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Countryside Survey - Scottish results
25/06/2009
The results of the biggest and most comprehensive survey of Scotland's countryside and its natural resources are unveiled in a report published today.
The results identify how the main features of the countryside have changed and include fields, woods, ponds, heath and heather moorland areas, hedges and streams. They show how numbers of plant species have responded to changing land use, how habitat quality and vegetation condition has altered and how soils are recovering from the effects of acid pollutants.
Minister for Environment Roseanna Cunningham said:
"Scotland's landscapes and wildlife are part of our national identity and fundamental to our health, well-being and prosperity. Not only does our countryside sustain vital economic sectors, like farming, forestry and renewable energy production but society relies upon it to provide food and fresh water, to regulate our climate and for recreation.
"This report by the Countryside Survey Partnership report will assist us in managing the environment for a healthy and prosperous future and contribute to a wider knowledge base for education and research. Pressures such as climate change, pollution and changing land use requires us to find new ways of balancing the demands we make on our countryside and this report provides the necessary evidence to help us do just that."
Director of Policy and Advice, SNH, Professor Colin A Galbraith said:
"Countryside Survey provides us with facts about how Scotland's countryside is changing and by how much. We will use its results to interpret changes that have happened to wildlife, the appearance of the countryside, the productivity of farmland and woodland, and how they might influence the enjoyment that visitors gain from Scotland's varied landscape. Importantly, Countryside Survey provides a baseline of evidence to underpin the Scottish Rural Development Programme, context for evaluating the condition of protected areas, and evidence for developing policies relating to biodiversity and climate change.
"These latest findings provide us with a consistent, up-to-date overview of change across three decades to 2007. Uniquely, it combines the assessment of habitat extent and condition with structural elements in the landscape, such as hedges, the properties of soils and the condition of streams and ponds. As well as major changes, many small and subtle changes can happen almost imperceptibly through time, and are revealed by this snapshot assessment."
Lisa Norton from the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology and lead author of the Countryside Survey 2007 report, said:
"Countryside Survey always attracts the hardiest surveyors in Scotland, capable of recording vegetation in some of the most remote areas of the UK. Despite the hardships and adverse weather conditions the 2007 survey successfully covered 195 sample 1km squares in Scotland. The results provide a unique picture of change at the landscape scale showing a complex pattern of increases and decreases in the extent and condition of different habitat types across Scotland."
The main findings in Scotland are:
- The general picture in Scotland across the past decade is of improved ecological condition of streams, recovery from acidification in soils and restoration of broadleaved woodland
- Between 1998 and 2007 upland habitats remained stable to an extent. Grasslands, woodlands and arable areas showed larger shifts with the area of broadleaved and mixed woodland increasing by nine per cent reflecting new planting and the diversification of felled plantation forest
- Across the same period, changes in habitat condition indicate less intensive management of many habitats and increases in tall, fast-establishing species resulting in net loss of species across many upland and lowland habitats
- In headwater streams plant species richness was shown to have increased by nine per cent. The number of ponds also increased by five per cent, mainly in the lowlands
- Surface soils (less than 15cm deep) became less acidic indicating a gradual recovery from acid deposition in the past
Unless otherwise stated these results relate to Scotland. Results at the UK level were made available in November 2008.
Countryside Survey is funded by a partnership of government-funded bodies led by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). Other partners include: Natural England, Welsh Assembly Government, Scottish Government, Northern Ireland Environment Agency, the Forestry Commission, Countryside Council for Wales and Scottish Natural Heritage. Countryside Survey is conducted by NERC's Centre for Ecology & Hydrology.
A team of 80 specially trained scientists from the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology carried out the survey of 591 randomly selected one-kilometre square sites in England, Scotland and Wales during the summer of 2007. A complementary survey was carried out in Northern Ireland at the same time. 195 squares were surveyed in Scotland.