It has been a busy (and wet) summer. My main task for this summer was to come up with a monitoring protocol for limestone pavements. Monitoring in limestone pavements can be challenging due to the pavement structure. For example, if I were to place a quadrat randomly I could easily end up placing it in an area of solid rock. In the 1980’s there was a paper¹ which described a method for monitoring using transects along parallel and perpendicular grikes. The approach was definitely appropriate for intact pavements but challenging to apply in more open or damaged pavements. It was also quite labour intensive so perhaps less appropriate for applying outside a research arena. I decided to opt for a slightly more flexible approach using randomly placed transects along grikes but before I could finalise the protocol I needed to know how many meters of grike should be sampled within a given area to ensure most of the species present would be captured. To determine this I visited a wide variety of pavements recording species in 10 m transects. The approach worked well and I am now finalising the protocol.

In the latter part of this summer I have been establishing new experiments. This has been exciting because up to now there haven’t been any experiments in limestone pavements in the UK. Working with Forestry England I have been able to set up before and after monitoring in areas of clear felling and thinning. I have also utilised my previous survey data and repeated that to provide before and after monitoring in Ingleborough National Nature Reserve where sheep grazing has been removed. At Gait Barrows National Nature Reserve I have set up some plots to look at scrub removal and whether it is also necessary to remove bramble, these plots will be cut in the autumn. Finally on The Island at Hutton Roof National Nature Reserve I have been extremely fortunate in being able to set up a replicated block experiment to look at sycamore scrub removal. Using a replicated block approach is the best way to do experiments but it isn’t always possible. The scrub for this experiment will also be cut in the autumn.

Meanwhile we are in the process of establishing the partnership and have had the first steering group meeting. The website is up and running and the first conference will take place in the spring so watch this space!

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