An Investigation of the Diversity and Abundance of Ground Flora in Coppices of Different Ages

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Simran Kooner

An Investigation of the Diversity and Abundance of Ground Flora in Coppices of Different Ages

Planning

Aim: To investigate the diversity and abundance of ground flora in the young and old coppices at Nower Wood.

Introduction 

Nower Wood location/background: Nower Wood is located in Leatherhead, Surrey and lies at the head of a dry valley. It covers approximately 80 acres of ancient woodland, consisting mainly of Oak and Sweet Chestnut tress. As it is an Educational Nature Reserve, we carried out our investigations here and extended our wide range of information about the woodland and what takes place. Nower Wood was originally purchased in 1970, and within two years a wooden building was bought in order to teach people in. Wardens were appointed to teach students about the woodland, and also to look after the wood.

What is coppicing? This has been the common type of ancient woodland management at Nower Wood and has taken place over the past 400 years. It is the process in which young tree stems are cut down to either a low level or even right down to the ground to prevent them from overgrowing. Coppicing allows vigorous growth of new shoots, and as a result trees and shrubs which are cut down this way, can produce shoots that grow over 30cm in a week and a coppiced tree can live many times longer than if the tree had not been cut down at all. This is due to the fact that when trees are coppiced, then more amounts of light can reach to the ground floor than when it was being blocked out by the tall uncoppiced trees. The coppice cycle lasts for about 10-15 years.

Woodland structure: Towards the most top part of the woodland, is the canopy layer. This layer is composed mainly of the largest trees in the woodland, which shade the layers below them and not allowing much light to pass through the canopy layer. The most common examples of trees found in this layer are Oak and Beech trees.

Beneath the canopy layer is the shrub layer. Plant species which can be found in this area are Hazel, the Hawthorn tree and Holly- this has adapted to grow under the canopy layer as it’s colour is evergreen (more chloroplasts). This layer consists of plants which contain multiple stems.

Following directly beneath the shrub layer, the ground or field layer can be found. This layer is where our investigation was carried out and examples of plant species found in this area are ferns, sedges, honeysuckle, bluebells, grasses and mosses. In order for the plants in this area to survive, they need to have special adaptations.

The forest floor is the lowest layer of the woodland. It is mainly composed of humus, litter, topsoil, branches and dead leaves. This makes this layer suitable for woodlice and earthworms to live in.  

Hypothesis

I believe that there will be greater abundance and diversity of ground flora in the young coppice rather than the old coppice due to the different light intensities in both the coppices.

The intensity of light may differ between both sites, as there are more trees in the old coppice then this will provide shade which in turn will result in less photosynthesis and less growth of plant species. Therefore there should be an increase in adaptation and competition for light in the old coppice, and so less diversity here too. Whereas in the young coppice, most of the light reaches ground level and plant species will be able to photosynthesise. I expect to observe that there will be greater diversity and abundance of plant species in the young coppice rather than in the old coppice. If this proves to be correct, then I also expect there to be greater biomass in the young coppice.

Scientific Explanation Of Hypothesis

What is meant by diversity? This is simply the variety of different animal or plant species in a given area. I predict there to be a higher diversity of ground flora in the young coppiced area.

What is meant by abundance? Abundance is the amount of biomass of a plant in a given area. If there is a lot of biomass, then this suggests that the abundance is high.

There are many factors which affect the distribution and abundance of plants. Such factors which cause these patterns include those of abiotic (non-living) and biotic (living) factors.

Factors affecting diversity and abundance:

Abiotic

Light is the key variable in this experiment. Plants require sunlight in order for them to photosynthesise. This factor will affect the distribution of ground flora in a range of ways. With there being no canopy layer in the young coppice, then the entire ground flora will be able to receive full sunlight. As more light will be able to reach the floor in young coppiced areas, I believe there is likely to be a greater abundance of each species there and perhaps more diversity too. However this is not the case with the old coppice. As there are big Oak trees, which act as a canopy, then the full amount of sunlight entering the coppice will not entirely reach the ground flora and as a result they must compete for it. As there will be very little amounts of light reaching them, many plant species will not be able to photosynthesis and therefore survive.  

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On the other hand it is not just the amount of light which reaches a plant that depends whether it can survive, but also the quality of it too. If the light which reaches a plant does not contain much blue or red light, then it will not be able to photosynthesise well. One way in which plants are adapted to live in the old coppice at Nower Wood is that the colour of the leaves are dark green, meaning that they contain many chloroplasts and therefore the absorption of light is great. Some plant species, such as honeysuckle, are ...

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