Conservation Palaeoecology Lab - Britain's Atlantic Forest

Restoring and preserving Britain's ancient temperate Atlantic ecosystems

There is currently an ongoing effort to restore Britain’s lost Atlantic rainforests that are thought to have once stretched across the west coast Britain. Achieving this restoration goal partly involves identifying where forests once occupied and assessing the value of ecosystems, especially bogs that are believed to be currently occupying habitats suited for forest communities. This restoration program is undertaken under the broad umbrella of the Celtic Rainforest Program, Temperate Rainforest Restoration Program and the Alliance for Scottish Rainforest Program. IPPET will involve working with land managers in different areas to investigate localized long-term ecological questions in line with land managers' vision to identify restoration and conservation opportunites in the Altantic rainforest area.

Study locations:

Skiddaw, Lake District, northeast England: Skiddaw, located at the northern end of the Lake District, is a newly acquired site by Cumbria Wildlife Trust as part of the Skiddaw Forest Project, which aims to restore the largest area of Britain’s lost rainforests. Read more about the Skiddaw Rainforest Project here.

IPPET will provide insights into key questions relevant to restoration and management plans for Skiddaw. These questions include identifying plant communities that once occupied the site, particularly montane species, learning about the blanket bog present, understanding how climate and human land use have shaped ecosystems in the area, and assessing the relevance of this information to current management and restoration objectives.

Llnnyrch, Snowdonia, Wales: Llennyrch is a rare Atlantic oak woodland, one of the largest woodlands owned by the Woodland Trust in Wales, and part of the broader Snowdonia National Park area. Within Llennyrch, the Woodland Trust has recently acquired a peatland, and there is an interest in understanding its age and ecology, as well as to know whether trees (woodland) once grew on the site in order to inform management/restoration plans for the site. The Celtic Rainforest Project is also interested in this site, including its cultural land-use history.

Torrisdale, Kintyre, Scotland: Kintyre’s Atlantic Forest is rare as it hosts remnant old growths of ancient forests, as well as unique lichens and bryophyte species not found elsewhere in Britain. The forest communities are currently scattered across the area and there is an interest in mapping ancient forested sites in order to connect existing forest patches. Land managers are also interested in removing invasive species, and to understand long-term changes in forest communities, especially future trajectories.

Tayvallich, Argyll, Scotland

Highland Rewiliding aims to regenerate Scotland's landscape to increase carbon sequestration and biodiversity recovery, returning landscapes to their original forms as much as possible. Tayvallich is a 3000-acres of mosiac landscape of woody and non-woody communities, including degraded farmed lands. There is an interest in understanding natural processes within the landscape to identify new conservation and restoration opportunities. Restoration will also involve restoring natural ecological functions and not neccessarily only restoring original plant species.