The identification of ancient woodland: demonstrating antiquity and continuity - issues and approaches

This report presents an overview of the various types of evidence which can be used to determine whether a woodland site is likely to be designated as ‘ancient’ and discusses how these can be used as part of the decision making process. It has been commissioned by the Woodland Trust as part of their work promoting the value of ancient woodlands and getting the importance of such sites recognised through the planning process. An ancient woodland is defined as a woodland which has been continuously wooded from before 1600 AD. The evidence used to determine whether a site is ancient woodland is therefore: • evidence which indicates the continuity of woodland cover at a site from before 1600. • evidence which indicates that woodland was established post-1600 on a site. • evidence of a gap in woodland cover and the presence of other land uses, e.g. farmland, at that site since 1600. The robustness of the evidence sources varies, modern sources are often more robust and easier to verify but only demonstrate woodland cover in recent times. Care needs to be taken with all sources in their interpretation and use. Guidance has been provided regarding some of the potential limitations of the various types of evidence and recommendations have been made. General recommendations when seeking to identify/confirm an ancient woodland: • Ideally multiple sources of evidence should be obtained. • The reliability of the evidence used should be considered in the analysis. • A wide range of evidence sources should be consulted. • It needs to be recognised that absence of reference to a woodland on a map or in a document is not necessarily evidence of the absence of a woodland at that site. • In looking for evidence to determine whether a site is an ancient woodland it is as important to look for evidence that there was another land use at this site (i.e. evidence of a gap in woodland cover as shown by farmland on a map) as it is to look for evidence that there has been a continuity of woodland cover. • Field based evidence should normally be used to support map and archive evidence. However, ancient woodland plants can aid in ascribing antiquity where archive evidence alone is insufficient. • The evidence used to support the designation of a woodland as ancient or not needs to be clearly stated. As indicated previously, evaluation of the historical and other evidence for a site being an ancient woodland or not is a matter of judgement. Much of the evidence used is historic and not scientific, yet a rigorous scientific approach needs to be taken in determining the status of a possible ancient woodland site. It is recommended that in the near future further investigations into developing a more rigorous method for identifying and verifying the status of a site as an ancient woodland should be investigated. It is also recommended that the statutory agencies consider the development of detailed advice to consultants, planners and other workers involved in decisions relation to identify or potential ancient woodlands. It is hoped that this document may aid in this development

Market Efficiency and the NHL totals betting market: Is there an under bias?

Sports betting and racetrack markets continue to be utilized by academic researchers to provide insights into theories relating to more complex speculative markets. Previous investigations have focused on testing the efficient markets hypotheses and behavioral biases of the participants. This paper investigates the market efficiency of the National Hockey League (NHL) goal totals over/under betting market. The market is found to be inefficient and simple wagering strategies are identified that result in profitable returns.market efficiency, under bias, National Hockey League, sports betting markets, goal totals

Field surveys for ancient woodlands: Issues and Approaches

Field surveys of ancient woodlands and potential ancient woodlands can be undertaken for a variety of purposes, including: to help identify an Ancient Woodland, investigation into existing designated ancient woodlands, gathering information for site management and conservation decision making, assessing potential impacts of development, and making decisions on restoration etc. There is a variety of features in a woodland which can indicate whether it is an ancient woodland and can inform on the history and current ecological/historical value of the site. Many surveys of potential ancient woodlands have tended to focus on ancient woodland indicator species (AWIs), particularly Ancient Woodland Vascular Plants (AWVPs). Surveys which just focus on such indicators miss a lot of historical, archaeological and species information which can help confirm woodland continuity (i.e. that it is an ancient woodland) and/or identify features of historical and conservation value. There is a wide range of field survey techniques which can be used in ancient woodlands and a need to bring together the archaeological and ecological surveys in a single guide, hence this document. There are three broad types of feature to look for in an ancient woodland: • Ancient woodland vascular plant indicators; • Tree shape and form; and • Surface and buried archaeology. This report sets out survey methods for these features and advises on what to look for. Many important ecological and archaeological features can only be easily found at specific times of the year and surveying these features requires specific technical expertise and experience. Where surveys are undertaken outside the optimal period of time and/or are undertaken by individuals without the appropriate training and surveying expertise, the results should be treated with caution. Ideally several types of surveys of a woodland should be undertaken at different times of year to maximise the evidence collected and the robustness of this evidence. Where this is not possible, limitations in the surveys need to be stated and recognised in any analysis. In most cases field surveys should be combined with archive surveys (of site history, previous surveys etc.); this is particularly important when identifying ancient woodlands

