Charity No 224018

150th Anniversary Conference, Exhibition and Conversazione

The ever changing flora and fauna of Yorkshire

Saturday 19 March 2011

9.00a.m. - 4.30p.m.

Holiday Inn, Garforth, Leeds LS25 1LH

Compiled by John Newbould

2

Programme: • 10.30 - 10.40am Housekeeping and notices introduction of the YNU

President John Wint, who will chair the day.

• 10.40 – 11.20am Professor Alistair Fitter, University of York: Hidden nature, hidden value

• 11.20a.m. - 12.00noon Professor John Rodwell, University of Lancaster: Vegetation, Place, Change: Yorkshire’s Plant Communities.

• 12.00 noon – 12.30pm Stephanie Peay, University of Leeds & Scott Wilson: The future of Crayfish in Yorkshire.

• 12.30p.m. Michelle Farrell, University of Hull: The Crackles Bequest Project: climate and the flora of semi-natural habitats in East Yorkshire and beyond.

• 12.45p.m. Delegates assembled in the exhibition room where the President proposed a formal toast to the YNU and Derek Whitely (General Secretary: Sorby Society) responded. .

• Lunch followed by Exhibition and tea or coffee

• 2.25p.m. Launch of South Yorkshire Plant Atlas by the editors. • 2.30. – 3.00p.m. Dr Margaret Redfern and Mr T. Higginbottom: The

YNU, the British Plant Gall Society and identifying galls. • 3.00 - 3.15p.m. Mrs Phyl Abbott The fall and rise of the Lady’s- slipper

Orchid • 3.15 -3.45p.m. Dr Keith Porter Natural England Head of Biodiversity

Information strategy. From Ellers Wood to Nagoya • 3.45 – 4.00p.m. John Newbould YNU General Secretary. What do

naturalists do? • 4.00p.m. Dr Roger Key President-elect will propose a vote of thanks.

Celebrating 150 years of recording the ever changing flora and fauna of Yorkshire

3

The ever changing flora and fauna of Yorkshire Introduction: In the Journal of Applied Ecology 47, 955-965 (October 2010) a team of thirty scientists from government, the voluntary sector and academia identified priority policy options for UK biodiversity, stated, “The conservation of biodiversity depends on both policy and regulatory frameworks.” Following a two day meeting a final list of 25 issues and their potential policy options and research was identified. However, for scientists to identify policy options, evidence-based research and survey are essential with the results made available in the public domain for peer review. Yorkshire’s field naturalists have been making information available for many years. F. Arnold Lees The Flora of West Yorkshire published in 1888 reports on Alpine Currant: a first record by D. Dodsworth in 1688, still present at Fountains Abbey today. In 2010, the YNU held a VC65 field meeting at Buckden. One member sent a list of 29 birds seen during the meeting whereas the Naturalist no 572 (September 1904) reported 57 species with several families of Grey Wagtail, Dipper, Kingfisher, Pied Flycatcher and Hobby amongst the species seen during the 1904 meeting, when members also reported hearing from the “intelligent gamekeeper, Mr Thomas Camidge” of Lesser Spotted Woodpecker. Raven had been shot in May that year and Golden Eagle had been killed at Starbotton in 1902. Combinations of such reports combined are invaluable in assessing biodiversity today. However, in 2010 nature conservation and biological recording face an uncertain future. The European financial situation is beginning to look increasingly dire with major cuts in central and local government funding in prospect. Some species and habitats are protected by both UK and European legislation. During the course of the day, delegates will learn of the scientific and legislative success of bringing the Lady’s-slipper Orchid back from the brink. Other species, e.g. the Greater Crested Newt, are protected by legislation, but are not uncommon in the UK and may result in excessive expenditure in providing mitigation. There are many species and habitats under threat in both marine and land situations from non-native invasive species, threats for which there are no known UK biological solutions. The native White-clawed Crayfish is one species under particular threat from a virus transmitted by the American Signal Crayfish. During the day delegates will hear about efforts to monitor and conserve our native species, keep watercourses clean and find out if there is any way of reducing the invading American species. Monitoring of non-native invasive species has been a key function of many voluntary natural history societies with species such as the Harlequin Ladybird and

