Creating Habitats Flashcards

Question

how habitat corridors can be designed and maintained to create such habitats and encourage wildlife.

Answer 1

GARDEN DESIGN: Consideration of the surrounding landscape to determine if the garden is required as a habitat corridor. The design of mixed hedging to provide ribbons of cover and habitat. MAINTENANCE: The maintenance of hedges to ensure they maximise their ecosystem services. Examples could include the cutting to of hedges to an ‘A’ shape, and the growth of perennials close to the base to increase the width of the corridor, or the avoidance of mowing.

Answer 2

GARDEN DESIGN: The avoidance of importing soil as part of the build, from a biosecurity perspective, the design of permanent plantings, the design of no dig productive growing areas. The design of wetland mud areas to enhance nest building of swallows and house martins. MAINTENANCE: The avoidance of fungicides, which impact on mycorrhizal fungi, the avoidance of fertilisers, which negatively impact on soil bacteria. The avoidance of soil disturbance/adoption of no dig techniques. Avoiding planting designed wetland soil areas. The use of composting and mulching to provide food sources to microorganisms and so benefit the soil food web.

Answer 3

tree layers; shrub layers; bigger perennial layers; ground cover layers CLIMBERS link them all together.

Answer 4

1. Minimising bare soil 2. Mixed borders for maximum biodiversity 3. Importance of woody plants. Shrubs and trees (not just perennials) – trees in particular have been shown by research evidence to massively increase bird life. 4. Having a combination of both undisturbed and occasionally quite frequently disturbed areas has shown to be very beneficial 5. It's always good to have a few locally native wildflowers 6. Remember that nature thrives on diversity and density

Answer 5

GREAT DIXTER They found high levels of biodiversity in virtually all areas of the garden, higher than that of the surrounding countryside. They put this down to the fact that in this garden, there is a very wide range - a real patchwork - there are areas that are never disturbed, and other areas that are very frequently disturbed for seasonal planting. It was this combination of all these micro habitats that made this garden so good for wildlife. It’s this continual ebb and flow of planting that keeps Great Dixter such a brilliant place for biodiversity. Even in narrow beds, it's possible to ensure connectivity for biodiversity.

Answer 6

The role of water and wet areas and gardens can hugely benefit biodiversity, especially if there's a gradient from dry through moist to wet, to open water. f patchwork allows for different levels of micro habitat. The more of a patchwork of micro habitats we can build into gardens the better. EXAMPLE: build into our gardens, the better. Wild area, tightly mown grass and then grass that is left for a few weeks at a time. GRADIENT of MOISTURE. Wetlands to dry

Answer 7

cow parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris) created that psychological link with the surrounding countryside and probably fed quite a few pollinators. As a garden plant, it’s fairly non-competitive, manage it properly, it can be an attractive and biodiverse addition to the garden.

Answer 8

These semi-shade woodland edge type habitats are particularly important. They're a zone of transition, and transition zones are always particularly diverse. Transition zones are also very often good wildlife corridors. Narrow grass paths, wending their way through shrubs and perennials can be visually attractive, enigmatic, as well as offering good habitat.

Answer 9

hard edges to ponds makes them very unattractive for wildlife: they’re difficult to get to; they're exposed when they come out; and in some cases may physically actually make it difficult for many animals to access the water. So having at least some of the pond with a soft edge, a gradient of planting going in will be far better for wildlife.

Answer 10

'Natives only' not necessary in Europe but elsewhere maybe. Pollinator plants ' need a wide variety of flower shapes. Double flowers not good for pollinators. Evergreens often poor food source.

Answer 11

Think like an insect! Layering diff plant sizes and growth forms. Variation in space: patchworks, juxtaposition of diff habitats Variation in time: Moving diff management styles around from one year to another. . It's great having things that are permanent but change and disturbance to some extent are also valuable in creating different habitats. Think about corridors = connectivity with neighboring gardens. Additionally habitat facilities: log piles, bee hotels etc.

Answer 12

1. How much is actually necessary 2. Minimize use of chemical pesticides 3. how much fertilizer do you really need? 4. Reduce or eliminate tradtional methods of digging (disturbs invertibrates without and hort benefits) 5. Focus on weeds that cause problems and leave the other alone. 6. Debris area is good. Odd piles of decaying materials providing home for pests/slugs. Wildlife nest there and will most likely eat the slugs! 7. Minimal intervention.

Answer 13

Layering is the system of having different heights of plants that all relate to each other to provide a good habitat for wildlife. Trees, shrubs, subshrubs, perennials and ground cover along with climbers work together to provide a dense and diverse canopy for wildlife food and habitats. To clarify, perhaps give an example: tree canopy, shrubby layer, perennial layer etc. NOEL MODEL: Layered planting refers to having planting that has distinct layers, primarily: trees, shrubs, perennials, ground level perennials.

Answer 14

a. A transition zone is the area between two different habitats or vegetation areas.. i. Woodland to borders ii. Wetlands to more solid ground. MODEL: A transition zone is the zone between two habitat or vegetation types, e.g. woodland edge, and pond edge.

