Woodland Trust

Abstract Wild deer populations are increasing across the northern hemisphere, posing challenges to the environment and people. Deer impacts can be managed using lethal and non‐lethal practices, but research suggests lethal control receives mixed support. Differences in perspectives towards management practices may hinder collaborative, landscape‐scale strategies required to achieve resilient ecosystems and tree cover targets. Thus, understanding human‐deer relationships is crucial for sustainable deer management. To investigate perceptions towards deer and their management in England and Wales, we designed a questionnaire measuring the level of support for different actions to manage deer impacts and beliefs regarding the aesthetic and existence, environmental, economic and cultural‐symbolic value of deer. Targeting actors within and outside the land management, the questionnaire was distributed to subscribers of five national organisations, three focussing on wildlife management and two on woodland management. We collected data from 3936 people and, using cluster analysis, characterised groups of respondents based on their beliefs towards deer. We assessed variations between groups by socio‐demographic characteristics and support for lethal and non‐lethal management practices. Lethal control was the most supported and most used deer management practice, followed by tree guards and deer fencing. Our cluster analysis grouped respondents into 4 clusters. The cluster composed predominantly of deer stalkers (47%) held the most positive perceptions of deer and registered the highest support for lethal control and the highest opposition to deer fencing. Conversely, the cluster with the highest proportion of farmers (27%) and lowest proportion of stalkers (16%) expressed more neutral and negative opinions towards deer. There was no evidence of column clusters, indicating that beliefs did not cluster according to value dimensions (e.g. economic, environmental), suggesting that deer were valued similarly across all value dimensions. Differing opinions on deer and land management goals make it difficult for neighbours to collaborate on managing deer. Lethal control received strong support, which could ease concerns about recommending its use by nature organisations and decision‐makers who depend on public backing. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

There is an urgent need for woodland expansion to help mitigate climate change and biodiversity loss. However, the process of natural regeneration of forest ecosystems is often slow, requiring active reforestation approaches. Factors limiting regeneration are complex, but there is increasing evidence that natural expansion of woodlands onto sites that have been treeless for a long period of time may be limited by the loss of microbial woodland-soil properties. This study explored the potential role of mycorrhizal associations in facilitating obligate ectomycorrhizal (ECM) tree establishment. We determined the spatial distribution patterns of ECM tree seedlings – Pinus sylvestris and Betula spp. - outwith the existing woodlands, in relation to established dual-mycorrhizal Salix. There was very strong evidence that ECM tree seedlings were more likely to be found growing within groups around dual-mycorrhizal Salix than as isolated individuals, supporting the view that Salix drives the current spatial distribution patterns by supporting tree establishment. We suggest that the ability of Salix to form dual-mycorrhizal associations with both arbuscular (AM) and ECM fungi allows these plants to become established across the open AM dominated vegetation. Over time these plants can become colonised by ECM fungi via aerial spores and then act as a source of inoculum for obligate ECM tree seedlings, which land as seeds in the vicinity of Salix. This study highlights the potential role of dual-mycorrhizal Salix as a nurse plant in supporting secondary forest succession of obligate ECM boreal/temperate woodland species onto adjacent open areas through nucleation. Overall, we concluded that there is potential for existing ECM networks to aid tree establishment and propose a nature-based approach to maximize reforestation efforts by targeting existing symbiotic fungal networks as nucleation points for tree planting. Our findings contribute to understanding the ecological dynamics involved in woodland expansion and restoration.

Introduction. Red squirrel populations have declined in the UK since the introduction of the grey squirrel, due to resource competition and grey squirrels carrying a squirrelpox virus that is fatal to red squirrels.Hypothesis/Gap Statement. It is not known if the gut microbiota of the two species is similar and if this could impact the survival of red squirrels.Aim. The aim of this study was to profile the caecal microbiota of red and grey squirrels obtained opportunistically from a conservation programme in North Wales.Methodology. Bacterial DNA was extracted from ten red and ten grey squirrels and sent for 16S rRNA sequencing. Three samples from red squirrels returned less than 5000 reads, and so were not carried forward for further analyses.Results. Samples taken from the caeca of red squirrels had significantly lower bacterial diversity and a higher percentage of Bacilli bacteria when compared to samples from grey squirrels. When the abundance of bacterial groups across all levels of phylogenetic classifications was compared between the two groups of squirrels, grey squirrels had a higher abundance of bacteria belonging to the families S24-7, RF39 and Rikenellaceae. Escherichia coli with resistance to amoxicillin/clavulanic acid was identified in all samples. Cefotaxime resistance was identified in two samples from grey squirrels along with sulfamethoxazole/trimethoprim in one of these samples.Conclusion. Clear differences between the caecal microbiota of the two species of squirrel were identified, which could potentially impact their overall health and ability to compete for resources.

Earth's global climate system is vast, complex, and intricately interrelated. Many areas are influenced by global-scale phenomena, including the "triple dip" La Niña conditions that

Abstract Socio‐economic scenarios such as the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs) have been widely used to analyze global change impacts, but representing their diversity is a challenge for the analytical tools applied to them. Taking Great Britain as an example, we represent a set of stakeholder‐elaborated UK‐SSP scenarios, linked to climate change scenarios (Representative Concentration Pathways), in a globally‐embedded agent‐based modeling framework. We find that distinct model components are required to account for divergent behavioral, social and societal conditions in the SSPs, and that these have dramatic impacts on land system outcomes. From strong social networks and environmental sustainability in SSP1 to land consolidation and technological intensification in SSP5, scenario‐specific model designs vary widely from one another and from present‐day conditions. Changes in social and human capitals reflecting social cohesion, equality, health and education can generate impacts larger than those of technological and economic change, and comparable to those of modeled climate change. We develop an open‐access, transferrable model framework and provide UK‐SSP projections to 2080 at 1 km2 resolution, revealing large differences in land management intensities, provision of a range of ecosystem services, and the knowledge and motivations underlying land manager decision‐making. These differences suggest the existence of large but underappreciated areas of scenario space, within which novel options for land system sustainability could occur.

