Brownfield Conservation

Question 1

Which normally supports more biodiversity, brownfield or farmland sites?

Answer 1

Brownfield sites

Question 2

What is left behind when heavy industry abandons land?

Answer 2

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

Question 3

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?

Answer 3

The Canvey island ground beetle

The Morley Weevil

Question 4

How many red data book invertebrates are found in the Thames estuary brownfield alone?

Answer 4

100

Question 5

What does leadwort indicate?

Answer 5

The persistent toxin of lead

Question 6

What is a unifying feature of all industrial waste sites?

Answer 6

They exhibit textbook successions. They start off sterile and bare and are gradually colonised by a range of plant species ending with woodland.

Question 7

Where does the conservation interests lie for brownfield sites?

Answer 7

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.

Question 8

How is China clay mined?

Answer 8

It is mined by exposing weathered granite to high-powered jets of water.

Question 9

What is China clay used for?

Answer 9

It’s used in many products: paper, medicines, coffee whitener…

Question 10

What is China clay also known as?

Answer 10

Kaolin

Question 11

What part of the UK has a lot of suitably weathered granite deposits?

Answer 11

St Austell area of Cornwall

Question 12

What is the problem with mining for China clay?

Answer 12

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.

Question 13

The residues from China clay mining are dumped, forming what?

Answer 13

Sky tips

They dominate the area around St Austell

Question 14

What happens if China clay is left alone?

Answer 14

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

Question 15

What are characteristic species of china clay that is left alone?

Answer 15

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.

Question 16

What does Leblanc process waste come from?

Answer 16

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.

Question 17

What do Leblanc process waste sites turn into?

Answer 17

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.

Question 18

What species do Leblanc process waste sites support?

Answer 18

They support calcicoles, scrub and of course orchids.

Question 19

Which is the biggest and best known Leblanc process waste site?

Answer 19

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

Question 20

List orchid species that reliably flourish on Leblanc process sites

Answer 20

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

Question 21

What are lime wastes?

Answer 21

Deposits of calcium carbonate

Question 22

What species do lime wastes generate?

Answer 22

Orchids and calcicoles

Question 23

What does PFA stand for?

Answer 23

Pulverised Fuel Ash

Question 24

What is PFA?

Answer 24

The residue form burning finely powdered coal in a power station boiler

Question 25

It is a requirement for power station owners to control fly ash. How do they do this?

Answer 25

Control is achieved by passing the stack gases past high-voltage plates. The dust is attracted to the plates, and can be removed for disposal.

Question 26

Which power station has the largest PFA mound in the country?

Answer 26

Drax power station

Question 27

Describe fresh PFA ash

Answer 27

1) Alkaline (pH >9) due to free calcium oxide
2) A fine powder
3) High in soluble ions (e.g. sodium and potassium)
4) Devoid or organic matter or plant-available nitrogen but with some phosphorus

Question 28

What kind of plants are early successional species of PFA?

Answer 28

Tend to be annuals adapted to saline and disturbed conditions. Thus we find coastal species growing miles inland on these industrial sites.

Question 29

Give two examples of coastal species found at Drax power station

Answer 29

1) Sea plantain (Plantago maritima)

2) Lesser sea spurrey

Question 30

What happens as salt and boron are removed from PFA?

Answer 30

It colonises with a diverse range of bare-ground plants

e.g.

bird’s foot trefoil

Rats tail grass

Question 31

As legumes and grasses close over PFA sites, orchids of what genus appear? What else appears at this stage?

Answer 31

Dactylorhiza genus

At the same stage, seedlings of birch and willow start to appear, casting progressively deeper shade until around 40 years you have dense, shady scrub with little understorey.

Question 32

Can we recreate the successional sequence from scratch by depositing industrial left overs?

Answer 32

According to the Pollution Prevention and Control Regulations 2000 and the Landfill Regulations 2002 the answer is absolutely clear:
NO!

Question 33

What is Lytag?

Answer 33

PFA sintered into hard pellets

Question 34

What kind of site is Tilbury Lytag site?

Answer 34

The site is in fact an excellent man-made approximation to a lava field! Stonecrops and lichens bind much f the surface.
The initial colonisation of lava fields is often by lichens and mosses, and sure enough a lichen heath was found.

Question 35

What is weald clay used for?

Answer 35

To make bricks.

Question 36

Name some species of animal that have been found at Inholms clay pit?

Answer 36

1) Whitethroat (Sylvia communis) -bird-
2) Lizard (Zootaca vivipara
3) Grass snake (Natrix natrix)

Question 37

What is one main reason that brownfield sites are being lost?

Answer 37

People want to build houses on them