune slacks of North Bull Island provided by F. Devaney; (v) a recent NPWS survey of Chenopodion stands; (vi) the Irish Juniper Monitoring Survey 2017; (vii) the National Survey of Irish Sea Cliffs. The full list of databases from which data were selected is presented in Tables 1 and 2. Plots classified as ‘noise’ in subphase Va were reanalysed in subphase Vb. Table 1. Datasets from which data were extracted for subphase Va, with cover scales and number of remit plots classified by data quality Type. Number Number of plots of each Type of remit Dataset code/source Cover scale plots 1 2 3 4 INDEP 001 Domin 40 36 0 0 4 INDEP 005 Modified Domin 1 36 35 1 0 0 INDEP 009 Modified Domin 2 22 18 4 0 0 INDEP 024 Braun-Blanquet (old) 83 76 0 0 7 NPWS 003 Braun-Blanquet (old) 5 4 1 0 0 NPWS 004 Braun-Blanquet (old)/Domin 5 3 2 0 0 NPWS 005 Braun-Blanquet (old) 7 5 0 2 0 NPWS 006 Domin 640 583 57 0 0 NPWS 008 Braun-Blanquet (old)/Domin 21 20 1 0 0 NPWS 010 Braun-Blanquet (new) 184 169 12 0 3 NPWS 031 Braun-Blanquet (old) 21 21 0 0 0 NPWS 033 Domin 26 24 2 0 0 NPWS 041 Braun-Blanquet (old) 1 1 0 0 0 NPWS 045 Braun-Blanquet (old) 9 8 1 0 0 NPWS 049 Braun-Blanquet (old) 2 2 0 0 0 NPWS 058a* Braun-Blanquet (old)/Tansley 61 26 29 0 6 NPWS 062 Domin 4 4 0 0 0 TCD 001 Domin 43 28 0 15 0 UCD 002 Braun-Blanquet (old) 5 5 0 0 0 UCD 003 Braun-Blanquet (old) 145 134 11 0 0 UCD 004 Braun-Blanquet (old) 17 12 5 0 0 UCD 004a Braun-Blanquet (old) 21 11 7 0 3 UCD 012 Braun-Blanquet (old) 530 525 1 0 4 Delaney Percentage 109 105 4 0 0 Devaney Braun-Blanquet (old) 75 67 8 0 0 SDMP Domin 124 119 5 0 0 Vertigo Percentage 90 86 4 0 0 Total 2,326 2,127 155 17 27 * This composite dataset has been split into its six components for ease of processing. 3 Irish Vegetation Classification Technical Report No. 5 Table 2. Datasets from which data were extracted for subphase Vb, with cover scales and number of remit plots classified by data quality Type. Number Number of plots of each Type of remit Dataset code/source Cover scale plots 1 2 3 4 INDEP 001 Domin 69 55 0 0 14 INDEP 010 Crushell 5 4 0 0 1 INDEP 017 Braun-Blanquet (old)/Domin 1 1 0 0 0 INDEP 019 Braun-Blanquet (old) 7 7 0 0 0 INDEP 022 Braun-Blanquet (old) 3 0 3 0 0 INDEP 025 Braun-Blanquet (old) 42 37 0 0 5 INDEP 026 Braun-Blanquet (old) 58 49 0 0 9 INDEP 027 Braun-Blanquet (old) 9 9 0 0 0 INDEP 029 Braun-Blanquet (old) 16 16 0 0 0 INDEP 030 Percentage 21 15 0 0 6 INDEP 031 Modified Domin 7 3 3 0 0 0 IPCC 001 Percentage 1 1 0 0 0 IPCC 003 Percentage 4 2 0 0 2 IPCC 004 Percentage 2 0 0 0 2 NPWS 003 Braun-Blanquet (old) 14 10 2 2 0 NPWS 004 Braun-Blanquet (old)/Domin 2 0 0 2 0 NPWS 005 Braun-Blanquet (old) 3 0 0 3 0 NPWS 006 Domin 28 25 3 0 0 NPWS 009 Braun-Blanquet (new) 4 4 0 0 0 NPWS 013 Braun-Blanquet (old) 1 0 1 0 0 NPWS 015 Percentage 16 0 16 0 0 NPWS 019 Braun-Blanquet (old) 6 0 1 3 2 NPWS 020 Braun-Blanquet (old) 6 6 0 0 0 NPWS 024 Braun-Blanquet (old) 2 0 0 0 2 NPWS 027 Domin 1 1 0 0 0 NPWS 031 Braun-Blanquet (old) 1 1 0 0 0 NPWS 032 Braun-Blanquet (old) 124 123 1 0 0 NPWS 039 Braun-Blanquet (old) 6 5 1 0 0 NPWS 045 Braun-Blanquet (old) 9 8 1 0 0 NPWS 047 Domin 2 2 0 0 0 NPWS 048 Domin 2 1 1 0 0 NPWS 049 Braun-Blanquet (old) 6 5 0 0 1 NPWS 050 Braun-Blanquet (old) 1 0 0 1 0 NPWS 057 Braun-Blanquet (old) 10 8 1 0 1 NPWS 058a* Braun-Blanquet (old)/Tansley 90 50 4 0 36 NPWS 058c* Percentage 3 0 0 0 3 NPWS 059 Domin 83 60 23 0 0 NPWS 061 Domin 2 0 2 0 0 NUIG 004 Braun-Blanquet (old) 16 16 0 0 0 NUIG 008 Braun-Blanquet (old) 21 21 0 0 0 NUIG 009 Braun-Blanquet (old) 23 0 0 0 23 NUIG 010 Braun-Blanquet (old) 10 10 0 0 0 NUIG 015 Braun-Blanquet (old) 11 11 0 0 0 NUIG 019 Modified Braun-Blanquet 3 320 320 0 0 0 4 Irish Vegetation Classification Technical Report No. 5 Table 2. continued. Number of plots of each Type Number of remit Dataset code/source Cover scale plots 1 2 3 4 TCD 008 Percentage 41 0 31 10 0 UCD 002 Braun-Blanquet (old) 1 0 0 0 1 UCD 017 Percentage 3 0 0 0 3 UCD 021 Braun-Blanquet (old) 226 142 3 81 0 Chenopodion Domin 30 20 10 0 0 Juniper Percentage 21 21 0 0 0 Sea cliffs Domin 49 19 30 0 0 Noise plots Various 54 54 0 0 0 Total 1,489 1,142 134 102 111 * This composite dataset has been split into its six components for ease of processing. 2.3 Preparation and assessment of data Syntrichia ruralis and Syntrichia ruraliformis are treated as two distinct species on the Ireland2008 checklist used by the NVD. However, Syntrichia ruraliformis has often been regarded as only a subspecies (e.g. Atherton et al., 2010; Blockeel et al., 2014) or variety (e.g. Smith, 2004) of Syntrichia ruralis, as evidenced by the list of synonyms in Gallego et al. (2002). Syntrichia ruraliformis is common on sand dunes and rare inland, whereas Syntrichia ruralis sensu stricto is rare on sand dunes but common in inland habitats (Smith, 2004).