Field Sites

We use a variety of field sites in the UK and further afield for our research:

		MOUNTAINS Much of our research is done in the mountains of Britain, Europe and New Zealand. Mountains provide an exhilarating and inspirational stage for ecological research. They also provide excellent model systems for studying how organisms survive in extreme environments and how communities and ecosystems are shaped by environmental change.

		GLACIER FORELANDS Glacial recession over the past 150 to 250 years has left glacier forelands with spatially ordered sequences of terrain age. They represent natural experiments showing ecosystem assembly from barren moraines at the glacier front to well-developed vegetation at the terminal moraines. We use glacier forelands in Austria, Alaska, and New Zealand to study how microbial communities and ecosystem processes develop over time.

		HERB-RICH HAY MEADOWS Haymeadows of northern England support a vast diversity of plants and are a striking feature of the Dales landscape. Some 95% of these haymeadows have been subject to intensive farming leading to marked declines in plant species diversity. Our work is trying to understand what controls plant species diversity in these grasslands and how agriculturally improved meadows might be restored to their original, flower-rich condition.

		UPLAND GRASSLAND AND HEATHLAND The mainstay of our research is the study of unproductive, semi-natural plant communities of upland Britain, including hill grassland and heathland. These communities are of major importance to agriculture and conservation because they make-up the bulk of rough grazing for sheep in upland Britain. We study how herbivores influence soil biological processes and plant production at sites in Snowdonia, the Lake District, and Scotland.

		PEATLAND Deep peat develops at high altitudes where high rainfall and low evapotranspiration combine to cause excessive soil wetness that retards decomposition. These peatlands are of special significance because they represent a significant (circa. 30%) store of global terrestrial C. We are studying the factors that influence C cycling in peatland. These studies are done at Moor House National Nature Reserve, northern England.

		FORESTS In recent years, we have become interested in studying belowground controls on the productivity of natural forests. We are especially interested in studying the importance of nutrient limitation (N and P) in old growth forests and trees growing at the treeline. We use a number of forests sites around the world, including sites in boreal, temperate and tropical regions.