Ecological Responses to Climate Variability in West Cornwall

Recent (post-1950s) climate change impacts on society and ecosystems have been recognised globally. However these global impacts are not uniform at regional or local scales. Despite research progress on such scales there are still gaps in the knowledge as to ‘what’ is happening and ‘where’? The goal of this study addresses some of these gaps by analysing climate variability and vegetation response at the furthest south westerly peninsula of the United Kingdom. This research is focused on West Cornwall (South West England) – an area dominated by a strong maritime influence. The first part of this PhD research analysed archive and contemporary instrumental data in order to detect any trends in climate variability. The weather data was retrieved from the Met Office archive for Camborne 1957–2010 and Culdrose 1985–2011 stations; Trengwainton Garden (1940–2010), and from the Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society, for Falmouth (1880–1952) and Helston (1843–1888). The data showed positive trends in mean annual and maximum temperature with the largest trend magnitude in the 20th and 21st century. Seasonal temperature change varies locally with the highest increase in autumn spring and summer. Precipitation trends were only positive for the 19th century for Helston. Correlation between precipitation data and North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO index) was negative, however the opposite result was detected when the NAO index was correlated with temperatures. Surprisingly, return period analysis showed a decrease in the frequency and intensity of extreme precipitation events post 1975 for Camborne and Trengwainton Garden stations. The second part of this study analysed changes in vegetation distribution in West Cornwall using historical and contemporary vegetation records. Historical vegetation records were used from the Flora of Cornwall collection of herbarium records and contemporary vegetation records which were available online, containing mainly the “New Atlas of British and Irish flora”. Data sets were geo-referenced using ArcGIS in order to analyse changes in species geographical distribution pre and post-1900. Analysis showed that historical vegetation records can be used to assess any changes in geographic distributions of vegetation. Analysis for the area of West Cornwall showed a loss of range for 18 species, for 6 species this loss was larger than 50% of the area, and there was no change in overall range area for 10 species. Ellenberg values and environmental indicator values showed that they can be used as an indicator of environmental change, showing a decrease in species with lower January temperatures. Analysis also showed an increase in moderate wetter species, where species with extreme low and high precipitation environmental indicator values showed a greater loss. Furthermore species with a higher requirement for light showed a loss as well as species with lower nitrogen values. To analyse the loss of species at the local scale, West Cornwall was divided into three areas (North Border Cells, Central West Cornwall Cells and South Border Cells). The highest loss of 11 species was detected for South Border Cells, where the loss for Central West Cornwall Cells was 6 and for North Border Cells 8 species. It was found that 17 species were experiencing loss on different local sites. For 9 of these 17 species, change at the local scale was different to the national scale change at the individual species level, group level and habitat level. Furthermore, the whole area of West Cornwall lost two species post-1900, with a different loss locally. This showed that species could be protected locally in appropriate microclimate refugia, which will be of benefit for the preservation of regional identity ecosystem services and overall genetic pool of the species

Changes in the geographical distribution of plant species and climatic variables on the West Cornwall peninsula (South West UK)

Recent climate change has had a major impact on biodiversity and has altered the geographical distribution of vascular plant species. This trend is visible globally; however, more local and regional scale research is needed to improve understanding of the patterns of change and to develop appropriate conservation strategies that can minimise cultural, health, and economic losses at finer scales. Here we describe a method to manually geo-reference botanical records from a historical herbarium to track changes in the geographical distributions of plant species in West Cornwall (South West England) using both historical (pre-1900) and contemporary (post-1900) distribution records. We also assess the use of Ellenberg and climate indicator values as markers of responses to climate and environmental change. Using these techniques we detect a loss in 19 plant species, with 6 species losing more than 50% of their previous range. Statistical analysis showed that Ellenberg (light, moisture, nitrogen) and climate indicator values (mean January temperature, mean July temperature and mean precipitation) could be used as environmental change indicators. Significantly higher percentages of area lost were detected in species with lower January temperatures, July temperatures, light, and nitrogen values, as well as higher annual precipitation and moisture values. This study highlights the importance of historical records in examining the changes in plant species’ geographical distributions. We present a method for manual geo-referencing of such records, and demonstrate how using Ellenberg and climate indicator values as environmental and climate change indicators can contribute towards directing appropriate conservation strategies

THE BIOACTIVITY OF THE ACETONIC EXTRACTS OF HERICIUM CLATHROIDES AND AURICULARIA MESENTERICA

Hericium clathroides and Auricularia mesenterica present insufficiently studied species of fungi in the subphylum Basidiomycotina. In this manuscript we have explored the bioactivity of their acetonic extracts. We determined the antimicrobial and antioxidative activities in vitro, as well as the total phenolic and flavonoid content of extracts. Our results indicate that the tested species of fungi possess relatively good antimicrobial and antioxidative properties, which opens the way for further research and potential application of these species for biomedical purposes.Publishe

Pathways towards sustainable and just futures with and for disabled populations: a leverage points perspective

ABSTRACTDisabled populations are disproportionally affected by the current climate and environmental crises. However, they are hardly included and their knowledge is neglected in processes addressing these challenges. To achieve the UN Agenda 2030, societies should actively engage with the values, experiences and knowledge held by people with disabilities in science and policy contexts. In this paper, we suggest that addressing ‘deep’ leverage points by 1) recognising diverse valuations of and connections to nature by different social groups (i.e. re-connecting to nature), 2) including disabled populations in decision-making and knowledge creation (i.e. re-structuring institutions), and 3) promoting inclusive education and knowledge generation (i.e. re-thinking knowledge production) can facilitate the development of inclusive transformation pathways and foster sustainable human-nature relationships

An inclusive future : disabled populations in the context of climate and environmental change

Climate and environmental change impacts are projected to increase, constituting a significant challenge for meeting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) while disproportionately affecting disabled populations. However, current research lacks knowledge on context-specific impacts of climate and environmental change on disabled populations. We use the environmental justice perspective that emphasises distributional, recognitional, and procedural dimensions regarding disabled populations to understand impacts and adaptation concerns and their implications for achieving the SDGs.publishe

Mann-Whitney U test U and p values for pairs of environmental and climate indictor values (EV and CV, respectively).

<p>Only the significant results are shown (p value < 0.05).</p

Geo-referencing of pre-1900 plant species data.

<p>Showing geo-referenced herbarium data with 1.5 km uncertainty buffers [<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0191021#pone.0191021.ref066" target="_blank">66</a>].</p

Botanical districts of historical herbarium data in Cornwall.

<p>Showing study area and botanical districts that were used in this research. Figure adapted from Davey [<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0191021#pone.0191021.ref058" target="_blank">58</a>].</p

Example of pre-1900 and post-1900 changes in geographical distributions of plant species in West Cornwall.

<p>Showing present (only present) and past (only past) geographical distributions, intersect (showing overlap of present and past distributions), and loss for: a) Intersect <i>Carex extensa</i> b) Loss for <i>Carex extensa</i>; c) Intersect for <i>Mentha pulegium</i>; d) Loss for <i>Mentha pulegium</i>; e) Intersect for <i>Achillea ptarmica</i>; f) Loss for <i>Achillea ptarmica [<a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0191021#pone.0191021.ref066" target="_blank">66</a>]</i>.</p

Classifications for three climate indicator values (CV): Mean January temperature (Tjan), mean July temperature (Tjul), and mean precipitation (RR).

<p>Classifications for three climate indicator values (CV): Mean January temperature (Tjan), mean July temperature (Tjul), and mean precipitation (RR).</p