4

Horse-chestnut Leaf-miner Moth having spread rapidly across England in the last few years. For many years Professor Alistair Fitter and his team at York University have been researching the importance of many micro-fungi found in soil and their importance in the biodiversity cycle. He writes: "YNU members don't need reminding that not all of biodiversity is charismatic. The contribution made by naturalists to knowledge of the distribution and ecology of the less flamboyant species is immense but even so, we don't really know how well most of them are faring in the landscape. Are they as threatened as the more obvious groups such as plants and butterflies? And what arguments can we use - beyond their intrinsic value - to ensure their conservation? I'll try to show how the new language of ecosystem services helps understanding of the ecological role of these species and makes a strong case for their survival." Prior to the first and second world wars the YNU was fortunate to have T.W. Woodhead and, later, W.H. Pearsall as editors of the Naturalist. Both were instrumental in exploring how vegetation communities worked and where they fitted into the landscape. This is appropriate today with the Journal of Applied Ecology noting “the increased interest in moving from managing sites for species and habitats to creating and /or restoring landscape scale wilderness areas.” At the conference delegates will hear from Professor John Rodwell, who was educated at Wath Grammar School, on Vegetation, Place, Change: Yorkshire’s plant communities. He describes T.W. Woodhead as “one of my Yorkshire local heroes.” During the YNU’s history our members have been involved with many national societies and indeed in the formation of some. The British Plant Gall Society came into being in 1984, with a meeting at Anston Stones Wood, Rotherham, on an initiative from a group of our members. Tom Higgingbottom looks back at its formation, whilst Dr Margaret Redfern will focus on the identification of galls: referring to publications such as Arnold Darlington's book, The Provisional Keys, the FSC Key 2002 and the new FSC Key. Welcome note: John Newbould welcomed members to the 15th YNU Conference he has organised and the first at the Holiday Inn, Leeds Garforth. In his opening remarks he drew the attention of members and guests to an article in the Yorkshire Post’s Country Week supplement on the YNU published that morning. See: If you’ve not had a chance to read it, Roger Ratcliffe’s article. http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/country-view/farming/naturalists_hunt_new_members_1_3196964 Thanks to Terry Crawford for taking time to meet with and talk to Roger last month – great photo too and to Emma Lusby who set up the press opportunity. John handed over to the YNU President John Wint, who was chairman for the day.

5

Alastair Fitter. - Hidden nature, hidden value In the talk Professor Fitter covered the causes of change to the biodiversity of Yorkshire, whether threats to Yorkshire's wildlife will increase, how we can value it properly in order to ensure its survival and vitality, and the new language of ecosystem services that may offer a strong argument for the conservation of biodiversity, especially for the less charismatic species. He commented that most of nature is hidden from many members of the public. And the value of nature cannot be measured just financially but in the value of public policies and values. His opening slide covered bird data showing especially the decline in farmland bird species with a smaller decline in woodland bird species over the past forty years. Using Plantlife data he demonstrated the extinction rate of plant species to be about 1 plant species per county per year and this does not just include rare species. He identified the intensification of agriculture, pollution and fragmentation of the landscape as likely causes. He showed three maps of Yorkshire from the recent Lawton review, with the North York Moors and Pennine uplands showing reasonable concentrations of ‘protected areas’, local wildlife sites and ancient woodland but in the central lowlands such areas are scattered. He forecast the UK population to rise by 10 million, with living standards continuing to rise leading to higher consumption and agricultural intensification likely to continue. Some of the issues such as fragmentation can be addressed but the major new factor is climate change, which can only be addressed by reducing carbon emissions. He demonstrated the effects of global warming using the NBN gateway on a number of plant species using the date ranges 1600 to 1969, 1970 to 1986 and 1987 to 2011. Prickly Lettuce (Lactuca serriola) has undergone a rapid expansion in the last twenty years northwards and westwards and is now found in many roadside and waste places in the southern part of Yorkshire. It had reached Rotherham in 1999. Baneberry (Actaea spicata) is now contracting its range on the limestone together with Bird’s-eye Primrose (Primula farinosa) and hairy Stonecrop (Sedum villosum). These are demonstrated on the maps below:

6

Similar data is available for butterflies such as Comma (Polygonia c-album) and many other invertebrates.

