Atlantic hazelwood

Last updated March 12, 2019

Atlantic hazelwood is hazel (Corylus avellana) dominated temperate rainforest that occurs on the hyperoceanic western fringe of Europe, in particular on the west coasts of Scotland and Ireland. It is considered to be a type of climax scrub. It occurs in exposed, coastal situations where thin soils and strong winds prevent the establishment of trees.

Corylus avellana, the common hazel, is a species of hazel native to Europe and western Asia, from the British Isles south to Iberia, Greece, Turkey and Cyprus, north to central Scandinavia, and east to the central Ural Mountains, the Caucasus, and northwestern Iran. It is an important component of the hedgerows that were the traditional field boundaries in lowland England. The wood was traditionally grown as coppice, the poles cut being used for wattle-and-daub building and agricultural fencing.

Temperate rainforests are coniferous or broadleaf forests that occur in the temperate zone and receive heavy rainfall.

An oceanic climate, also known as a marine or maritime climate, is the Köppen classification of climate typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of continents, and generally features mild summers and mild winters, with a relatively narrow annual temperature range and few extremes of temperature, with the exception for transitional areas to continental, subarctic and highland climates. Oceanic climates are defined as having a monthly mean temperature below 22 °C (72 °F) in the warmest month, and above 0 °C (32 °F) in the coldest month.

Historical management

Although the Atlantic hazelwoods would historically have been exploited by people, it is thought that the exploitation was limited to seasonal sheltered grazing of livestock and the selective cutting of hazel poles, with clearcut coppicing believed to be a very marginal activity.^[1]

Clearcutting, clearfelling or clearcut logging is a forestry/logging practice in which most or all trees in an area are uniformly cut down. Along with shelterwood and seed tree harvests, it is used by foresters to create certain types of forest ecosystems and to promote select species that require an abundance of sunlight or grow in large, even-age stands. Logging companies and forest-worker unions in some countries support the practice for scientific, safety and economic reasons, while detractors consider it a form of deforestation that destroys natural habitats and contributes to climate change.

Coppicing is a traditional method of woodland management which exploits the capacity of many species of trees to put out new shoots from their stump or roots if cut down. In a coppiced wood, which is called a copse, young tree stems are repeatedly cut down to near ground level, known as a stool. New growth emerges and after a number of years, the coppiced tree is harvested and the cycle begins anew. Pollarding is a similar process carried out at a higher level on the tree.

Epiphyte communities

The long ecological continuity of the Atlantic hazelwoods due to their lack of clearcut coppicing, together with the hyperoceanic climate under which they occur and low levels of atmospheric pollution, results in luxuriant growth of epiphytic lichens and bryophytes.^[2]

An epiphyte is an organism that grows on the surface of a plant and derives its moisture and nutrients from the air, rain, water or from debris accumulating around it. Epiphytes take part in nutrient cycles and add to both the diversity and biomass of the ecosystem in which they occur like any other organism. They are an important source of food for many species. Typically, the older parts of a plant will have more epiphytes growing on them. Epiphytes differ from parasites in that epiphytes grow on other plants for physical support and do not necessarily negatively affect the host. An epiphytic organism that is not a plant is sometimes called an epibiont. Epiphytes are usually found in the temperate zone or in the tropics. Epiphyte species make good houseplants due to their minimal water and soil requirements. Epiphytes provide a rich and diverse habitat for other organisms including animals, fungi, bacteria, and myxomycetes.

Two discrete communities of lichens grow on Atlantic hazel. Young, smooth-barked hazel stems are colonised by crustose lichens of the Graphidion, including the very rare Graphis alboscripta.^[1] Old, rough-barked stems are colonised by leafy lichens of the Lobarion; a community that is very rare and declining in Europe.^[1]

Graphis alboscripta commonly known as White Script Lichen is a species of epiphytic lichen that is endemic to the west coast of Scotland. Nationally rare, its distribution is confined to hazel woodlands.

Atlantic hazelwood is also the habitat of the rare fungus hazel gloves (Hypocreopsis rhododendri).^[1]

Hypocreopsis rhododendri is an ascomycete fungus. It is commonly known as hazel gloves due to the resemblance of its orange-brown, radiating lobes to rubber gloves, and because it is found on hazel stems.

Related Research Articles

Bark is the outermost layers of stems and roots of woody plants. Plants with bark include trees, woody vines, and shrubs. Bark refers to all the tissues outside the vascular cambium and is a nontechnical term. It overlays the wood and consists of the inner bark and the outer bark. The inner bark, which in older stems is living tissue, includes the innermost area of the periderm. The outer bark in older stems includes the dead tissue on the surface of the stems, along with parts of the innermost periderm and all the tissues on the outer side of the periderm. The outer bark on trees which lies external to the last formed periderm is also called the rhytidome.

Acer pseudoplatanus, known as the sycamore in the United Kingdom and the sycamore maple in the United States, is a flowering plant species in the soapberry and lychee family Sapindaceae. It is a large deciduous, broad-leaved tree, tolerant of wind and coastal exposure. It is native to Central Europe and Western Asia, from France eastwards to Ukraine, northern Turkey and the Caucasus and southwards in the mountains of northern Spain and Italy.

Alnus glutinosa, the common alder, black alder, European alder or just alder, is a species of tree in the family Betulaceae, native to most of Europe, southwest Asia and northern Africa. It thrives in wet locations where its association with the bacterium Frankia alni enables it to grow in poor quality soils. It is a medium size, short-lived tree growing to a height of up to 30 metres (100 ft). It has short-stalked rounded leaves and separate male and female flower in the form of catkins. The small, rounded fruits are cone-like and the seeds are dispersed by wind and water.