Answer 15

A wildlife corridor is a connection between different properties for wildlife to safely travel. It provides a diverse layered planting of hedges, trees, groundcover, or subshrubs for animals to travel safely. It would be best if this corridor had minimal maintenance in order to provide safe and secure routes and nesting habitats for the wildlife. This can be between neighbors, parks, community gardens or even wildlife areas. MODEL: A wildlife corridor is narrow habitat which is wildlife friendly – generally relatively unmanaged, and with a diverse layered planting which enables a range of animals, from birds and mammals down to insects, to easily and securely move between larger areas of quality habitat.

Answer 16

a. Hedging along fences between neighbors provides safety for wildlife as they travel. Put a hole in the fence for hedgehogs as they can travel up to two miles foraging for food. b Pollinator plants allow pollinators to gather nectar and pollen in one large area. MODEL: 'Corridors' are very important as the connections they make between small patches of quality habitat can effectively result in a single, much larger area. They can also link different habitats, in some cases making transitions between very different habitats, e.g. between a pond in one garden and dry areas all around. In a suburban area, hedges and the 'back-ends' of gardens, where there is often not much going on, are ideal for corridors. Woody plants whose branches link up, would be another example of a corridor.

Answer 17

a. Bare soil does not provide any protection for wildlife traveling through the area, nor does it provide areas for nesting. b. Alternatives include leaving the leaf litter or mulch on the soil, to provide nesting locations, safety, and food for wildlife. Also Ground cover plants. c. Advantages for both items are they protect the soil from the sun and wind, provide nesting habitats and they will decompose and feed the soil. Additionally, it reduces the amount of maintenance time for the gardener. why? because of reduced weeding, feeding and maintaining soil. (NOEL) MODEL: Bare soil offers no cover for many invertebrates, or indeed amphibians, reptiles or small mammals. Anything running across it is vulnerable to being eaten by something higher up the food chain. There are minimal materials for hiding under, or roosting. A vegetation canopy or simply dead and decaying leaves and provides cover, nesting material, and microhabitat for small invertebrates, which can be food for larger ones or birds.

Answer 18

a. Bee Hotel: Provides safety and security for nesting bees. b. Pond: provides water for all wildlife and encourages frogs/toads and other aquatic wildlife to take up residence in the garden. c. Bird boxes: Provides a safe location for nesting birds. MODEL: Log and twig piles – they slowly rot down, providing roosting and feeding sites for a variety of invertebrates, possible hibernation sites for small mammals too. Bee 'hotels' – hollow canes and other materials that offer dry roosting and hibernating sites for solitary bees, lacewings and other insects. Ponds, however small, offer a source of water, sometimes mud for building nests, and microhabitat, often supporting completely different invertebrates to those on dry land.

Answer 19

a. I live in California (San Francisco), with over 5000 native plants, some of which are not seen elsewhere in the world. As we are a state that suffers intense droughts and wildfires it is important to have plants that can survive these conditions or at least reseed under those conditions. Many of the native plants here can do just that. b. We are also one of the most biodiverse regions in the world as we have such a geographical range of land, from deserts, coastal regions, forest and urban areas and the diversity of insects here is huge and therefore very biodiverse in insect populations. Many of the over 1600 native bees get their pollen from specific flowers so here it is very important to have many native plants for their sake. c. California is an agricultural state whereby many bees are brought in to pollinate the fields. Some of these bees are native, some are not. Pollination itself is the most important aspect, and whatever gets the most invertebrates food is most important. d. Although native plants provide pollen for the specialized insects, there are still many insects that can feed on non-native plants, and often do. If we only provide native plants for all pollinators then all of them will be fighting for the same plants, reducing the food for those specialized insects who require only one plant for pollen or leaves for larvae. We should definitely provide a substantial amount of native plants in gardens, urban areas and in wildlife to provide a corridor – but non natives support insects as well, so in my humble opinion some non-natives are acceptable. e. I question the use of only native plants with climate change. As temperatures change, we may need to rely on other species of trees and plants in areas. At present it is recommended for gardeners here in SF to look at trees that are native to the mid coast of California as they will be able to survive the temperatures in 20-30 years. I believe the same will be true for the invertebrates, they will migrate north with warming temperatures and many more nonnative insects will arrive as well. Bringing in some non-native plants might help mitigate some of the food issues by providing a good variety of plants and perhaps build a strong corridor of wildlife habitat and food sources. (Of course, as a Master Gardener here, my native plant group might want to take my head off!) MODEL: Native plant species have co-evolved with their invertebrate predators and so by including a high proportion of native species we can assume that automatically we will be providing food sources for insects. However not all native species feed that many insects, e.g. holly does not provide for many. Most useful are those species which are known to support a very large number of insect species, for example oak and willow species. In the British Isles many invertebrates are generalist, so the importance of native species is therefore reduced. More important may be general diversity in the garden – diversity of species is most likely to provide continuity of food supply through the year and to contribute to diverse habitat.

Creating Habitats Flashcards

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