Long-term woodland restoration on lowland farmland through passive rewilding.

Natural succession of vegetation on abandoned farmland provides opportunities for passive rewilding to re-establish native woodlands, but in Western Europe the patterns and outcomes of vegetation colonisation are poorly known. We combine time series of field surveys and remote sensing (lidar and pho...

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Autores principales:	Richard K Broughton, James M Bullock, Charles George, Ross A Hill, Shelley A Hinsley, Marta Maziarz, Markus Melin, J Owen Mountford, Tim H Sparks, Richard F Pywell
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2021
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/36cbb98eef8f4d96a64425e6dea2183a
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:36cbb98eef8f4d96a64425e6dea2183a2021-12-02T20:10:35ZLong-term woodland restoration on lowland farmland through passive rewilding.1932-620310.1371/journal.pone.0252466https://doaj.org/article/36cbb98eef8f4d96a64425e6dea2183a2021-01-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0252466https://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203Natural succession of vegetation on abandoned farmland provides opportunities for passive rewilding to re-establish native woodlands, but in Western Europe the patterns and outcomes of vegetation colonisation are poorly known. We combine time series of field surveys and remote sensing (lidar and photogrammetry) to study woodland development on two farmland fields in England over 24 and 59 years respectively: the New Wilderness (2.1 ha) abandoned in 1996, and the Old Wilderness (3.9 ha) abandoned in 1961, both adjacent to ancient woodland. Woody vegetation colonisation of the New Wilderness was rapid, with 86% vegetation cover averaging 2.9 m tall after 23 years post-abandonment. The Old Wilderness had 100% woody cover averaging 13.1 m tall after 53 years, with an overstorey tree-canopy (≥ 8 m tall) covering 91%. By this stage, the structural characteristics of the Old Wilderness were approaching those of neighbouring ancient woodlands. The woody species composition of both Wildernesses differed from ancient woodland, being dominated by animal-dispersed pedunculate oak Quercus robur and berry-bearing shrubs. Tree colonisation was spatially clustered, with wind-dispersed common ash Fraxinus excelsior mostly occurring near seed sources in adjacent woodland and hedgerows, and clusters of oaks probably resulting from acorn hoarding by birds and rodents. After 24 years the density of live trees in the New Wilderness was 132/ha (57% oak), with 390/ha (52% oak) in the Old Wilderness after 59 years; deadwood accounted for 8% of tree stems in the former and 14% in the latter. Passive rewilding of these 'Wilderness' sites shows that closed-canopy woodland readily re-established on abandoned farmland close to existing woodland, it was resilient to the presence of herbivores and variable weather, and approached the height structure of older woods within approximately 50 years. This study provides valuable long-term reference data in temperate Europe, helping to inform predictions of the potential outcomes of widespread abandonment of agricultural land in this region.Richard K BroughtonJames M BullockCharles GeorgeRoss A HillShelley A HinsleyMarta MaziarzMarkus MelinJ Owen MountfordTim H SparksRichard F PywellPublic Library of Science (PLoS)articleMedicineRScienceQENPLoS ONE, Vol 16, Iss 6, p e0252466 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Richard K Broughton James M Bullock Charles George Ross A Hill Shelley A Hinsley Marta Maziarz Markus Melin J Owen Mountford Tim H Sparks Richard F Pywell Long-term woodland restoration on lowland farmland through passive rewilding.
description	Natural succession of vegetation on abandoned farmland provides opportunities for passive rewilding to re-establish native woodlands, but in Western Europe the patterns and outcomes of vegetation colonisation are poorly known. We combine time series of field surveys and remote sensing (lidar and photogrammetry) to study woodland development on two farmland fields in England over 24 and 59 years respectively: the New Wilderness (2.1 ha) abandoned in 1996, and the Old Wilderness (3.9 ha) abandoned in 1961, both adjacent to ancient woodland. Woody vegetation colonisation of the New Wilderness was rapid, with 86% vegetation cover averaging 2.9 m tall after 23 years post-abandonment. The Old Wilderness had 100% woody cover averaging 13.1 m tall after 53 years, with an overstorey tree-canopy (≥ 8 m tall) covering 91%. By this stage, the structural characteristics of the Old Wilderness were approaching those of neighbouring ancient woodlands. The woody species composition of both Wildernesses differed from ancient woodland, being dominated by animal-dispersed pedunculate oak Quercus robur and berry-bearing shrubs. Tree colonisation was spatially clustered, with wind-dispersed common ash Fraxinus excelsior mostly occurring near seed sources in adjacent woodland and hedgerows, and clusters of oaks probably resulting from acorn hoarding by birds and rodents. After 24 years the density of live trees in the New Wilderness was 132/ha (57% oak), with 390/ha (52% oak) in the Old Wilderness after 59 years; deadwood accounted for 8% of tree stems in the former and 14% in the latter. Passive rewilding of these 'Wilderness' sites shows that closed-canopy woodland readily re-established on abandoned farmland close to existing woodland, it was resilient to the presence of herbivores and variable weather, and approached the height structure of older woods within approximately 50 years. This study provides valuable long-term reference data in temperate Europe, helping to inform predictions of the potential outcomes of widespread abandonment of agricultural land in this region.
format	article
author	Richard K Broughton James M Bullock Charles George Ross A Hill Shelley A Hinsley Marta Maziarz Markus Melin J Owen Mountford Tim H Sparks Richard F Pywell
author_facet	Richard K Broughton James M Bullock Charles George Ross A Hill Shelley A Hinsley Marta Maziarz Markus Melin J Owen Mountford Tim H Sparks Richard F Pywell
author_sort	Richard K Broughton
title	Long-term woodland restoration on lowland farmland through passive rewilding.
title_short	Long-term woodland restoration on lowland farmland through passive rewilding.
title_full	Long-term woodland restoration on lowland farmland through passive rewilding.
title_fullStr	Long-term woodland restoration on lowland farmland through passive rewilding.
title_full_unstemmed	Long-term woodland restoration on lowland farmland through passive rewilding.
title_sort	long-term woodland restoration on lowland farmland through passive rewilding.
publisher	Public Library of Science (PLoS)
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/36cbb98eef8f4d96a64425e6dea2183a
work_keys_str_mv	AT richardkbroughton longtermwoodlandrestorationonlowlandfarmlandthroughpassiverewilding AT jamesmbullock longtermwoodlandrestorationonlowlandfarmlandthroughpassiverewilding AT charlesgeorge longtermwoodlandrestorationonlowlandfarmlandthroughpassiverewilding AT rossahill longtermwoodlandrestorationonlowlandfarmlandthroughpassiverewilding AT shelleyahinsley longtermwoodlandrestorationonlowlandfarmlandthroughpassiverewilding AT martamaziarz longtermwoodlandrestorationonlowlandfarmlandthroughpassiverewilding AT markusmelin longtermwoodlandrestorationonlowlandfarmlandthroughpassiverewilding AT jowenmountford longtermwoodlandrestorationonlowlandfarmlandthroughpassiverewilding AT timhsparks longtermwoodlandrestorationonlowlandfarmlandthroughpassiverewilding AT richardfpywell longtermwoodlandrestorationonlowlandfarmlandthroughpassiverewilding
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Long-term woodland restoration on lowland farmland through passive rewilding.

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