Heathland field trip How Polluted!?

1. Heathland field trip How Polluted!? © Amy Rogers © Carl Corbidge © Amy Rogers © Amy Rogers

2. Welcome to site name!

3. What are you going to do today? • You will be spending today acting as an environmental scientist • You will be monitoring a very special habitat – lowland heathland • You will use three different techniques to investigate whether pollution (specifically, nitrogen pollution) is affecting the ecology of site name • Your results could help inform the management of site name

4. Objectives: • Explain what Nitrogen pollution is, where it comes from and why it’s a problem • Use bioindicators to assess environmental conditions; • Use a quadrat to sample vegetation • Identify common plant species that occur in heathlands • Measure different parts of the physical environment (abiotic factors) • Explain how the physical environment can affect the organisms that live there

5. What is lowland heathland? © Lauren Gough • Is found at elevations of less than 300 m above sea-level • Is an open habitat with few trees • Is dominated by dwarf shrubs, particularly heather • Has sandy, acidic, low-nutrient soils

6. How did heathland form? • Historically woodland was cleared to provide land for grazing and agriculture • When the nutrients in the soil were depleted the farmers cultivated new areas • Heathland became established on the abandoned areas 7,000 years ago Lowland Britain forested. 6,000 – 4,000 years ago Woodland cleared for farming. 4,000 years ago Heathland formed.

7. What lives there? Contains over 500 species of spiders Most important habitat in the UK for reptiles © Carl Corbidge Four bird species associated primarily with this habitat. Three are on the Red List!

8. Heathland is a very rare habitat • Since 1800 the UK has lost over 80% of it’s lowland heathland • Heathland is rarer than tropical rainforest! • The UK still has 20% of the world’s total amount!

9. What is threatening heathland? • Loss due to fire and house building • Damage from inappropriate use (e.g. dirt bike riding) • Nitrogen pollution

10. What causes nitrogen pollution? • Nitrogen pollution is caused by nitrogen-containing compounds such as nitric oxide (NO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and ammonia (NH3) • Nitrogen pollution is a consequence of human activity e.g. NOX from burning fossil fuels, and NH3 from agricultural practices

11. What is nitrogen deposition? • Nitrogen deposition occurs when nitrogen pollutants enter the soil via either rainfall or the direct deposition of gases NH3 & NOX

12. Why are we worried about N deposition? • Nitrogen deposition can increase the fertility of heathland soils • Increased fertility can affect which plant species are able to survive in the heathland • If the vegetation is affected, the animals that live in the heathland will also be affected

13. What are you going to do?

14. Activity A • Your task - use a simple soil test kit to measure the pH and nitrogen content of the heathland soil • Healthy heathland soil should be acidic. What range of pH values might you find if the heathland is healthy? • What kind of nitrogen content should the soil have if the heathland is not being affected by nitrogen pollution?

15. Activity B • Your task – use bioindicators (lichens) to find out about the air quality and levels of nitrogen pollution in the heathland • Some lichen species are tolerant of nitrogen pollution whereas others need clean air to survive • Lichens are formed of two organisms, a fungus and an alga, living in symbiosis

16. Activity C • Your task – using a quadrat, investigate whether or not the heathland vegetation is being affected by nitrogen deposition. • Nitrogen deposition favours fast-growing species like bramble, bracken and grass which can out-compete heathland plants such as heather and gorse. • A healthy (i.e., unpolluted) heathland should have an average percentage cover of heather of at least 25% and no more than 50% cover of grass.

17. Activity C – Random Sampling • When sampling vegetation your quadrats should be placed randomly to avoid bias 50m • We will do this by creating a grid from two 50m tape measures • You will generate random co-ordinates using a calculator to find out where to place your quadrat within the grid 26m 0m 0m 50m 13m

18. Activity C - using quadrats to measure plant percentage cover • Place the quadrat over the area of vegetation to be surveyed • Look at the quadrat from directly above • The total area of ground within the quadrat is 100% • For each plant species, estimate the % area of the quadrat that it covers © Peter Crittenden

19. Activity C - using quadrats to measure plant percentage cover You need to be consistent in the way you collect the data. In your group, think about the following questions and decide how you will collect your data The plant is rooted in the quadrat, but all of its leaves fall outside the quadrat. Do you include it in your results for this quadrat? The plant is not rooted in the quadrat, but some of its leaves fall in the quadrat. Do you include it in your results for this quadrat?