Biodiversity and land-use change in the British Isles
Using long-term environmental records to explore how land-use and population change has impacted upon land-cover and biodiversity patterns

Jessie Woodbridge: jessie.woodbridge@plymouth.ac.uk
Ralph Fyfe: ralph.fyfe@plymouth.ac.uk
Ruth Pelling: ruth.pelling@HistoricEngland.org.uk
Anne De Vareilles: Anne.DeVareilles@HistoricEngland.org.uk
David Smith: d.n.smith@bham.ac.uk
Conservation and promotion of biodiverse landscapes is a major target for ecological conservation and landscape management as biodiversity is a key determinant on ecosystem functioning.
Recent accelerations in the intensity of human land use have been implicated for changes in biodiversity, but relationships between land use change and diversity are complex (Ellis et al., 2012), include important historical legacies (Higgs et al., 2014) and major transformations are likely to have occurred across much longer time-scales than those covered by direct observation records.
This project aims to synthesise palaeoecological datasets from both the natural and archaeological sciences to reconstruct biodiversity patterns and evaluate relationships of these patterns with land use over multimillennial time-scales.
Journal of Ecology: “What drives biodiversity patterns? Using long-term multi-disciplinary data to discern centennial-scale change”
https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.13565
Increases in population at the start of the British Neolithic and bronze age coincide with the loss of forests, increased agricultural activity, and changes in insect faunal groups to species associated with human land use. Pollen diversity increased most notably since the bronze age, as landscapes became more open. The connections between population and palynological diversity become increasingly significant since around 3000 years ago, implying intensifying impacts of human activity overriding climatic effects. Patterns of palynological diversity trends are regionally variable and do not always follow expected trajectories.
Biodiversity at a Crossroads | Research Festival 2020
Global environmental and climatic change and human activities are affecting biodiversity on unprecedented levels, requiring widespread interdisciplinary responses to tackle these issues.
In this full-day event, scientists from across the University of Plymouth and further afield came together with practitioners, individuals from Government organisations, artists, the third sector and the general public, to showcase nationally and globally important research, focused on the understanding and management of natural and human-modified landscapes.
Left to right: Jessie Woodbridge, Ralph Fyfe, David Smith and Ruth Pelling
The archaeobotanical data is being collated in ArboDat 2016 English Version (©Landesamt für Denkmalpflege Hessen, Wiesbaden, Germany, hessenARCHÄOLOGIE) held by Historic England.