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WrEN is a long-term, large-scale ‘natural experiment’ which is studying biodiversity in a chronsequence of woodlands created in UK landscapes over the past 160 years.
This project aims to test the relative impact of different site and landscape attributes on key species groups, ranging from plants, lichens and insects to small mammals, bats and birds.
Results from the WrEN project will help to develop recommendations on the design of future site and landscape conservation strategies for a range of woodland species.
WrEN is aiming to understand the role of specific site and landscape-scale attributes on multiple species groups, these include:
Site-scale attributes | Landscape-scale attributes |
(i) Patch size | (iv) amount of surrounding habitat |
(ii) Patch quality | (v) degree of spatial isolation |
(iii) Patch age | (vi) nature of the surrounding matrix |
WrEN will allow us to answer a number of important research, policy and practice questions, including:
Fuentes Montemayor, E., Watts, K., Macgregor, N.A., Lopez‐Gallego, Z. & Park, K. (2017) Species mobility and landscape context determine the importance of local and landscape‐level attributes. Ecological Applications.
Fuller, L., Fuentes-Montemayor, E., Watts, K., Macgregor, N.A., Bitenc, K. & Park, K.J. (2018) Local-scale attributes determine the suitability of woodland creation sites for Diptera (ed J Müller). Journal of Applied Ecology, 55, 1173–1184.
Whytock, R.C., Fuentes-Montemayor, E., Watts, K., Macgregor, N.A., Williams, L. & Park, K.J. (2018) Context-dependent colonization of terrestrial habitat ‘islands’ by a long-distance migrant bird. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 285, 20181490.
Whytock, R.C., Fuentes-Montemayor, E., Watts, K., Barbosa De Andrade, P., Whytock, R.T., French, P., Macgregor, N.A. & Park, K.J. (2018) Bird-community responses to habitat creation in a long-term, large-scale natural experiment. Conservation Biology, 32, 345–354.
Ashwood, F., Watts, K., Park, K., Fuentes‐Montemayor, E., Benham, S. & Vanguelova, E.I. (2019) Woodland restoration on agricultural land: long‐term impacts on soil quality. Restoration Ecology, rec.13003.
Fuentes-Montemayor, E., Ferryman, M., Watts, K., Macgregor, N.A., Hambly, N., Brennan, S., Coxon, R., Langridge, H. & Park, K. (2019) Small mammal responses to long-term, large-scale woodland creation: the influence of local habitat characteristics and landscape context. Ecological Applications.
The WrEN team have so far selected 106 woodland sites (67 in Scotland and 39 in England)
Sites were specifically selected to cover the widest possible range of key site and landscape attributes, currently consisting of:
Site-scale attributes
-Patch size (0.5 – 32ha)
-Patch age (10 to 160 years)
Landscape-scale attributes
-amount of surrounding habitat (ranging from 1 to 17% within a 3km buffer)
-degree of spatial isolation (between 7 and 1573m from the nearest wood)
We have conducted numerous habitat and species surveys. We are still processing data but so far we have recorded:
-vascular plants – 177 species; lichens – 172 species, bryophytes – 77 species
-small mammals – 15,000 trap nights, 1700 individuals, 4 species
-bats – 1700 hours of acoustic recording, 57,000 bat passes, 6 species/genera
-birds – 8000 records of 59 species
-spiders – 4000 individuals, 103 species
-beetles – 30,000 individuals, 130 species
-craneflies – 5000 individuals, 104 species
-hoverflies – 1300 individuals, 63 species
WrEN started in 2013 as a collaborative project between Forest Research, University of Stirling and Natural England. A large number of people have contributed to ideas, organisation, data collection and analysis. Work within the WrEN project is ongoing and subject to funding.
Regular updates and development of the WrEN project can also be found at:
WrEN is a collaborative project between Forest Research, University of Stirling and Natural England. It has been developed with funding from many sources including: Forestry Commission GB; Forestry Commission Scotland; Forestry Commission England; University of Stirling; Natural England; Defra; Natural Environmental Research Council; Scottish Natural Heritage; The National Forest; Woodland Trust; and the company Tarmac.
Forestry Commission policy
Ecosystems and Biodiversity
Challenges from the changing physical environment require continuing research to develop resilience and robustness of British woodland…Capacity for resilience is critical not only within our woodlands but also at a landscape scale. Our considerable capability in modelling at landscape scale must now be strongly linked to other UK and European research to address such problems as spatial planning, habitat fragmentation, gene flow, and dispersal and colonisation of species – both desirable and undesirable.
The restoration of natural and semi-natural habitats, and their associated species, is a major policy objective across the world stimulated by the Convention on Biological Diversity. The desirability of restoration is strongly advocated in EU and British environmental policies, including the UK Biodiversity Action Plan, the EU Habitats Directive and the EU Forestry Strategy. The Forestry Commission was a co-founder of the Global Partnership on Forest Landscape Restoration. Delivering effective restoration is not straightforward and requires co-ordinated research by a wide range of agencies on techniques for restoring threatened habitats that have been inappropriately managed…We will continue to play our part in research directed at conservation and restoration.