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19 - Can the Effects of Climate Change on British Bryophytes be Distinguished from those Resulting from Other Environmental Changes?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 October 2012

By
Jeffrey W. Bates  and
Christopher D. Preston
Edited by
Zoltán Tuba ,
Nancy G. Slack  and
Lloyd R. Stark
Jeffrey W. Bates
Affiliation:
Imperial College London
Christopher D. Preston
Affiliation:
Biological Records Centre, Oxfordshire, UK
Nancy G. Slack
Affiliation:
Sage Colleges, New York
Lloyd R. Stark
Affiliation:
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
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Summary

Introduction

The old adage that an Englishman's favorite topic of conversation is the weather is surely true, but why bother to consider the flora of Great Britain in an international summary of the effects of climate change on bryophytes? We can offer five main justifications. The first two are the relative thoroughness of Britain's bryological exploration and the long period over which the flora has been repeatedly examined. Third is the high quality of the general recording effort and its documentation in written and computerized records, and in refereed herbarium specimens. Fourth is the exceptional species-richness of the British flora in a regional (European) context.

Our fifth justification concerns the long run of systematic climatic measurements for England which, like the bryophyte records, extends back into the seventeenth century. More recent records are available for a wide range of localities across the whole of the UK. Today, the UK Meteorological Office is one of the world's leading weather forecasters and through its Hadley Centre carries out research into climatic change and publishes regular reports, updating recent weather trends and making available the latest predictions for the future climate of Britain.

Despite the advantages listed above, the task of locating unequivocal examples of recent climate change impacting the British bryophyte flora has not proven to be straightforward. Many areas of Britain are densely populated and almost all its vegetation is managed, often intensively, so that human impacts are all-pervasive; there are no wilderness areas.

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Information
Bryophyte Ecology and Climate Change , pp. 371 - 408
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2011

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