Alternative future land use options in the British uplands

Crowle, Alistair; Oakley, Naomi; Drewitt, Allan L.; Denmark‐Melvin, Meg E.

doi:10.1111/ibi.13041

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 19 publications

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“…Advocates of prescribed burning note the biodiversity value of managed grouse moors, particularly with regard to bird species such as the Eurasian curlew ( Numenius arquata ; Baines et al., 2008; Newey et al., 2016; Tharme et al., 2001), though this value has been attributed to stringent predator control rather than to the burning regime (Littlewood et al., 2019; Ludwig et al., 2019). It is further argued that alternative land uses to grouse shooting such as afforestation or conversion to farmland would damage biodiversity, although this narrative has recently been questioned (Crowle et al., 2022). Management for grouse has been seen as an important factor in maintaining heather moorland (Robertson et al., 2001).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessment of peatland burning in Scotland during 1985–2022 using Landsat imagery

Spracklen,

Spracklen

2023

Ecol Sol and Evidence

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In the Scottish uplands, prescribed burning of moorland vegetation is widely practised either to boost gamebird numbers for recreational shooting or to improve livestock grazing. In recent years, this system of land management has become controversial due to concerns over the potential impacts on ecosystem services. However, there are limited data on the extent, distribution or frequency of burning and it is unclear whether there are long‐term trends in burning. Crucially, the extent of burning on peat soils is not well known. We used a time series of Landsat imagery covering 7750 km2 of moorland in Eastern Scotland to detect annual variation in area burnt from 1985 to 2022. Burnt areas were detected using annual changes in Normalised Burn Ratio. An accuracy evaluation conducted over eight sites covering 415 km2 using a combination of Google Earth imagery, and field studies suggested a user's accuracy of 90% and a producer's accuracy of 77%. We estimate an average annual mean area burnt of 61 km2 with large interannual variability and no significant change in area burnt over the 38‐year study period. We estimate that 32% of burning (19 km2 year−1) occurred on deep peat soils with no reduction in burning on deep peat after the revision of national guidelines (the Muirburn Code) in 2017 recommended ceasing this practice. We find that in Eastern Scotland there has been no significant change in moorland area burnt over the last four decades. The fractional area burnt that is on deep peat is a matter of management concern.

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