The Changing Wildlife of Great Britain and IrelandDavid L. Hawksworth Periodic comprehensive overviews of the status of the diverse organisms that make up wildlife are essential to determining trends, threats and future prospects. Just over 25 years ago, leading authorities on different kinds of wildlife came together to prepare an assessment of their status of a wide range of organisms in Great Britain and Ireland in The Changing Flora and Fauna of Britain, also edited by Professor David L. Hawksworth CBE. Now, in The Changing Wildlife of Great Britain and Ireland, he has gathered together some of the original and also new contributors to review changes since that time and look to the future. Contributions range from viruses, diatoms, fungi, lichens, mites and nematodes; through butterflies, dragonflies, flies and slugs; to flowering plants, ferns, mammals, birds and fish. The state of knowledge in different groups is assessed, and the effectiveness of statutory and other measures taken to safeguard wildlife considered. The picture is far from bleak, ameliorating sulphur dioxide levels have benefited sensitive lichens and mosses in a dramatic way, water quality improvement has been beneficial, there have been few certain extinctions and rediscoveries of species thought to have been lost. Biodiversity Action Plans have also benefited targeted species, but habitat restoration and management for some is not always good for others. But there are worrying trends in declining populations, with an increasing number being regarded as threatened or endangered, especially in agricultural areas, and where woodland management has changed, particular threats from introduced species, and concern over the effects of climate change. Some of the smaller organisms remain poorly known, a situation unlikely to change as expertise in many is scant or being lost. This stock-check and look to the future will be a key source book to conservationists, naturalists, and professional biologists for many years to come. |
Contents
Fifty years of statutory nature conservation in Great Britain | xv |
Flowering plants | 21 |
Ferns and allied plants | 48 |
Mosses liverworts and hornworts | 76 |
Larger fungi | 101 |
Microscopic fungi | 112 |
Lichens | 124 |
Terrestrial and freshwater eukaryotic algae | 146 |
Flies | 237 |
True bugs leaf and planthoppers and their allies | 260 |
Butterflies and moths | 298 |
Grasshoppers crickets and allied insects | 325 |
Dragonflies and damselflies | 337 |
Land slugs and snails | 352 |
Birds | 364 |
Mammals | 396 |
Cyanobacteria bluegreen algae | 148 |
Diatoms | 150 |
Viruses | 162 |
Protozoa | 173 |
| 186 | |
Nematodes | 208 |
Mites and ticks | 228 |
Fishes | 407 |
Tracking future trends The Biodiversity Information Network | 419 |
Prospects for the next 25 years | 432 |
Subject Index | 444 |
| 448 | |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
10-km square abundance agricultural aquatic areas Atlas Auchenorrhyncha Biodiversity Action Plan Biological Records birds Boag Botanical Bracken breeding Britain Britain and Ireland British Isles bryophytes BSBI butterflies changes climate colonies decline diatom Diptera distribution dragonflies Ecology effects English Nature Entomologist's Monthly Magazine Environment environmental established Europe European example extinct fauna ferns fish flora freshwater fungi grassland groups habitat Hawksworth Heath Hemiptera Heteroptera increase insects introduced invertebrates Irish Journal Kirby known lakes last 25 Lepidoptera lichens London mammals maps Miridae mites Monitoring Scheme mosses native species Natural History Nature Conservancy Council nematodes number of species occur parasites Peterborough plants pollution populations programme protection Protozoa Pteridology pteridophytes range rare recent Recording Scheme Records Centre Red Data Book reported result rivers RSPB Scotland Scottish Society soil spread SSSI status survey Table taxa taxonomic tion virus viruses Wales Watling wetland widespread wild woodland
Popular passages
Page ii - Special Volume' series often in rapidly expanding areas of science where a modern synthesis is required. Its modus operandi is to encourage leading exponents to organise a symposium with a view to publishing a multi-authored volume in its series based upon the meeting. The Association also publishes volumes that are not linked to meetings in its 'Volume
Page 145 - Coppins, BJ (1973) Changes in the lichen flora of England and Wales attributable to pollution of the air by sulphur dioxide, in Ferry, BW, Baddeley, MS and Hawksworth, DL (eds) Air Pollution and Lichens.