Habitat Creation and Repair

by Gilbert, Oliver L.; Anderson, Penny

• ISBN13: 9780198549673
• ISBN10: 0198549679
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1998-07-16
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

With increasing public awareness of environmental issues, landscape managers and developers are being required to creatic substantial areas of naturalistic planting, particularly in urban areas, and to restore habitats degraded by building, development, or overuse. This book provides thedefinitive guide to habitat creation and repair, ranging from ethics, theory, and principles to the practical detail of designing habitats for wildlife. The authors, who have been working and teaching in the field for many years, draw on a wealth of practical experience - as well as an in-depthknowledge of the existing widely scattered literature - to provide an authoritative and accessible account of this rapidly developing subject. From coastal and freshwater ecosystems to mountains, forest, and grasslands, the book spans all of the major types of habitat to be found in the UK. OliverGilbert and Penny Anderson give advice on deciding when habitat creation is the correct path to follow, and then cover all steps from site survey through to the final design and actual realization of the scheme. For each habitat, the authors describe the options, problems, and solutions most likelyto be encountered, and give examples of good and bad habitat creation in practice drawn from the UK and other countries. Habitat Creation and Repair is the first comprehensive guide to habitat creation to be published for several years. It will be a key text for advanced undergraduate andpostgraduate courses in ecology, landscape architecture, resource management, and environmental science.With habitat conservation, creation, and repair increasingly a priority amongst planners, developers, and policy-makers, this book will also be welcomed by professional ecologists, environmentalconsultants, resource managers, and landscape architects.

Table of Contents

1 Introduction	1	(15)
The ethics of habitat creation	1	(2)
The role of habitat creation	3	(2)
Types of habitat creation	5	(2)
Strategic habitat creation	7	(3)
Some problems	10	(3)
Achievements to date	13	(3)
2 Designing new habitats: general principles	16	(22)
Setting objectives	16	(2)
Site context	18	(3)
Site survey	21	(10)
Ground preparation	31	(2)
Choosing the right plants	33	(4)
Long-term management and monitoring	37	(1)
3 Promoting natural succession	38	(16)
Principal factors controlling succession	40	(4)
Kick starting the succession	44	(3)
Natural reversion	47	(1)
Comparative rates of natural reversion	48	(2)
The technique in action	50	(4)
4 Grasslands	54	(38)
Introduction	54	(3)
Natural colonization	57	(2)
Sowing a seed mix	59	(20)
Creating grasslands for animals	79	(4)
Management	83	(4)
Diversifying existing dull grasslands	87	(4)
Monitoring	91	(1)
5 Woodland, scrub, and hedgerow	92	(38)
Positioning the wood in the landscape	92	(1)
Designing the wood	93	(2)
Establishment options	95	(4)
Species selection	99	(5)
Introduced species	104	(1)
Planting layout	105	(2)
Establishment	107	(4)
Introducing woodland herbs	111	(4)
Fauna	115	(6)
Scrub	121	(3)
Hedgerows	124	(6)
6 Heath and moor	130	(30)
Introduction	130	(4)
Ecological issues	134	(11)
Heathland creation techniques	145	(10)
Economic heathland establishment	155	(1)
Heath and moor creation for animals	156	(1)
Adding dwarf shrubs to existing vegetation	156	(1)
Post-establishment management	157	(3)
7 Montane and submontane habitats	160	(14)
Introduction	160	(2)
Repair and creation techniques: seed bank, turfing, transplants	162	(2)
Repair and creation techniques: seeding	164	(7)
Vegetation and soil reinforcement	171	(1)
Conclusion	172	(2)
8 The coast	174	(17)
Sand dunes	175	(5)
Saltmarshes	180	(3)
Intertidal sand and mudflats	183	(1)
Shingle structures	184	(1)
Saline lagoons	185	(2)
Maritime cliff grassland	187	(1)
Coastal heaths	188	(1)
Unprotected soft cliffs	189	(1)
Summary	190	(1)
9 Farmland	191	(13)
Changes in lowland farming since 1945	191	(1)
The opportunities	192	(2)
Arable land	194	(5)
Pastures and meadows	199	(2)
Heathland/scrub creation on rough grazing	201	(1)
New farm woodland	201	(1)
New hedgerows and farm trees	202	(1)
The farm conservation plan	203	(1)
10 Wetlands	204	(32)
The issues	204	(1)
The design and construction of wetlands	205	(9)
Ponds and lakes	214	(6)
Reed-beds	220	(1)
Wet grassland and duck marsh	221	(2)
Rivers and floodplains	223	(9)
Constructed wetlands	232	(3)
Summary	235	(1)
11 Getting it right	236	(10)
Project planning and design	236	(2)
The importance of using local genetic stock	238	(3)
Control of the contractor	241	(2)
Management, monitoring, and interpretation	243	(1)
Whole environment management	244	(1)
The benefits of habitat creation	245	(1)
References	246	(19)
Glossary	265	(4)
Index	269