Environmental monitoring results: Edale water table

In our last post we showed the monthly and seasonal average (mean) air temperatures collected by Community Science volunteers from our Edale environmental monitoring site, which is situated at about 605m above sea level on Kinder Scout.

Another variable which volunteers monitor at the same site is the water table depth - i.e. how far beneath the peat surface water sits. Thanks again to Andy Burn for producing these graphs which summarise water table depth figures for 2016 and 2017 by month and by season:

Environmental monitoring results: Edale temperature

Over the next few weeks, we'll post a series of blogs showing some of the results for our Community Science monitoring sites in graphical format.

We'll start with here temperature information collected from our Edale site on Kinder Scout  - which shows monthly as well a seasonal averages across the years of monitoring so far.

Huge thanks to volunteer Andy Burn for producing these graphs:

 

 

On the twelth day of Christmas my true love sent to me...

...12 plovers flapping,

 

The golden plover (Pluvialis apricaria) is a wading bird, slightly smaller than a lapwing, which in the summer breeds in the uplands of northern Britain. Moors for the Future Partnership's work to re-vegetate and re-wet the blanket bogs of the South Pennines should have a beneficial impact on this bird, and other waders such as dunlin. Bird surveys at RSPB's Dove Stone estate on the western side of the Peak District have shown that breeding pairs of golden plover present on the site have almost doubled from 59 in 2004 to 110 in 2017, as a result of blanket bog conservation work.

 

11 bags for brashing,

 

 

10 geese migrating,

 

 

9 plants a-pluggin',

 

 

8 Sphagna growing,

 

 

7 sites now set up,

 

 

 

6 leaves a-prickling,

 

 

5 red deer!

 

 

4 hare prints,

 

 

3 lizards,

 

 

 

2 mating toads,

 

and a bilberry bumblebee!

 

On the eighth day of Christmas my true love sent to me...

...8 Sphagna growing

 

Sphagnum mosses are a group of small but incredible plants, which have enabled metres of peat to build up on our blanket bogs over thousands of years. Sphagnum mosses are brilliant at retaining water, and also produce an anti-microbial chemical called 'sphagnan'. This means that dying plant material doesn't rot down and instead accumulates to form a dark black 'soil' - peat. Peat is a great store of carbon - so the historical loss of Sphagnum mosses from our South Pennine bogs is something Moors for the Future Partnership is working to reverse. Through Community Science, volunteers have been out surveying Sphagnum mosses and adding to 'The Big Moss Map'.

7 sites now set up,

 

 

 

6 leaves a-prickling,

 

 

5 red deer!

 

 

4 hare prints, 

 

3 lizards,

 

 

 

2 mating toads,

 

and a bilberry bumblebee!

 

On the seventh day of Christmas my true love sent to me...

...7 sites now set up,

 

Community Science volunteers have now set up and are monitoring seven 'eco-lab' sites across the South Pennine Moors and beyond. Edale, Black Hill, Marsden, Burbage, Chatsworth, Roaches and Holcombe Moor are now regularly having detailed information about their vegetation and climate collected. These long-term datasets will allow our volunteer scientists to see how the sites are changing over time in response to climate change.

6 leaves a-prickling,

 

5 red deer!

 

4 hare prints, 

 

3 lizards,

 

 

2 mating toads,

 

and a bilberry bumblebee!

 

A volunteer celebration walk

Dec 8th 2017 saw our hardy volunteers wrap up for a celebratory walk on to Kinder Scout.

What were we celebrating? Well, not just that Christmas is coming. This social event allowed us to salute Community Science's brilliant volunteers for all their fantastic efforts through the year, and also to thank them for helping the project to win this year's prestigious 'Park protector Award' - awarded by the Campaign for National Parks.

Volunteers were joined by Peak District National Park CEO Sarah Fowler, and Head of Programme Delivery at Moors for the Future Partnership - Chris Dean - who was also celebrating 15 years at the Partnership.

