Fifty years of change across British broadleaved woodlands: a resurvey and analysis of the “Bunce” sites 1971-’01-’21

In 1971 103 woods across Britain were selected as representative of a wider sample of 2453 woods (> 4 ha) surveyed in the late 1960s. Within each of the 103 woods sixteen 200m2 plots were located using a stratified random design and records made of soils, tree and shrub composition, ground flora, dead wood, signs of management and other features. These were revisited in 2001. In the third and latest survey 97 sites were revisited and the plots re-recorded as close to the original plot locations as possible. The original recording methods were used. The data from the 1971, 2001 and 2021 surveys were combined and analyses of change over time undertaken to address two broad questions; what has changed over time and what were the likely causes?