Solar farms have sprung up across the country with hundreds or thousands of solar panels, linked together in fields.  Now, researchers in the States have shown that sowing grasses and wild flowers in-between the panels on solar farms resulted in: A significant increase in the number of beneficial insects (bees in particular benefitted) An increase in insect diversity beneficial 'spillover effects' on adjacent farmland. The solar farms under study were sown with specially designed seed mixes. See also the previous woodlands  blog on solar panels and wildlife The seeding of solar farms would seem to offer support to : Renewable Energy Generation: Biodiversity Pollination services Habitat restoration: in fields that may have been damaged by intensive agriculture and / or development. They can also act as a refuge for native plants and wildlife. Erosion control: the root systems of native plant species (which penetrate to different depths) help prevent soil erosion. Reduced maintenance costs: as less mowing / weed control needed. The cabbage white butterfly is generally regarded as the enemy by the keen vegetable gardener.  If you are growing brassicas - cabbages, cauliflowers, brussels sprouts, broccoli, kale or pak choi, it is likely that you will have these butterflies as summer visitors.  The butterfly is white with black spots on the wings.  Males have a single spot on each of the forewings, whereas the females have paired spots. The butterflies are attracted to the plants as they produce the chemical - glucobrassicin. The butterflies can sense the glucobrassicin through the hairs on their front legs (they have three pairs of legs, a pair on each segment of the thorax). This chemical, glucobrassin, stimulates them to lay their eggs on the leaves of cabbage and other brassicas.  A female can lay up to 800 yellow eggs. These eggs may hatch and the green / black caterpillars emerge.  These caterpillars can double their mass in a day through their voracious feeding.  The adults are attracted to the glucobrassicin in the brassicas just as the caterpillars ‘enjoy’ the chemical - SINIGRIN.   When leaf tissue is damaged, the sinigrin is broken down into a mustard oil, responsible for the pungent taste of Cruciferous vegetables. There are a number of strategies that may help keep the butterfliess away from your crops, and reduce the damage by the caterpillars. Cover the plants with an insect proof mesh Offer ‘sacrificial brassicas’ away from the main crop Use companion / mixed planting, so that beneficial insects have 'hiding places' and it is more difficult for the female cabbage whites to find the brassicas.  Also, by mixing up the planting with herbs and other veg, it makes it a bit more difficult for the caterpillars to move from cabbage to cabbage etc. If you do need to use an insecticide, consider using the products derived from Bacillus thuringiensis.

To see the forests of  The Fens,  you would need to be a time traveller, as they were ‘lost’ some four thousand years ago.  Today, The Fens are a low lying agricultural region that forms part of Norfolk, Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire.    The Fens contain some of the best agricultural land in the U.K., growing potatoes, sugar beet, and wheat.  A naturally marshy area, it was drained centuries ago and is now maintained through a complex system of drainage canals, dykes and pumping stations.  As a result of the drainage, the level of the land in many places has shrunk.  Indeed, in places, the land level is below sea level.  There are occasional ‘hills’ or islands, which have remained dry even when the surrounding area has been flooded.  The city of Ely and its cathedral was built on such a clay island. Deeper ploughing (e.g. for potatoes) in this area has over the years exposed  ’bog oaks’, large logs between two and eight metres in length.  The trunks were sometimes piled up in so-called clearance  cairns on the edges of a field, or allowed to dry out and later used for fuel.  Recently, ‘oaks’ from a number of farms across the region have been examined by researchers at Cambridge University and many have been identified as the remains of ancient yew trees.  The various logs were often well preserved in the peaty soils of the area, and this allowed detailed analysis of the annual rings (dendrochronology). The rings showed that some of the Yews were 400 years old, when they died.  Tree ring analysis plus examination of the pollen grains* (found in the peat), suggests that the area had dense yew (and oak) woodlands some 4500 years ago.  However, these woods were lost about 4200 years before today, probably due to an abrupt rise in sea level.   The trees would have been unable to tolerate the salt water (nor salt spray) when the area around The Wash was inundated.  Quite what was responsible for the rise in sea level is not clear, though other significant climatic events in different parts of the world have been recorded at this time. the 'wall' of pollen grains  [the exine] is made from a chemical [sporopollenin] that is extremely resistant to decay / degradation, so the grains  retain their shape / markings for thousands of years;  this means that plant species can be identified [palynology].  

Every now and then, some trees produce massive numbers of their fruits and seeds.  This sudden ‘excess’ of seeds / fruits, mens that the various animals that feed on the fruits / seeds cannot eat all of them - so many will survive to germinate, and go on to develop into seedlings and saplings. This excess of fruits [such as acorns, beech nuts] is known as masting.  Whilst it is thought to help with the long term survival of tree species, it is not without certain risks.  Masting uses up considerable nutritional and energy resources to produce flowers and fruit, which can affect the long term viability of the tree and the growth / reproductive capacity in subsequent years.  It is also possible that the abundance of food for animals could lead to an increase in small mammals (rodents?) and other animals, some of which might be vectors for disease. Masting has seemed to be a random process.  However, researchers at Hokkaido University have now developed a computer based model of masting - by studying the Japanese Oak (Quercus crispula).  The model considers such factors as : the resource budget of the tree pollen limitation weather patterns The researchers hope that apart from predicting the likelihood of masting that the model will also help predict : ‘the effects of climate change on woodlands and forests’ ‘long term trend availability of  food for animals’.   Though the model is currently based on the Japanese Oak, it is hoped to extend the model to include other species through collaboration with workers across the globe.     [caption id="attachment_41085" align="aligncenter" width="675"] Woodland path covered with mast[/caption]

Bees and light Honey bees need to sleep.  Unlike us, they do not sleep for long periods but they take ‘naps’ during the day and the night - within the hive where it is dark.   If the hive becomes over heated, then bees will move outside the hive and beat their wings to fan cooler air into the hive.  If the bees are exposed to artificial light during the night then there is evidence that their ability to perform the ‘waggle dance’ is impaired.   The dance is important as it tells other bees where to source pollen and nectar.   Cooling of the hive may become increasingly necessary with climate warming (and heat spells), which in turn might expose bees to artificial light at night.  Hives might need to placed away from road sides (hence car lights) and street lights.  An ancient pine. The Wollemi pine is rightly described as a living fossil.  It is a plant that has remained unchanged for millions of years.    An almost identical fossil form dates to the Cretaceous period , some 145 million to 66 million years ago.  Whilst the trees were abundant some 8 to 6 million years ago, now only 60 trees exist in the wild (in a canyon northwest of Sydney) and they are at risk of wild fires. The population of these pines has dwindled as the climate in Australia became drier and warmer.   The genetic make-up of the species has recently been analysed.  It turns out that the tree's 26 chromosomes contain some 12.2 billion base pairs; by comparison, the human genome has 3.4 billion base pairs.  The research also indicated there was very limited genetic diversity within the Wollemi pine population.  The existing trees appear to  have abandoned sexual reproduction, and now reproduce mainly by cloning, suckers emerge from the base of a tree and then grow on to become ‘new’ trees. Whether this remnant population of the Wollemi pine will survive ongoing climate change (and increasing risk of fire) remains to be seen.  The wollemi pine also appears to be susceptible to disease, in particular to Phytophthora cinnamomi, a pathogenic water mold that causes dieback.