Making the reasoning and evidence behind conservation decisions clear and transparent is a key challenge for the conservation community. Similarly, combining evidence from diverse sources (e.g., scientific vs non-scientific information) into decision-making is also difficult. Our group of conservation researchers and practitioners has co-produced an intuitive tool and template (Evidence-to-Decision (E2D) tool: www.evidence2decisiontool.com) to guide practitioners through a structured process to transparently document and report the evidence and reasoning behind decisions. The tool has three major steps: 1. Define the Decision Context; 2. Gather Evidence; and 3. Make an Evidence-Based Decision. In each step, practitioners enter information (e.g., from the scientific literature, practitioner knowledge and experience, and costs) to inform their decision-making and document their reasoning. The tool packages this information into a customised downloadable report (or is documented if using the offline template), which we hope can stimulate the exchange of information on decisions within and between organisations. By enabling practitioners to revisit how and why past decisions were made, and integrate diverse forms of evidence, we believe our open-access tool’s template can help increase the transparency and quality of decision-making in conservation.

Forests and woodlands worldwide are being severely impacted by invasive Phytophthora species, with initial outbreaks in some cases occurring on host trees located in public parks and gardens. These highly disturbed sites with diverse planting practices may indeed act as harbours for invasive Phytophthora pathogens which are particularly well adapted to surviving in soil. High throughput Illumina sequencing was used to analyse Phytophthora species diversity in soil samples collected from 14 public garden/amenity woodland sites in northern Britain. Bioinformatic analyses revealed some limitations to using internal transcribed spacer as the barcode region; namely reporting of false positives and ambiguous species matches. Taking this into account, 35 distinct sequences were amplified across the sites, corresponding to 23 known Phytophthora species as well as twelve oomycete sequences with no match to any known Phytophthora species. Phytophthora pseudosyringae and P. austrocedri, both of which cause serious damage to trees and are regarded as fairly recent introductions to Britain, were the two most abundant Phytophthora species detected. There was no evidence that any of the detected Phytophthora species were more associated with any one type of host, healthy or otherwise. This study has demonstrated the ubiquity and diversity of Phytophthora species endemic in highly managed, extensively planted soil environments in Britain. Suggested improvements to the methodology and the practical implications of the findings in terms of mitigating Phytophthora spread and impact are discussed.

Abstract Key message The ICP Forests network can be a platform for large-scale mycorrhizal studies. Mapping and monitoring of mycorrhizas have untapped potential to inform science, management, conservation and policy regarding distributions, diversity hotspots, dominance and rarity, and indicators of forest changes. Context A dearth of information about fungi at large scales has severely constrained scientific, forest management, fungal conservation and environmental policy efforts worldwide. Nonetheless, fungi fulfil critical functional roles in our changing environments and represent a considerable proportion of terrestrial biodiversity. Mycorrhizal fungi are increasingly viewed as a major functional guild across forest ecosystems, and our ability to study them is expanding rapidly. Aims This study aimed to discuss the potential for starting a mycorrhizal monitoring programme built upon the existing forest monitoring network, raise questions, propose hypotheses and stimulate further discussion. Results An overview of the state-of-the-art regarding forest ectomycorrhizal ecology raises questions and recommendations for scaling up mycorrhizal assessments aimed at informing a variety of stakeholders, with a new focus on conservation and policy. Conclusion Fungal research and conservation are areas that can be informed by ICP Forests and may lead to useful spin-offs; research linked to long-term forest monitoring plots will enhance the relevance of science and conservation.

Abstract There is an increased appreciation of the need for horizon scanning: the identification and assessment of issues that could be serious in the future but have currently attracted little attention. However, a process is lacking to identify appropriate responses by policy makers and practitioners. We thus suggest a process and trial its applicability. Twelve environmental conservation organizations assessed each of 15 previously identified horizon scanning issues for their impact upon their organization and the urgency with which they should consider the issue. They also identified triggers that would result in changes in their scoring of the likely urgency and impact of the issues. This process enables organizations to identify priority issues, identify issues they can ignore until there are further developments, benchmark priorities across organizations and identify cross-organizational priorities that warrant further attention, so providing an agenda for collation of evidence, research and policy development. In this trial the review of responses by other organizations resulted in the upgrading of response by a substantial proportion of organizations for eight of the 15 issues examined. We suggest this approach, with the novel components of collaborative assessment and identification of triggers, could be adopted widely, both within conservation organizations and across a wider range of policy issues.

Phenotypic differences between populations often correlate with climate variables, resulting from a combination of environment-induced plasticity and local adaptation. Species comprising populations that are genetically adapted to local climatic conditions should be more vulnerable to climate change than those comprising phenotypically plastic populations. Assessment of local adaptation generally requires logistically challenging experiments. Here, using a unique approach and a large dataset (>50,000 observations from across Britain), we compare the covariation in temperature and first spawning dates of the common frog (Rana temporaria) across space with that across time. We show that although all populations exhibit a plastic response to temperature, spawning earlier in warmer years, between-population differences in first spawning dates are dominated by local adaptation. Given climate change projections for Britain in 2050-2070, we project that for populations to remain as locally adapted as contemporary populations will require first spawning date to advance by approximately 21-39 days but that plasticity alone will only enable an advance of approximately 5-9 days. Populations may thus face a microevolutionary and gene flow challenge to advance first spawning date by a further approximately 16-30 days over the next 50 years.