Tree colonisation of upland grassland in the Peak District following exclusion of livestock

摘要

The gritstone uplands of the Peak District are characterized by siliceous acid grassland, upland heath, and blanket bog. Woodland is relatively scarce and much of it is plantation. However, some fragments of native woodland, dominated by Sessile Oak Quercus petraea, have survived. This type of woodland in the Peak District was described by Moss (1913). Oak largely fails to regenerate and Anderson & Shimwell (1981) noted that some of the woods recorded by Moss no longer merited being regarded as woodland. An example of a Peak District Sessile Oak woodland, well known to botanists, is Yarncliff Wood which lies in the valley of Burbage Brook and is part of the National Trust's Longshaw Estate. This wood was studied extensively from the 1950s to the 1980s by Pigott (1983).