A review of the literature found very little information on how carbon in woodland natural colonisation areas compares to planted areas of similar age.  This part of the wider study set out to provide estimates of both tree biomass and soil carbon on natural colonised sites compared to adjacent tree planting of similar age.

Methodology

Areas of natural colonisation established within agriculturally dominated landscapes and initiated with the previous 10-20 years were selected. Each of the sites contained three distinct areas of woodland:

• an area of mature existing woodland (as a potential source woodland)
• an adjacent area of natural colonisation
• an area of supplementary tree planting (planting adjacent to natural colonisation) or control planting (planting nearby, but not adjacent to the natural colonisation).

At least three rectangular transects were used to capture spatial variation across the different areas. All sampling took place within these transects: the whole transect was divided into sub-transects for terrestrial laser scanning and photogrammetry flights (results to be presented in the next phase of the project) and plots positioned along the transect were used to manually sample tree size and species, as well as other vegetation cover. Soil samples were taken across the same transects.