7

Professor Fitter told us that whilst the evidence is quite good for some groups such as birds and flowering plants; there are groups of species where even reliable lists of species do not exist including nematodes, protozoa and micro-fungi. This unknown biodiversity is mainly found in soil and in worst cases species can only be identified in the laboratory using molecular methods. He described work done at the NERC Soil Biodiversity site at Sourhope in Scotland where there is considered to be 500-5000 bacteria species, 365 Protozoa – possibly 1/3 of the global total and 140 species of Nematodes out of a possible 400 world wide species. At Hetchel Wood in Yorkshire, 37 species of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi have been identified out of a possible total of 220 worldwide. WHAT THESE FIGURES SUGGEST IS THAT THERE ARE HUGE NUMBERS OF UNKNOWN AND UNDISCOVERED SPECIES IN THESE MORE OBSCURE GROUPS. Is Biodiversity under threat? Professor Fitter went on to consider the arguments for the conservation of biodiversity.

1. There are ethical arguments of the intrinsic value of nature. “Nature has aright to exist outwith of any benefit that we derive from it” (Ehrenfeld). There is an argument that each species has a right to survive even though some species e.g. mosquitos, viruses and brown rat we do not welcome.

2. There are utilitarian arguments of intrinsic value including the economic use of productive land, e.g. for agriculture or infrastructure. There is also the argument that biodiversity has instrumental value e.g. people welcome birds and butterflies and there are other species such as bees we depend on and therefore value.

8

Ecosystems:

• Species never occur divorced from other species. • They live in communities and they live in habitats. • Collectively this is what Arthur Tansley called the ‘ecosystem’.

The ecosystem provides services, mostly undervalued, from the natural world. There are four categories:

1. Provisioning services such as food, water, timber we use directly. 2. Regulating services used to keep our world in a habitable condition e.g.

climate and water. 3. Cultural services, which are valued for recreation, natural history or

spiritual values. 4. Supporting Services, which are the natural processes that keep the world

functioning e.g. soil formation, nutrient cycling and decomposition. Some such as food, water or energy we take from the environment have monetary values, others such as medicines derived from natural products e.g. antibiotics have health values whilst landscape and nature may have shared social values. Provisioning Services

Agriculture typically requires a reduction in biodiversity (weeds and

pests) Ripley May 2010

Low input production e.g. grasslands) may be boosted by biodiversity

9

Wild Harvests (e.g. fisheries) most dependent. e.g. studying the growth

conditions for Freshwater Pearl Mussel at a research establishment

Bioprospecting (e.g. for pharmaceuticals) absolutely dependent.

Regulating Services

Is generally unknown e.g. climate regulation depends on locking up C in

soil, reducing methane emissions e.g. Lowland heath in Dorset,

Hampshire, Surrey and Yorkshire (Middlebere Heath NNR)

Pollination requires a vector relying on natural pollinators in the

landscape.

Cultural Services: where biodiversity is fundamental.

10

National Trust has 3 million members, RSPB > 1million members and County Wildlife Trusts around

850,000

Walking in the countryside is the UKs 2nd most popular leisure past-time.

Supporting Services: all depend on biodiversity for

Primary Production

Decomposition

11

Soil Formation

Where food availability, carbon sequestration, wild species diversity and pollination are important factors There are three pillars of conservation of biodiversity:

Conservation of individual species is needed for high value endangered species e.g. birds, butterflies, plants

etc. It may only work for a tiny fraction of species and may incidentally help

conserve other species. e.g. Cicindela germanica – a Tiger Beetle found only on soft cliffs in

southern Britain.

Conservation of habitats – ecosystems

is needed to conserve large numbers of species, including threatened

species if widely and wisely applied. It may incidentally help protect

ecosystem services. The Freshwater Biological

Association’s staff at Ferry House has studied Lake Windermere for many

years.

Management to promote biodiversity

Needed to protect ecosystem services for human wellbeing It can

also protect species of managed ecosystems. This involves the

transformation of thinking about land and water management.

12

Professor Fitter’s career. Degrees BA Oxford, 1969; PhD Liverpool, 1973 Career University of York: Professor of Ecology (Personal Chair),

1992- Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research, 2004-2010 Director, UK Population Biology Network (UKPopNet), 2004-

2007 University of York: Head of Biology Department, 1997-2004 Personal Chair, 1992; Senior Lecturer, 1988; Lecturer in

Environmental Biology, 1972 Professional CBE, 2010 Distinctions Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS), 2005 Honorary Member, British Mycological Society, 2007 Honorary Member, Botanical Society of the British Isles, 2007 Honorary Fellow, British Naturalists’ Association, 2008 President, British Ecological Society, 2003-2005 President’s Medal, British Ecological Society, 1997 Other current roles Editor, New Phytologist, 1988- Trustee, New Phytologist Trust, 2001- Member, NERC Council, 2005-2011 President, River Foss Society, 2005- Member, Natural England Science Advisory Committee, 2007- Member, Council of the Royal Society, 2008-2010 Vice-President, International Association of Ecology, 2010- Trustee, Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, 2010- Trustee, Castle Howard Arboretum Trust, 2010- Publications include 163 papers in refereed scientific journals, numerous other articles

and chapters in books, a textbook (3 editions) and 10 popular natural history books (including translations into 7 languages).

