I am a PhD student at UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH) Lancaster and Bangor University. I am studying the impacts of disturbance on succession trajectories of British broadleaved woodland. In the last 50 years, there has been a decline in understorey species richness in our native woodland and I want to find out why this is.

My hypothesis is centred around a major disturbance event that affected woodland across Britain. This event occured in the Second World War, when Britain was unable to import timber and has to fell native woodland. There is evidence of this felling across Britain. Following a major disturbance, a single cohort regenerates.

There has also been a decline in traditional management in the past 100 years. Traditional management creates minor disturbances throughout woodland which contrinute to the development of a heterogeneous canopy. With a single cohort following felling, and subsequent limited managament, it is likely that woodland that was felled is now middle aged and in a canopy closure stage of succession. This canopy closure may be what has led to shading and reduced understorey species richness in our woodlands. 

Supervisory Team:

Simon Smart- UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology Lancaster

John Healey- Bangor University

Alistair Jump- Stirling University

Tom Ovenden- Stirling University

I am harnessing a range of data sources to piece together the picture of disturbance and succession in British broadleaved woodland. I am using data from the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH) Bunce survey of British woodland. This survey was first undertaken in 1971, repeated in 2002 and is now undergoing a third iteration. This data gives me a picture of woodland succession in the past 50 years. View the current survey's progress here: Bunce Wood Dashboard (arcgis.com).

Alongside this data, I have been delving into archived data form the 1947 Woodland Census of Britain. This survey was undertaken to quantify British timber stocks following the widespread felling of the Second World War. Using this, I can link whether a woodland was felled with recent successional trajectories to identify the legacy effects of war-time felling.

I will also be using dendrochronological data to ascertain the age of canopy trees, and find out whether the oldest cohorts date back to a felling event in the Second World War. This will also give me an indication of any disturbance, including management, that has occured in the interim years.

I look forward to using modelling approaches to build up the picture of disturbance and succession in British broadleaved woodland.

My research is funded by the Envision DTP and CASE partnered by the Woodland Trust.