Vegetation of Imbota and Yina Nature Reserves, Armidale, New South Wales

The vegetation of Imbota Nature Reserve (30° 35’S, 151° 45’E) (218 ha in area), 10 km south-east of Armidale, and Yina Nature Reserve (30° 29’S, 151° 45’E), (101 ha in area), 10 km east of Armidale, on the Northern Tablelands, NSW, is described. Based on classification analyses, air photo interpretation and ground-truthing, seven vegetation communities are described and mapped : 1. Eucalyptus caliginosa (Broad-leaved Stringybark) Grassy Forest and Woodland on deep soils at Imbota; 2. Eucalyptus viminalis (Manna Gum) Grassy Forest and Woodland, Community; 3. Eucalyptus caliginosa (Broad-leaved Stringybark) Grassy Forest and Woodland on shallow soils at Imbota; 4. Eucalyptus caliginosa (Broad-leaved Stringybark) Grassy Forest and Woodland at Yina; 5. Eucalyptus blakelyi (Blakely’s Red Gum) – Eucalyptus melliodora (Yellow Box) Woodland; 6. Eucalyptus viminalis (Manna Gum) – Eucalyptus nova-anglica (New England Peppermint) Grassy Forest and Woodland and 7. Riparian Herbfields 252 vascular plant taxa (from 59 families) were recorded from the two reserves, 179 species in Imbota NR, the larger reserve and 209 in Yina NR. The lower species richness at Imbota is likely to have resulted human disturbance rather than from overall habitat heterogeneity

Structure and composition of Androstachys johnsonii woodland across various strata in Gonarezhou National Park, southeast Zimbabwe

A study on the structure and composition of Androstachys johnsonii Prain (Euphorbiaceae) woodland across three strata was conducted in Gonarezhou National Park (GNP), southeast Zimbabwe. Specifically, the objectives of the study were: (i) to determine the spatial structure and composition of A. johnsonii woodland in GNP and (ii) to determine factors that influence the structure and composition of A. johnsonii woodland in GNP. This study was based on a stratified random design with three major soil groups, and 30 plots were sampled in May 2010. The three soil strata were comprised of soils derived from (i) rhyolite, (ii) malvernia and (iii) granophyre bedrocks. A total of 1258 woody plants were assessed and 41 woody species were recorded. There were significant differences in mean tree heights, tree densities, basal area and species diversity in A. johnsonii woodland across the three soil strata. In contrast, there were no significant differences in the mean number of dead plants per ha in the three study strata in the GNP. Our study findings suggest that A. johnsonii woodland in GNP is being degraded. GNP management should develop a monitoring program through establishing monitoring plots in A. johnsonii woodland, and further studies need to be carried out, particularly on recruitment of A. johnsonii in the GNP

Semi-tied Units for Efficient Gating in LSTM and Highway Networks

Gating is a key technique used for integrating information from multiple sources by long short-term memory (LSTM) models and has recently also been applied to other models such as the highway network. Although gating is powerful, it is rather expensive in terms of both computation and storage as each gating unit uses a separate full weight matrix. This issue can be severe since several gates can be used together in e.g. an LSTM cell. This paper proposes a semi-tied unit (STU) approach to solve this efficiency issue, which uses one shared weight matrix to replace those in all the units in the same layer. The approach is termed "semi-tied" since extra parameters are used to separately scale each of the shared output values. These extra scaling factors are associated with the network activation functions and result in the use of parameterised sigmoid, hyperbolic tangent, and rectified linear unit functions. Speech recognition experiments using British English multi-genre broadcast data showed that using STUs can reduce the calculation and storage cost by a factor of three for highway networks and four for LSTMs, while giving similar word error rates to the original models.Comment: To appear in Proc. INTERSPEECH 2018, September 2-6, 2018, Hyderabad, Indi