13

Professor John Rodwell: Vegetation, Place, Change: Yorkshire’s Plant Communities In his Presidential Address to the Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union in 1922, T.W. Woodhead paid tribute to his forebears and colleagues in their description and mapping of the vegetation of the county and their understanding of the dynamics of change in its ecosystems. Using examples that reflect current knowledge of the diverse landscapes of Yorkshire - including floodplains of the Coal Measure Lowlands, farmland of the Northern Pennines, the wastelands of our towns and cities, woodlands of the Magnesian Limestone - this paper will show how an understanding of the flora and structure of plant communities (vegetation) and their relationships to the climate, soils, biotic impacts and human culture in particular localities (place) is essential to manage a sustainable future for the county we cherish in uncertain times (change). As Director of the Tolson Museum in Huddersfield, Woodhead’s plea for a commitment to local celebration and promotion of learning still stands as a challenge to us all, and for the particular role that the YNU might play in its fourth half-century. John Rodwell was coordinator of the UK National Vegetation Classification and editor of the five-volume British Plant Communities, now used as a standard by all UK wildlife and environment, agriculture and forest agencies, NGOs and local authorities. Until recently Professor of Plant Ecology at Lancaster University, he now works as an independent consultant providing research and training here and elsewhere in Europe, focusing at the moment on grassland ecosystems,

relationships between nature and culture and post-industrial landscapes in the UK and Germany. The Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management awarded him the President’s Medal in 2010, for his ‘distinguished contribution to the advancement of vegetation science in Britain & Europe’ and in June this year will receive Honorary Membership of the International Association for Vegetation Science in Lyon. Born and brought up in South Yorkshire, he remains deeply committed to the future of the county, its distinctive landscapes, rich variety of plant

communities and the viability of its places and their people. Professor Rodwell began his talk by paying tribute to a former President of the YNU, T.H. Woodhead one of the pioneers of ecology in the county and reported that it was two Yorkshire towns, Harrogate and Skipton, that were some of the earliest places in Britain to have their vegetation mapped. His own involvement with describing the vegetation communities of the British Isles began at Lancaster University. He explained that the National Vegetation Classification (NVC) and its associated surveys were based on sampling in a standard way, woodland,

14

grassland, heath and moorland etc. Not only is it important to know the composition of the flora and the structure of the associated vegetation, but we also need to understand the relationships of climate, soils, biotic impacts and human impacts in order to manage a sustainable future for our landscapes. The National Vegetation Surveys produced about 250 plant communities, which were published from 1990 – 2002 in five volumes. However, the work is continuing and other communities are recognised today. Of the 250 communities, approximately half are found in Yorkshire including all mesotrophic meadows and pastures, 95% of the woodland communities, 30% of heaths but only 8% of the sea cliff coastal communities. Yorkshire naturalists are fortunate to live on the boundary between the warm and dry lowlands and the cool and wet uplands with a wide diversity of geology, superficial deposits and soils. There is also a long and complex social history affecting the landscape. There is no wilderness. Yorkshire should also be referenced in a European context. Take for example, one of the few remaining Dales hay meadows with a Geranium sylvaticum-Anthoxanthum odoratum northern hay meadow (MG3 in the NVC). Here there are short cool summers and cold winters yet such a community could yield 35 species in a 2sqm quadrat and between 6 -10 tons of hay per acre. Typical species include: Sanguisorbia officinalis, Cirsium heleniodes, Alchemilla glabra, A. xanthochlora, Trollius europaeus Conopodium majus etc. together with a mixture of grasses. Historically places with thwaite in the village or house name reflect these old hay meadows where the only nutrients added are from the aftermath grazing.

