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Dr Althea DaviesESRC/RELU Research FellowPostdoctoral research assistant, AHRC Centre for Environmental History (2003-2006) & Department of Environmental Science (2000-2003), University of Stirling PhD - ‘Fine Spatial Resolution Holocene Vegetation and Land-Use History in West Glen Affric and Kintail, Northern Scotland’, University of Stirling (1999)
School
of Biological & Environmental Sciences tel: +44 1786 467810 |
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Edale, Peak District: a landscape divided up by agriculture, but how have generations of farmers and changes in climate, markets and policy shaped the present vegetation? |
Research Interests
My research deals with environmental archaeology and palaeoecology, focusing on long-term ecological change and land-use history in upland environments. I am particularly interested in how socio-economic circumstances affect human responses to upland environmental change, and the implications of long-term (millennial-scale) and recent (medieval and historic) ecological and land-use history for upland management and conservation. Consequently, I am working with ecologists, conservationists, archaeologists and historians.
Current Project
NEW: choice experiment - How good is the upland evidence base?
Are we really making the fullest use of the different sources of evidence available to understand how the uplands function and how they, and as a consequence we, are likely to have to adapt to changes brought about by climatic and management shifts? Are some sources of evidence more important than others? Are there sources which have the potential to contribute to adaptive management, but which currently lie outside established frameworks? Take part in a choice experiment to help assess how different sources of evidence are valued in upland research, policy and practice.
Make your views known in this 30 minute exercise: download the woodland case study or the peat- & moorland case study. For the references: see the woodland 
or peatland reference lists.
I am currently working on a project which examines the value of environmental history (ecological, land-use and socio-economic change) over the last 300-500 years for current upland management. The uplands are under pressure from changes in agriculture and climate, the growth of conservation, tourism and renewable energy production. How can we ensure that these stresses do not damage the landscapes, biodiversity, natural and cultural heritage for which the UK uplands are valued? A clear understanding of how upland environments respond to change is essential. Most management and policy decisions are based on short-term information, covering a few decades at most. However, it is only with the benefits of hindsight that some changes can be recognised and long-term perspectives demonstrate that management baselines and goals based on short timescales incorporate misconceptions about ecological resilience, diversity and drivers of change in the uplands. Decision-making informed by the past will help ensure that these factors are not compromised by short-term perspectives, and that management baselines and targets are based on a more secure understanding of the present condition of upland ecosystems. The project consists of two strands:
- Environmental history effectively provides a series of long-term ‘natural experiments’ in which the drivers and ecological and human consequences of change are known - in contrast with the uncertainties involved in modelling change from short-term baselines. This work will include pollen, charcoal and fungal spore analyses, written and cartographic sources and archaeology.
- Social science and econometric methods of evaluating values and preferences will be used to test the significance of a longer-term perspective for managing the uplands and preferences for future landscape change, since it remains difficult to put monetary values on heritage, biodiversity or scenery.
The work is being conducted in the Peak District (England) and Sutherland (N Scotland), both landscapes with high conservation values and dependant on hill farming, but with contrasting stresses and opportunities due to the relative proximity/remoteness of conurbations.
Recent activities: 'Long-term datasets in habitat management' conference (held 18-19th January 2010)
A growing number of papers describe the contributions that palaeoecology can make to vegetation science and conservation, but the use of long-term sources remains far from commonplace in management or policy-making. Part of the reason may be that very few of these papers (and thus the research projects themselves) include, as authors, the end-users that they target and few networks exist to connect these groups. To address these issues, this conference brought together 30 delegates from academia, policy, NGO and practitioner contexts. In recognition of the fact that environmental processes and ecological responses occur over a variety of timescales and it may be difficult or not always necessary for ecologists and policy-makers, used to dealing with far shorter time periods, to immediately scale their thinking and planning up to millennial timescales, the meeting was structured around ‘revisiting’ studies and monitoring networks, looking back over c.50 years of ecological recording, as well as centennial and millennial case studies. This allowed frank and constructive exchange of views on how long-term ecology, environmental and land-use history current do and could perhaps be targetted and presented in order contribute more effectively to policy and management. Proposed future activities to follow up on the meeting include a BES Symposium (2011 perhaps). If you would like to become involved or be kept informed about future meetings, join the ‘Bridging the Gap’ network to contribute to greater ecological-palaeoecological interaction, by emailing me.
This research is funded by RELU (Rural Economy and Land Use), a cross-research council programme which brings together natural and social scientists to work towards a more sustainable future for rural communities and environments (www.relu.ac.uk)
Recent projects
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Quinag, Assynt: what legacy have the abandoned farmsteads across the Scottish Highlands left on this ‘wild land’? |
The environment of a Mesolithic pit alignment and Neolithic timber tall at Crathes, Aberdeenshire
Palaeoenvironmental work was undertaken in collaboration with Richard Tipping (University of Stirling) and Headland Archaeology as part of archaeological investigations by Hilary Murray (Murray Archaeological Services). This is only the third Neolithic timber hall found to date in Scotland and little is known of their function, role in society or about land-use around these structures and how they relate to the adoption of agriculture. This study provided unique insights into the setting of the hall, which appears to have been cleared of woodland and used for cultivation. This contrasts both with dense woodland cover across the region at this time and with the importance often placed on livestock in the transition from hunter-gathering to settled agriculture.
