Urban Biodiversity: Successes and Challenges
This event took place on October 30-31st 2010
The full Proceedings will be published here in 2011
Morning programme:
10:00 Welcome: President of GNHS & Keynote Statement: Roseanna Cunningham: Nature in The City- Scott Ferguson: Parklife; cities for people and nature
- Jim Coyle: Local Nature Reserves in Glasgow
- Malcolm Muir: Urban Biodiversity: a tactical approach
- Craig MacAdam: Brownfields: oases of urban biodiversity
- Stuart Housden: Cities deserve landscape-scale wildlife spectacles
Lunch (poster-viewing; teas coffees etc available)
View poster contributions
Afternoon Programme:
- Mandy Cook: Birds and Butterflies of Glasgow: The BIG project
- Shona Turnbull: Allotment Epigeal Invertebrates On Urban Sites
- Peter Wood: Challenges in Glasgow’s urban woodlands
- Gemma Jennings: Urban tern ecology: common terns in Leith Docks
- Kirsty Park: Life in the big smoke: the ecology & conservation of urban bats
- Fiona Stewart: Integrated Habitat Networks in our Dear Green Space
- Barbra Harvie: Biodiversity on Bings
- Garth Foster: Water beetles in an urban landscape
- Willie Yeomans: Glasgow's Freshwater Fishes - The State of the Cart (and other urban watercourses)
- Summing Up: Roger Downie (President of GNHS)
Followed by Civic Reception in the Zoology Museum
View Workshops and Excursions on Sunday 31st
Abstracts
- Scott Ferguson: Parklife; cities for people and nature
- Jim Coyle: Local Nature Reserves in Glasgow
- Malcolm Muir: Urban Biodiversity: a tactical approach
- Craig MacAdam: Brownfields: oases of urban biodiversity
- Stuart Housden: Cities deserve landscape-scale wildlife spectacles
- Mandy Cook: Birds and Butterflies of Glasgow: The BIG project
- Shona Turnbull: Allotment Epigeal Invertebrates On Urban Sites
- Peter Wood: Challenges in Glasgow’s urban woodlands
- Gemma Jennings: Urban tern ecology: common terns in Leith Docks
- Kirsty Park: Life in the big smoke: the ecology & conservation of urban bats
- Fiona Stewart: Integrated Habitat Networks in our Dear Green Space
- Barbra Harvie: Biodiversity on Bings
- Garth Foster: Water beetles in an urban landscape
- Willie Yeomans: Glasgow’s Freshwater Fishes − The State of the Cart
(and other urban watercourses)
Some have argued that suburban gardens are England’s most important nature reserve. Can that be true for Scotland too? From the butterfly on the buddleia to the raven nesting on the gas−tower, there is no doubt that the mosaic of habitats across urban areas support an amazing array of wildlife − and offer a wealth of opportunities for people to enjoy, learn about and celebrate that diversity.
Glasgow is known as the ‘Dear Green Place’ but how many people realise that there are 7 Local Nature Reserves (LNRs) in the City with more planned? The presentation will explain the importance of these LNRs; describe what has been done, so far, to improve their attractiveness for wildlife and people; and suggest what can be done to raise their profile at a time of economic uncertainty.
The quality of urban open spaces can have a significant effect on their neighbouring communities. They offer opportunities for play, healthy recreation, sustainable transport and biodiversity and may indeed be the key to effecting a transformation in public understanding for and engagement with the natural heritage in Scotland. The eco−system approach rightly advocates acceptance of change, decentralisation and the participation of all sectors of society. Greenspaces, largely owned by Local Authorities offer the perfect test bed for this approach and the opportunity to clearly demonstrate to policy makers the links between environmental quality, health and economic and social well being. The current financial “crisis” actually presents a window of opportunity for this area of work but, despite these opportunities, real challenges remain; many of them linked to fundamental public service processes and “mind sets”, and these will not be overcome through legislation alone.
Brownfield sites are oases in otherwise less favourable urban environments. Some brownfield sites can support rare, scarce and UKBAP priority species, some of which are becoming increasingly reliant on such sites as their natural habitats come under threat. Despite their potential to support biodiversity, a strong negative public image has been attached to brownfield sites. Therefore, conservation of these sites has lagged behind other habitats.