Geranium sylvaticum hay meadow

© John Rodwell Meadows used for silage

© John Newbould

Contrast this with a typical silage meadow using fertiliser where typically five species may be found. Professor Rodwell demonstrated the British distribution of Geranium sylvaticum communities and compared this with the European distribution. However as the photograph on the right shows, the associated ash, rowan and dog’s mercury woodland (W9) is still found. Professor Rodwell highlighted the importance of historical information showing a sample of a diary of a Dales farmer in the 1950s. He then turned his attention to floodplain communities affected by hydrology with the amount of flooding dependent on rainfall, which influences species composition, drawing our attention to the important floodplain grasslands of the

15

Lower Derwent Valley, notably the burnet flood meadow (MG4), which are still present today. He contrasted this with the Dearne Valley where species such as Alopecurus pratensis and Sangusorbia officinalis are still present today but in isolated sporadic locations. Documentation from the 17th century shows that hay meadows were present along the valley and not only has the loss of plant communities and species richness declined there has been a loss of fauna and the micro-species associated with soils. The situation in the Lower Dearne Valley will clearly be demonstrated in the forthcoming Plant Atlas of South Yorkshire. Professor Rodwell was able to demonstrate the historical base using maps from Trinity College, Cambridge and 1505 charters from the Borthwick Institute and British Library. He continued his talk by showing various examples of heath and mire vegetation seen within Yorkshire. He also commented on the planners’ desire to allocate all colliery waste sites as brown-field sites for development when in fact they can provide a developing community of oak-birch woodland, together with associated W23 Gorse, W24 Bramble and W25 Bracken scrub vegetation. He highlighted the wool shoddy aliens of West Yorkshire as being a well-documented area of botanical and industrial history. Professor Rodwell then turned his attention to the important coppice woodland associated with the Cistercian monastery at Roche Abbey where a community is known to have been present since at least 1180. It is known that iron was smelted just east of Roche Abbey, which was ransacked in 1538 by Henry VIII. In the 1770s the estate was transferred to the family of the Earl of Scarborough. Capability Brown established a picturesque pleasure park with a lake in 1775. In the late 1950s, part of King’s Wood was clear felled and re-planted to assist with death duties, although today the typical ash maple mercury woodland is naturally coming back. However, within this whole area stretching from the Nottinghamshire border in the south, named Lindrick, one ancient tree – the Large-leaved Lime (Tilia platyphyllos) is still present in the woods and may clearly be seen on the rocky outcrops to the north of the Abbey. There is a long tradition within the YNU and its associated natural history societies of working together to make data on flora, fauna and habitats available in accessible forms. It is important to continue exploring the historical record to study the relationship between nature and culture in order to manage change in sustainable Yorkshire landscapes. Stephanie Peay: The future of Crayfish in Yorkshire started her involvement in nature conservation at an early age with the Scottish Wildlife Trust, planting a tree in 1973 and working as conservation volunteer thereafter. After her degree in biology (Honours in botany at University of Edinburgh) she worked for the wildlife trust in Sussex on woodland surveys, then in various posts in various offices of the Nature Conservancy Council. Ever interested in land management, she then spent five years as the FWAG farm conservation adviser for Lincolnshire. For the past 20 years, she has worked as an ecologist in an environmental consultancy, mainly on environmental impact assessments. Stephanie moved to Yorkshire in 1992, initially for some short-term

16

projects, but soon decided to stay. She first encountered freshwater crayfish during the Yorkshire drought of 1995-1996 and wanted to find out more about them. She started carrying out independent research in 1997 and has continued ever since, producing practical guidance for other practitioners as she went along. After an unpaid research sabbatical in 2002, Stephanie decided to switch to work part-time in consultancy at Scott Wilson, so she could carry on with her work on conservation and management of freshwater crayfish. She enrolled at University of Leeds as a part-time PhD student in 2006. Stephanie represented the wildlife trusts on the UK BAP steering group for white-clawed crayfish, contributes to the European forum of crayfish researchers and freshwater managers and is a Board member of the International Association of Astacology, which brings together people from around the world with diverse interests in freshwater crayfish.”

Abstract: The Future of Crayfish in Yorkshire The white-clawed crayfish Austropotamobius pallipes is our only native freshwater crayfish and one of our largest freshwater invertebrates. It was formerly widespread in all the main river catchments in Yorkshire. It is now under threat and declining rapidly in the region, due to the introduction of non-native signal crayfish Pacifastacus leniusculus, an American species originally introduced for aquaculturemin the late 1970s, which is invading most of the river systems in Britain, including those in Yorkshire. See the maps from the NBN gateway on the next page.