Written in the Hills: human impact on upland diversity, past, present and future
This interdisciplinary project combined palaeoecology, history, ecology and economics to understand the drivers of agricultural and ecological change over the last c.400 years across upland Scotland, and to determine the extent to which past management legacies affect current upland plant diversity (http://www.cehp.stir.ac.uk/proj-7.html). Changes in livestock grazing pressures brought about by changes in prices had statistically significant effects on past plant diversity, as did land abandonment. This suggests that long-term management of upland areas for the conservation of diversity should focus on grazing pressures as a key policy attribute. Based on this retrospective evidence, drastic cuts in grazing pressures, as might occur under current reforms of the Common Agricultural Policy, could have adverse biodiversity consequences. The project was funded by the Leverhulme Trust and undertaken at the AHRC Centre for Environmental History, University of Stirling.
Fine resolution palynology and woodland conservation: implications for current management at Ledmore and Migdale Woods, N Scotland
Ledmore and Migdale Wood National Nature Reserve (NNR) currently comprises a diverse range of habitats, including open heather moorland, valley mire, Scots pine, oak and birch woodland, juniper scrub, stands of aspen and coniferous plantation of varying ages. Due to long generation times in woodlands, it is difficult to determine the most appropriate management strategy based on ecological observations alone. Palaeoecological work was undertaken in collaboration with Melanie Smith (University of the Highlands and Islands), Paul Young and Eleanor Garty (Woodland Trust Scotland) to provide a more informed approach to decision-making. The results indicate that the present pine trees have no long history in this part of the wood and are likely to have been planted in the last few centuries. Maximum plant diversity and stability were recorded during a period of mixed land-use, including farming and woodland management and grazing. By contrast, the present woodland is relatively depauperate and unstable. This poses considerable questions for managers, as many of the current conservation values are viewed as primarily ‘natural’ in origin. Palaeoecologists and managers are continuing to work on the implications of a long-term perspective for current management.
Selected Publications
Davies, A.L. (2007) Upland agriculture and environmental risk: a new model of upland land-use based on high spatial-resolution palynological data from West Affric, NW Scotland. Journal of Archaeological Science 34, 2053-2063.
Davies, A.L. & Dixon, P. (2007) Reading the pastoral landscape: palynological and historical evidence for the impacts of long-term grazing on Wether Hill, Cheviot foothills, Northumberland. Landscape History 29, 35-45.
Davies, A.L. & Smith, M.A. (in press) More questions than answers? High resolution pollen records as a tool for conservation management at Ledmore and Migdale Woods, Sutherland. In Rotherham, I.D. (ed.). Working and walking in the footsteps of ghosts: the ecology, archaeology and management of ancient woods and associated land. Proceedings from the sixth regional biodiversity conference. Wildtrack Publishing: Sheffield.
Davies, A.L. & Tipping, R. (2004) Sensing small-scale human activity in the palaeoecological record: fine spatial resolution pollen analyses from West Glen Affric, northern Scotland. The Holocene 14, 233-245.
Davies, A.L., Tisdall, E. & Tipping R. (2004) Holocene climatic variability and human settlement in the Scottish Highlands: fragility and robustness. In Housley, R.A. and Coles, G. (eds.) Atlantic Connections and Adaptations: economies, environments and subsistence in lands bordering the North Atlantic. Symposia of the Association for Environmental Archaeology No. 21. Oxford: Oxbow Books, 2-11.
Davies, A.L. & Watson, F. (2007) Understanding the changing value of natural resources: an integrated palaeoecological-historical investigation into grazing-woodland interactions by Loch Awe, Western Highlands of Scotland. Journal of Biogeography 34, 1777-1791.
Hanley, N., Davies, A., Angelopoulos, K., Hamilton, A., Ross, A., Tinch, D. & Watson, F. (2008) Economic determinants of biodiversity change over a 400 year period in the Scottish uplands. Journal of Applied Ecology 45, 1557-1565.
Murray, H.K. & Shepherd, I.A.G. with contributions by C. Lamb, N.W. Kerr, A.L. Davies, M. Jay, R. Tipping, A.J. Mukherjee, R.P Evershed & M.P. Richards (2007) Excavation of a beaker cist burial with meadowsweet at Home Farm, Udny Green, Aberdeenshire. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 137, 35-58.
Reed M.S., Arblaster K., Bullock C., Burton R., Davies A.L., Holden, J., Hubacek K., May R., Mitchley J., Morris J., Nainggolan D., Potter C., Quinn C.H., Swales V., Thorp S. (in press, 2009) Using scenarios to explore UK upland futures. Futures
Tipping, R., Ashmore, P., Davies, A.L., Haggart, A., Moir, A., Newton, A., Sands, R., Skinner, T. & Tisdall, E. (2008) Prehistoric Pinus woodland dynamics in an upland landscape in northern Scotland: the roles of climate change and human impact. Vegetation History & Archaeobotany 17, 251-267.
Tipping, R., Buchanan, J., Davies, A. & Tisdall, E. (1999) Woodland biodiversity, palaeo-human ecology and some implications for conservation management. Journal of Biogeography 26, 33-43.
Tipping, R. Bunting, M.J., Davies, A.L., Murray, H., Fraser, S., McCulloch, R. (2009) Modelling Land Use around an Early Neolithic Timber Hall in North East Scotland from High Spatial Resolution Pollen Analyses. Journal of Archaeological Science 36, 140-149.
Tipping, R., Davies, A., McCulloch, R. & Tisdall, E. (2008) Response to late Bronze Age climate change of farming communities in north east Scotland. Journal of Archaeological Science 35, 2379-2386.
Tipping, R., Davies, A. & Tisdall, E. (2006) Long-term woodland dynamics in West Glen Affric, northern Scotland. Forestry 79, 351-359.
