The Future of Biodiversity in the Uplands

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Battleby, Perth; 2006

valley.jpg8 December 2006

Scotland’s uplands are important in terms of their biodiversity. They include many habitats and species that are of national, European and global importance, and they provide a diverse array of goods and services. The uplands are, however, subject to many processes of change.

As a contribution to the implementation of the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy, a conference took place in 2006 to present and discuss our current knowledge of these processes of change, and their interactions, under three broad themes:

  • changes in policy, funding and management and their impacts on upland biodiversity;
  • links between upland biodiversity, ecosystem function and ecosystem services;
  • climate change and upland biodiversity: impacts and adaptation strategies.

 

The conference was of interest to people responsible for managing, undertaking research in, developing policies for, and implementing policies in the uplands.

It began with a lecture by Professor Christian Körner of the University of Basel, Switzerland, chairman of the Global Mountain Biodiversity Assessment and Editor-in-Chief of ‘Oecologia’. He was also one of the two Coordinating Lead Authors of the chapter on Mountain Systems in the 2005 Millennium Ecosystem Assessment.

Oral presentations

Changes in policy, funding and management & their impacts on upland biodiversity

Case studies

 

Links between upland biodiversity, ecosystem function & ecosystem services

  • The contribution of Site Condition Monitoring to upland habitat biodiversity and habitat enhancement - Graham Sullivan, Scottish Natural Heritage
  • Upland biodiversity, ecosystem processes and services: how strongly coupled are they? - Philip Wookey, University of Stirling (pdf)

 

Climate change & upland biodiversity: impacts and adaptation strategies

 

Summing up

 

(For the day of the conference Andrew Midgley kindly agreed to sum up the day's proceedings.)

Poster presentations