At the plateau, Phil from the Partnership's Conservation and Land Management team talked about some of the wider conservation work that has been happening in the area, but the -14C windchill meant the stop was short and sweet! 2017 has been a great year for the project, and the snowy views and mince pies were a perfect way to round it off.

Photographic competition

Adventures in the Uplands - photo competition top tips!

The Uplands of Great Britain provide us all with a fantastic opportunity for exploration and adventure. With the theme of ‘Adventures in the Uplands’ you have the opportunity to highlight exciting but responsible use of the wild places you explore - be they mountains, moorlands, upland woodlands or bogs.

Here are a few tips to help you on your way to creating images of your adventures:

1.    Find the lines

Many striking images rely on ‘lead-in lines’. This could be any kind of line that the observers eye can follow through the image, providing impact and focus to the picture. Footpaths are a great example to be found in the uplands.

2.    It’s all in the detail

A great photo of the uplands doesn’t have to be a landscape. Observe people’s activities and focus on the details of what they’re doing.  Maybe it’s the water splashes while playing in puddles or a climber’s grip as they hang on for dear life!

3.    Find the interesting perspective

 
Don’t be afraid to look at a scene from many angles and perspectives to make your picture stand out from the crowd. Also think about using the light to create interesting effects like silhouettes.

4.    Go wide

 
One of our favourite things about the uplands is the wide open views they provide. Consider creating panoramic pictures to take in the entire landscape.

5.    Shoot mono

 
Black and white images can help bring out the texture in a scene in a way colour images can’t. Try thinking in monochrome to create really eye-catching photos. 


To find out more and to enter the competition, visit the Moors for the Future Partnership website. Good luck!

Photo competition display - on tour!

Images on display in Bakewell Gallery

A display of the winning, runner-up and selected short-listed photos from our 'water in the uplands' themed photographic competition is now touring venues throughout the summer and into autumn. You can visit the exhibition at the venues below; and we will add more dates to the list when new venues are confirmed.

26th May - 9th June: Gallery Oldham
9th June - 23rd June: Totley Library
23rd June - 7th July - Bakewell Tourist Information Centre
7th July - 21st July - Sheffield Central Library
21st July - 4th August - Marsden Moor Exhibition Centre (National Trust)
4th August - 18th August - Brownhill Countryside Centre, Greater Manchester
18th August - 1st September - Hayfield Library
1st September - 15th September - University of Sheffield -Western Bank Library
15th September - 23rd September - Edale Visitor Centre and 'BogFest'

Storm Angus

The UK was battered by rain and high winds in November this year as a storm named 'Angus' made an appearance.

Angus hit the south of England during the 19^th and 20^th of November, but it wasn't until the day after when the heavy rains had moved north and reached the Peak District and South Pennines, that we were able to record the storm.

This blog post looks at how the equipment installed on our Community Science environmental monitoring sites reacted to this event. 

Volunteers collect information from these sites each month, and use the same equipment and methods as Moors for the Future science team do on other sites where conservation works have taken place. In this case though, we're interested in capturing long-term climate datasets on sites where conservation works haven't taken place.

The bar chart below shows how much rain fell on each of our five sites over four days:

Click on the image to see a larger version

Marsden had the most consistent rainfall with 71.2 mm recorded across the four days. Despite Holme only recording rainfall on the second couple of days of the storm (21st and 22nd), it received the second highest amount, with 73 mm in total. The Roaches had 45.6 mm over the four days and Edale had a surprisingly small 33.6 mm. Out in front was Burbage Moor, which recorded a total of 78mm over the 4 days, with nearly 70% of this falling on Monday 21st.

So how did all this water behave once it reached the ground? The line graph below shows how the water table on the sites changed over the days around the storm. The 'zero' mark on the left hand axis represents ground level, and each line shows how close to the surface the water was (in metres) over the four days of the 'official' storm, and a couple of days afterwards.