Ancient woodland term used in the United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, an ancient woodland is a woodland that has existed continuously since 1600 or before in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Before those dates, planting of new woodland was uncommon, so a wood present in 1600 was likely to have developed naturally.

The hazel dormouse or common dormouse is a small mammal and the only living species in the genus Muscardinus.

Natural history of Scotland concerns the flora, fauna and mycota of Scotland.

Erioderma pedicellatum is a medium-sized, foliose lichen in the family Pannariaceae, commonly called boreal felt lichen because of its fuzzy appearance. It grows on trees in damp boreal forests along the Atlantic coast, as well as in southcentral Alaska. It is currently one of the most endangered lichens in the world.

The flora of Scotland is an assemblage of native plant species including over 1,600 vascular plants, more than 1,500 lichens and nearly 1,000 bryophytes. The total number of vascular species is low by world standard but lichens and bryophytes are abundant and the latter form a population of global importance. Various populations of rare fern exist, although the impact of 19th-century collectors threatened the existence of several species. The flora is generally typical of the north west European part of the Palearctic ecozone and prominent features of the Scottish flora include boreal Caledonian forest, heather moorland and coastal machair. In addition to the native varieties of vascular plants there are numerous non-native introductions, now believed to make up some 43% of the species in the country.

Ariundle Oakwood is situated to the north of the village of Strontian in the Sunart area of the Highlands of Scotland. It is located on the western side of the glen of the Strontian River, to the south of former lead mining sites that lie further up this glen. The wood is part of the ancient Sunart Oakwood, and is a remnant of ancient oakwoods that once spanned the Atlantic coasts of Europe from Norway to Portugal. It was designated as a National Nature Reserve in 1977, and is managed primarily by Scottish Natural Heritage, in conjunction with Forestry Commission Scotland, who own the land surrounding the National Nature Reserve. The reserve is classified as a Category IV protected area by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, and also forms part of both a Site of Special Scientific Interest and a Special Area of Conservation.

Lobaria scrobiculata, commonly known as the textured lungwort, is a large foliose, epiphytic lichen.

Shorn Cliff And Caswell Woods is a 69.2-hectare (171-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Gloucestershire, notified in 1986. The site is listed in the 'Forest of Dean Local Plan Review' as a Key Wildlife Site (KWS).

Juncus trifidus is a species of rush known by the common names highland rush and three-leaved rush. It is native to the Northern Hemisphere, where it is an arctic/montane species with an amphi-atlantic distribution.

The Celtic rain forest is the wet forest in Ireland, western Scotland, and western Wales, near the Atlantic Ocean, which is dominated by sessile oak, downy birch and hazel. The large number of rainy or misty days, high humidity, overall high annual precipitation, and small annual temperature variation, makes this an important habitat numerous common and rare species of mosses, liverworts, and lichens. There is an exceptional number of epiphytic plants (plants growing on or hanging from trees without being parasitic. The ground is covered with a deep blanketing of mosses and liverworts, which rise up the trunks of the trees onto the horizontal branches and up into the canopy.

Diospyros revaughanii is a rare species of tree in the family Ebenaceae (ebony).

Glasdrum Wood is national nature reserve (NNR) at the head of Loch Creran in Argyll and Bute on the west coast of Scotland. Managed by Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), the wood is renowned for its diverse flora and fauna, including sessile oak and ash trees, mosses, liverworts and rare invertebrates, like the chequered skipper butterfly. The NNR covers an area of around 169 hectares, encompassing woodland and hillside on the lower slopes of Beinn Churlain. SNH have provided a carpark, and constructed a 1 km-long waymarked trail for visitors. Since 2004 approximately 2800 visitors visit annually.

Loch Lomond National Nature Reserve (NNR) encompasses 430 hectares of land at the southeastern part of Loch Lomond in the council areas of Stirling and West Dunbartonshire, in Scotland. It covers the islands of Inchcailloch, Clairinsh, Torrinch, Creinch and Aber Isle, alongside areas of woodland and wetlands to either side of the mouth of the Endrick Water. Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) owns two parts of the reserve - the island of Inchcailloch and part of Gartfairn Wood - and the rest is privately owned. The reserve is managed by a partnership consisting of SNH, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) and the Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park, along with the owners and tenants of the land under agreements. Within this framework SNH directly manage the islands of Clairinsh, Inchcailloch, Torrinch and Creinch, and land to the north of the Endrick Water. The RSPB manages the area to the south of the Endrick Water, and the National Park manages visitor facilties on Inchcailloch.

Glen Nant is glen lying to the south of Taynuilt in the Argyll and Bute council area of Scotland. An area of woodland of 339 hectares on the western side of the River Nant is designated as national nature reserve (NNR), which is owned and managed by Forestry Commission Scotland (FCS). It is an example of an Atlantic Oakwood, and is one of largest areas of upland oak woodland in north Argyll.

References

1 2 3 4 Coppins A.M. & Coppins B.J. (2010). Atlantic hazel. Scottish Natural Heritage.
↑ Coppins A.M. & Coppins B.J. (2003). Atlantic Hazelwoods - a neglected habitat? Botanical Journal of Scotland, 55, 149-160.

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[coppins-1] 1 2 3 4 Coppins A.M. & Coppins B.J. (2010). Atlantic hazel. Scottish Natural Heritage.

[coppins2-2] Coppins A.M. & Coppins B.J. (2003). Atlantic Hazelwoods - a neglected habitat? Botanical Journal of Scotland, 55, 149-160.