Characterising the upland landscapes of Great Britain

There are no estimates of the area of the British uplands produced by consistent statistical methods except for a preliminary paper using Countryside Survey data in 1987. The method of derivation of the figures that are available (e.g. from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds), are not given. Other figures (e.g. those for upland habitats given by the Joint Nature Conservation Committee) are incomplete and have been extracted from different sources, so are not consistent. The situation is also confused because many upland landscapes (such as in the English Lake District) have valleys within them that are composed of vegetation with lowland characteristics, although extreme situations such as the Cairngorms are purely upland. It is therefore necessary to define exactly what categories are included in any given set of figures. The databases from the Countryside Survey allow an analyses of upland landscapes to be carried out. The present paper therefore uses a structured approach to derive statistically consistent figures at four levels: 1. The landscape level. This level is available from an Environmental Classification of all one km squares in Britain. Originally 32 classes and now 45 classes to allow for separate estimates for England, Wales and Scotland. Provisional estimate: 8.8 m ha/38% of GB. 2. The Broad Habitat level. Combinations of habitats make up the landscapes and figures are available from mapping standard defined habitats recorded in the field in sample squares. Provisional estimates (proportion of GB uplands): Bog – 25%, Acid grassland – 18%, Dwarf shrub heath – 15% 3. The vegetation level. Combinations of vegetation make up the habitats. 4. The species level – frequency of individual species from the vegetation plots. Top 3 most frequent species: Potentilla erecta, Calluna vulgaris, Agrostis capillaris The figures will be extracted from the 2007 survey and presented at these four main levels.