!!White-clawed crayfish Austropotamobius pallipes

Freshwater crustacean –

decapod

Largest native freshwater

invertebrate (c. 10-12cm)

IUCN Red List –

Endangered

Formerly widespread in

streams and rivers in most of

England and Wales

17

White-clawed crayfish are progressively out-competed by the non-native crayfish, or else die rapidly of crayfish plague if the American crayfish are carrying this lethal disease. In addition, there has been fragmentation of populations of white-clawed crayfish due to pollution and impacts of land-use. With no effective method of controlling signal crayfish, further loss of range of white-clawed crayfish

18

is inevitable for this Endangered species. Signal crayfish will increase, but are not the only invaders. However White-clawed Crayfish are in all the Yorkshire catchments, mainly in streams and rivers whilst in upland rivers slow-flowing areas are better, even in upland headwaters unless acidic. Tree roots and even shallow burrows found in clay can be used as refuges. Lakes, reservoirs and flooded quarries are also suitable habitats. The range of Crayfish may have been increased in Yorkshire by human introductions. In one instance, Ms Peays cited a reference in the Naturalist in 1932 where S.H. Smith commented on their introduction to the Rive Rye in 1922. The talk continued by showing the spread of Signal Crayfish since 1980 stating that although White-clawed Crayfish is still locally abundant in 2011 there have been major losses with a graph showing the spread from Kilnsey southwards between 1990 and 2005. Yet in Yorkshire there are opportunities to keep populations of white-clawed crayfish isolated from non-native crayfish and disease in existing and new ark sites. Catchment risk assessments and action plans have scope for conservation benefit, but need action urgently. Everyone in Yorkshire can contribute to this effort, which will help safeguard white-clawed crayfish for the future. From April there will be a new national crayfish website hosted by Buglife www.crayfish.org.uk with public and professional areas. She concluded by asking us not to be involved with buying live crayfish of any species, not to trap crayfish without a license. She requested that when surveying or fishing waters where crayfish are known that we keep our equipment and boots clean and disinfected and help by surveying for ark sites and monitoring existing populations. Michelle Farrell The Crackles Bequest Project: climate and the flora of semi-natural habitats in East Yorkshire and beyond This talk briefly introduces a research project, which began at the University of Hull in 2010. The project is funded by a bequest from the will of Dr F. Eva Crackles, a former president of the YNU. The project will investigate the relationships between plant phenotype and climate within individual species across a wide climatic range, in different habitats and at different points in time. The study of plant phenotypes can make a significant contribution to our understanding of how plants might respond to future climate change. Properties such as leaf shape and thickness vary markedly across the geographical range of a species, show strong correlation with climate variation, and may be an important component in predicting the resilience of plant species in the face of future climate change. If the relationship between plant phenotype and climatic factors is understood, then past climates can be reconstructed from preserved plant material; for example, the number of stomata per unit leaf area is strongly related to atmospheric CO2 levels when the leaf developed. However, some methods of reconstructing past climate assume that specified plant properties are constant in space and time. One such property is the Pollen Productivity (PP), the amount of

19

pollen produced per unit area of a given species. PP values differ between published studies, but since studies use different methodologies, it is not clear whether the assumption is in error. Using standard methods to collect data across the geographic range of several species will enable testing of the assumption of constant PP, and establish the relative utility of other measurements in identifying the growing conditions of plants in the past. Michelle Farrell currently works as a Research Associate in the Department of Geography at the University of Hull, having completed her PhD at Hull in 2009. Prior to this, she obtained a BSc (Hons) in Environmental Science from the University of Aberystwyth. Her research interests lie in the relationships between vegetation and climate, and in reconstructing past vegetation cover and landscapes. The project Michelle is currently working on is funded by a bequest from the will of Dr F. Eva Crackles, former president of the YNU, and aims to investigate the relationships between plants and climate by measuring differences in traits such as leaf morphology and pollen productivity in a range of locations across Europe.

Toast to celebrate 150th anniversary of the YNU.

Members & Guests gather for the toast

Photographs John Newbould Derek Whitely (Sorby Society) reposnds on behalf of members and guests after

John Wint (YNU) proposed a toast to the YNU.

John Wint – President YNU 2010-11

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Today gives us with an ideal opportunity to join together to mark the 150th anniversary of our Union. Assuming one can believe what is written on the internet, I picked out a few significant notes for 1861:

• London was the biggest city in the world, though life expectancy there averaged only 20 years because of diseases such as cholera

• England had the largest navy in the world and produced more steel than the rest of the world put together

• The United Kingdom of Italy was proclaimed, with Victor Emmanuel II of Sardinia as its King

• The American Civil War broke out • The British Post Office Savings Bank opened