Activity and Diversity of Collembola (Insecta) and Mites (Acari) in Litter of a Degraded Midwestern Oak Woodland

Litter-inhabiting Collembola and mites were sampled using pitfall traps over a twelve-month period from four sub-communities within a 100-acre (40-ha) oak-woodland complex in northern Cook County, Illinois. Sampled locations included four areas where future ecological restoration was planned (mesic woodland, dry-mesic woodland, mesic upland forest, and buckthorn-dominated savanna) and a mesic woodland control that would not be restored. Fifty-eight mite and 30 Collembola taxa were identified out of 5,308 and 190,402 individuals trapped, respectively. There was a significant positive relationship between litter mass and both mite diversity and the ratio of Oribatida to Prostigmata and a significant negative relationship between Collembola diversity and litter. Based on multivariate analysis, Collembola and mite composition differed by sub-community and season interaction

A survey of the coverage, use and application of ancient woodland indicator lists in the UK

This report presents the results of a survey into the current use of ancient woodland indicator species lists in the UK. The idea of using species particularly vascular plants as indicators of ancient woodlands can be dated back to the 1970s and the work of Peterken. Since then a wide number of lists of Ancient Woodland Indicators (AWIs)have been produced, some based on expert opinions, some utilising field surveys, others adapted from existing lists. Recently developed lists, e.g. the lists for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have been based on either robust reviews of existing lists, and/or expert opinion and/or field surveys and statistical analysis. Concerns however have been expressed regarding the use of lists and these concerns appear to be supported by the uncritical use of indicator species in recent planning inquiries, e.g. not recognising that indicators are indicators and considering them to be the key value of a woodland. A survey was undertaken of relevant individuals working in biological record centres, local authorities and key agencies across the UK. The survey sought to identify what lists of Ancient Woodland Indicators are currently in use, where possible to determine the methods used in developing these lists. The survey also sought to assess the awareness of ancient woodland indicator lists and review the ways in which these were used. A total of 419 questionnaires were sent out; a response rate of 11% was obtained. Follow up phone conversations were held with key individuals involved in developing ancient woodland indicator lists. Responses were received from all counties excluding: Buckinghamshire, Cheshire, Essex, Huntingdonshire, Middlesex, Northamptonshire, Staffordshire, Wiltshire and Worcestershire. In addition, the Lancashire respondent stated there was no AWI list for Lancashire. The key findings of the survey were: • There is a wide variety of lists of Ancient Woodland Indicators lists available covering most of the UK. • Most individuals using indicator lists are unaware of the methods used to produce the lists and therefore of their robustness. Some key stakeholders are unaware of the existence of indicator lists in their area. • Attitudes to ancient woodland indicator lists are variable, as is their use. • Few lists use species thresholds or weightings in determining whether a site is ancient, several lists are currently under review. • There are over 200 species listed on the various Ancient Woodland Indicators lists, few species are common to more than a quarter of the lists

The Ambient Horn: Designing a novel audio-based learning experience

The Ambient Horn is a novel handheld device designed to support children learning about habitat distributions and interdependencies in an outdoor woodland environment. The horn was designed to emit non-speech audio sounds representing ecological processes. Both symbolic and arbitrary mappings were used to represent the processes. The sounds are triggered in response to the children’s location in certain parts of the woodland. A main objective was to provoke children into interpreting and reflecting upon the significance of the sounds in the context in which they occur. Our study of the horn being used showed the sounds to be provocative, generating much discussion about what they signified in relation to what the children saw in the woodland. In addition, the children appropriated the horn in creative ways, trying to ‘scoop’ up new sounds as they walked in different parts of the woodland