In such uncertain financial times it is heartening to recognise that the policy framework for delivering large scale habitat creation projects in Scotland has never been more positive. This is a recognition that these types of projects have been delivered elsewhere in the UK bringing with them not just a huge boost to biodiversity but a whole brigade of associated benefits.
Whether you are interested in education, climate change, flood alleviation, economic growth, creating a pleasant environment for people to live and work, direct employment or improving the social esteem of previously marginalised communities there is little doubt that investment in landscape scale environmental projects in an urban setting can and should make a significant contribution to the future of Scotland.
Glasgow proved to be an interesting place for volunteers to survey birds and butterflies during 2007 and 2008. The Biodiversity in Glasgow (BIG) project was a joint venture between BTO Scotland and Butterfly Conservation Scotland which was set up to get volunteers involved in surveying the birds, butterflies and habitats of Glasgow’s greenspaces. The project proved to be a big success, with 108 volunteers (many of whom were new to recording) being trained for bird recording and 88 for butterflies. This talk will present some of the surprises found as a result of the project.
This study aims to provide quantitative and qualitative data on allotment users and the epigeal invertebrate communities present on the allotment plots. Management practices and attitudes to the wildlife value of sites along an urban-rural gradient will be explored to examine any differences in perception and taxa present. Are allotments mainly managed by retired men that use a variety of pesticides or are the demographics changing in the 21st century? It would appear to be a mix of both. Whilst it may be expected that the urban allotment sites would have lower invertebrate species diversity and richness due to increased anthropogenic pressures surrounding the sites, the opposite was observed.
Glasgow’s woodlands are diverse in location from stand-alone woods to park woodlands and Local Nature Reserves, yet whilst there a differing types of woodlands across the city many of the mature woodlands are not diverse in either species or age structures. Glasgow City Council utilises sustainable silvicultural management systems to ensure woodland cover in perpetuity whilst increasing biodiversity through developing native species elements and age structures of woodlands. There are many challenges to successfully meet the woodland management objectives, including managing woodlands as a social resource as well as an environmental resource.
Leith Docks supports the largest common tern (Sterna hirundo) colony in Scotland and is a Special Protection Area (SPA) for the species. The SPA lies in a continually changing operational port and the port owners are keen to understand more about the terns. The findings of this study will be useful for management of urban and industrial seabird colonies.
Green spaces within urban areas can be important for ameliorating the impacts of urbanisation on biological diversity, and can hold relatively rich wildlife communities. Recent work on foraging bat activity in areas of green space around Central Scotland shows that most areas are utilised by bats provided there is suitable habitat within the site. Even small areas of urban green space can provide valuable foraging opportunities for bats able to adapt to urbanised landscapes, For other species, however, a wider landscape−approach, such as increasing woodland cover both within urban parks and in the surrounding matrix to link foraging areas, is likely to be necessary.
The Central Scotland Green Network (CSGN) is a priority project in the Scottish Government’s National Planning Framework. Integrated Habitat Networks underpin the CSGN but is Glasgow really the “dear green place” we assume it to be? This talk will illustrate the habitat networks in Glasgow and pinpoint some areas where we need to prioritise natural landscaping to provide connectivity for our native species. It will also give some examples of using the IHN as a tool for Master Planning.
The West Lothian oil-shale bings are important havens of biodiversity at both a local and a national (UK) level. They are examples of true primary succession and provide a refuge for locally rare species, both plant and animal, in an urban/industrial/agricultural landscape making them important to conservation and increased local biodiversity.
Water beetles dominate most freshwater habitats in terms of their species diversity. One hundred and forty one species, in thirteen families, are known from the Glasgow area. The importance of water beetles as indicators will be discussed in relation to pond surveys in 2010 in which 74 species were recorded.
The Clyde River Foundation (CRF) is a registered charity which researches the ecology of the River Clyde and its tributaries, and promotes environmental education throughout the catchment. Glasgow’s freshwater fishes are surprisingly poorly known, despite the well−publicised renaissance of the local watercourses and the iconic nature of the salmon in Glasgow folklore. Our current knowledge of the fish communities of the major rivers: the Clyde, Kelvin, White Cart and North Calder will be described, together with a summary of the findings from a recent survey of Glasgow’s burns.