June and July are very busy months for the limestone pavement partnership, with lots of fieldwork going on.

Ezra has been going to the field every week, looking at the phenology of the plant community in the limestone pavements. We know that limestone pavements have very different responses to temperature because the rock holds heat, so understanding how this impacts the timing of plant growth and reproduction is important. Our climate is changing so we need to understand temperature relations to conserve this habitat in the future, especially as there are important implications for invertebrate fauna. Some invertebrates are very temperature-dependent, so Ezra has also been conducting invertebrate surveys.

Sian has also been very busy, looking at the soils of limestone pavements. We actually know very little about the soil found in the bottom of the grikes in limestone pavements. Sian is collecting soil samples and analysing them to help understand the properties of limestone pavements.

Our newest team member, Claire, is also sampling soils. Claire is working on a collaborative project between us and Edge Hill University to look at the mycorrhizal fungi, trying to help us understand tree colonisation in the limestone pavements.

I am focused on our experimental sites, conducting annual vegetation surveys. We now have a total of five experimental sites looking at scrub and tree removal, grazing and nutrient addition.

Related Blogs

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  Our Second Limestone Pavement Partnership Conference

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  Microbial community in limestone pavement: the invisible diversity in the grikes

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  Some cold fieldwork!

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