Brownfield Conservation Flashcards
Which normally supports more biodiversity, brownfield or farmland sites?
Brownfield sites
What is left behind when heavy industry abandons land?
A primary succession is left open, enabling the re-enactment of the colonisation of the UK after the last ice age and supplying a range of habitats for specialist species
The Northwick road area of Canvey island where mineral wastes had been dumped over 50 years ago is the only UK outpost for which two species?
The Canvey island ground beetle
The Morley Weevil
How many red data book invertebrates are found in the Thames estuary brownfield alone?
100
What does leadwort indicate?
The persistent toxin of lead
What is a unifying feature of all industrial waste sites?
They exhibit textbook successions. They start off sterile and bare and are gradually colonised by a range of plant species ending with woodland.
Where does the conservation interests lie for brownfield sites?
In the early successional species.
Birch woodland is found every where, while many plants of infertile disturbed ground are scarce in our over-fertile, managed environment. This also applies more widely: the bare ground of industrial sites is far better for many insects (+spiders, reptiles) than a pesticide-dosed field.
How is China clay mined?
It is mined by exposing weathered granite to high-powered jets of water.
What is China clay used for?
It’s used in many products: paper, medicines, coffee whitener…
What is China clay also known as?
Kaolin
What part of the UK has a lot of suitably weathered granite deposits?
St Austell area of Cornwall
What is the problem with mining for China clay?
The problem is that only a small proportion of the stone is kaolin: the washing process leaves behind a residue dominated by quartz but with various minor impurities.
The residues from China clay mining are dumped, forming what?
Sky tips
They dominate the area around St Austell
What happens if China clay is left alone?
It changes very little. It holds few salts and few nutrients, resulting in a very slow plant colonisation dominated by plants that might be found on sandy heaths
What are characteristic species of china clay that is left alone?
Characteristic plant species are acid-loving grasses, broom and heather, all species of native heathlands. The alien Rhododendron ponticum – also in the heather family – flourishes here too.
What does Leblanc process waste come from?
It comes from the manufacture of sodium carbonate = washing soda (Na2CO3), needed by the cotton industry of the north-west.
A French scientist, Mr Leblanc, patented a technique in 1790 to create soda from salt, sulphuric acid, limestone and coal.
What do Leblanc process waste sites turn into?
Leblanc process waste sites were once the nastiest residues of the industrial revolution; the remaining areas are now calcareous grassland, a very scarce habitat in the predominantly acidic soils of the NW.
What species do Leblanc process waste sites support?
They support calcicoles, scrub and of course orchids.
Which is the biggest and best known Leblanc process waste site?
By far the biggest, best known and documented goes by the wonderful name of Nob End, Farnworth, Bolton. It is an SSSI for its calcicoles and orchids
List orchid species that reliably flourish on Leblanc process sites
1) The northern marsh orchid
2) The southern marsh orchid
3) The early marsh orchid
4) Common spotted orchid
5) The fragrant orchid
6) Marsh helleborine
7) Twayblade
8) Bee orchid
What are lime wastes?
Deposits of calcium carbonate
What species do lime wastes generate?
Orchids and calcicoles
What does PFA stand for?
Pulverised Fuel Ash
What is PFA?
The residue form burning finely powdered coal in a power station boiler
