Investigating the importance of soil health for woodland regeneration in the Scottish Highlands
Postdoc Emily Warner, MBiol student Jon Harper, and Research Assistant Thomas Richardson spent six weeks this summer collecting data to explore the relationship between mature trees, regenerating seedlings, and soil in three Caledonian pinewood remnants in Scotland’s West Highlands. Collaborating with the NGO Trees for Life, we are linking up with their Wild Trees surveys, which assess the above-ground dynamics of tree regeneration, to understand how below-ground processes and properties influence tree establishment.
Jon Harper & Emily Warner conducting fieldwork in the West Highlands of Scotland.
Despite battling with the rain and midges of a West Highlands summer, we managed to set up our 76 study plots as planned, coming away with 60 kg of soil samples at the end of the summer. The determination and positivity of the team ensured our success, and we went as far as hiking over the ridge of Druim Gleann Laoigh with heavy equipment and samples when a rising river prevented access to Glen Mallie on our final day there. Long days spent out in all conditions were rewarded with many amazing wildlife encounters. Including Loch Arkaig’s resident osprey flying overhead with a recently caught fish, circling golden eagles on many occasions, startling an enormous ginger fox, and watching attentive meadow pipit parents feeding a recently fledged cuckoo chick.
Remnant pinewood in Glen Mallie.
Our soil samples are now in Geolabs in the School of Geography & Environment in Oxford, where Mona Edwards and her team are analysing the samples for soil physical and chemical properties including carbon and nitrogen content, pH, and bulk density. We are also working in collaboration with Vincent Merckx’s group at Naturalis Biodiversity Centre in Leiden, The Netherlands, who will use metabarcoding to assess fungal communities in our soil samples. Look out for the results of our work in 2025!
