“British Wildlife and Climate Change: the British Flora - effects of changes to habitat and climate

Factors affecting the distribution of flowering plants include habitat destruction, habitat modification and eutrophication. The ways in which the effects of climate change might be disentangled from these other factors will be discussed.

"The British Flora - effects of habitat modification and climate change”

Many of the factors affecting the distribution of flowering plants in historic times and recent decades have resulted from habitat destruction, habitat modification and eutrophication, all often the effects of agricultural intensification. Urbanisation and the construction of transport networks have also had noticeable effects, and atmospheric pollution has had a marked effect on the ranges of many mosses, liverworts and lichens. In this talk the nature of the evidence available for detecting floristic change will be outlined. The ways in which the effects of climate change might be disentangled from these other factors will be discussed using data from recent national surveys.

Dr Chris Preston is a botanist who works at the Biological Records Centre, CEH Monks Wood. He works with volunteers co-ordinated by the Botanical Society of the British Isles and British Bryological Society to compile the results of national distribution surveys. He is interested in documenting and explaining changes in the British flora by examination of historic plant records and by analysing the results of recent surveys.

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