Skip to Content

Resource hub

Saxicolous lichen and bryophyte communities in upland Britain 2009

Abstract

Phytosociological data were collected to describe the terrestrial lichen and bryophyte vegetation of rock or saxicolous habitats within 14 Special Areas of Conservation (SAC) within upland Britain, with special reference to four saxicolous habitats listed in Annex I of the EU Habitats Directive. Additional data were available from other surveys within upland Britain, giving a total of 1,539 relevés available for analysis.

Data were analysed using TWINSPAN, combined with manual sorting. A total of 83 communities were distinguished, including 56 on siliceous rock and 27 on limestone. A description and floristic table is provided for each community, along with a key for the placement of individual relevés. As is commonly experienced in phytosociological work, delimitation of communities was not straightforward; this was attributed to the existence of variation in composition of vegetation in response to many independent environmental variables, precluding a simple system of classification. Despite these problems, the classification proposed is a major advance on earlier phytosociological knowledge of the lower plant communities of the British uplands.

Resource type Publication

Topic category Biota

Reference date 2009·01·01

Citation
Orange, A. 2009. Saxicolous lichen and bryophyte communities in upland Britain. JNCC Report No. 404, JNCC, Peterborough, ISSN 0963-8091.

Lineage
This work aimed to improve our knowledge of the lichen and bryophyte communities of rock habitats in upland Great Britain.

Responsible organisation
Communications, JNCC publisher

Limitations on public access No limitations

Use constraints Available under the Open Government Licence 3.0

Metadata date 2020·06·29

Metadata point of contact
Communications, JNCC

Back to top