Click on the image to see a larger version

We can't be certain what is happening here, but from a quick look at the graph we could surmise that despite having less rainfall than the other sites the water table at Edale (the driest of the sites) increased the most, jumping up by around 10 cm, before rapidly decreasing again as water drained away. 

The Roaches water table also had a sharp increase, however as the water on the site is consistently close to the surface, it only increased to around ground level - but then seemed to stay there, possibly because the site has plenty of Sphagnum moss, and clay underlying the peat layer. 

On the Holme site the water was also already close to the surface, and despite having very high rainfall, the water table didn’t change dramatically, or as quickly. 

Marsden did show an increase in water table - but it was gradual and the new higher level was maintained in the days after the storm event. The site is very flat and also contains Sphagnum moss among its vegetation, which could perhaps help to explain this pattern. 

The site which had the most rainfall (Burbage) also showed a small response - the water was almost at surface level; and you can see it even exceeds zero, forming a puddle! This is another very flat site and does have some Sphagnum moss present. 

The complexity of  hydrological data - taking into account the many variables which can affect the way water behaves on a site - means that we cannot draw any firm conclusions just yet. However, our volunteers will be analysing our environmental data in more depth in the near future...

Graphs and text by volunteer Mollie Hunt, and the CSP team....

A celebration of the rowan tree

For National Tree Week, Community Science project officer Tom Aspinall has written a blog to celebrate the rowan...

Every time I see a rowan tree my love for them grows! They truly are one of the most stunning trees that we have in Great Britain.

There’s also so much to learn about them beyond their obvious aesthetic beauty...

Of all the trees growing in our country, the rowan is the one able to grow at the highest altitudes. This explains one half of its other common name – the mountain ash. You can walk in the mountains of Scotland, England, Ireland and Wales and find rowan trees growing in the most obscure places such as rocky outcrops and cliff faces – they really are a hardy tree. However, they are a pioneer species and as a result are short-lived and often relatively small, usually reaching a maximum height of 10-15 metres.

The second half of the other common name comes from the close resemblance of their leaves to those of the ash tree. This is another of our stunning native species, but one which favours lower lands than the rowan. The leaves of both these species are compound and pinnate, meaning they are made up of several leaflets in pairs along the main leaf stem with one at the tip, as can be seen in the image of a rowan leaf below.

Whilst these leaves are distinctive, it is the beautiful clusters of small cream flowers that then turn to scarlet red berries that really make the rowan stand out from the crowd. The flowers are a great source of nectar and pollen for pollinating insects such as bumblebees, and the berries are a valuable source of food for many species of birds including thrushes and waxwings. There is no greater sight than seeing a flock of waxwings feeding on the berries of a rowan tree in late autumn.

Illustration (c) Chris Shields

 Ecologically, the rowan is a very important tree in our countryside - but it also has strong cultural significance - in no small part due to the vivid red colouration of those berries. The colour red has long been thought of as the colour to ward off evil and so rowan trees were once planted near houses to keep evil spirits away. Its Celtic name – ‘fid na ndruad' – means ‘wizard’s tree’.

Names can tell us many things, and with all species of animals and plants it’s worth trying to learn and understand the scientific name to gain further insight into the history of a species. Rowan’s scientific name is Sorbus aucuparia with ‘aucuparia’ being derived from the words ‘avis’ for birds and ‘capere’ for catching, describing the use of rowan trees as bait to lure in birds to be caught.

The rowan is one of four plants associated with the uplands that volunteers have been monitoring as part of our ‘Buds, Berries and Leaves’ survey. This survey records the timing of natural events (such as bud burst, flowering, fruiting and leaf fall) over the long term, to see if they are changing.

In this way we hope to be able to monitor the effects of climate change on the vegetation of the uplands. If you’re interested in contributing to important climate change data by walking a regular route and recording what you see, then please have a look on our website for more details: http://www.moorsforthefuture.org.uk/community-science/berries-buds-and-leaves


I hope you’ll agree that rowan truly is a jewel of our countryside and definitely a tree worth appreciating.