Starting a new monad today (4th May 2014) (and tetrad): SD 8768 :Today with the help of Sue and Les Knight.
from 415m to 540m in this monad
and to 591m (on Knowe fell) in SD 8668
and 613m on the ridge leading towards Fountains Fell in the highest part of the tetrad SD8669
Today we visited Turf Hill which I used to visit from the Field Centre to study soils: Rankers/Rendzinas (CG9- Blue moor-grass grassland); Brown Earth (U4-Common Bent grassland); Acid Soil (U5 - Mat-grass); and Podsol (U6 -Heath Rush)
No trees in the tetrad -
Just stone walls -mostly limestone with odd bits of sandstone/gritstone, grassland, bog and occasional patches of limestone outcrops/pavement -
But there are many micro-habitats within this that give home to different species of moss and lichen, which I'll deal with below
Having surveyed the adjacent monad I was delighted to look in parallel micro habitats and be able to predict what I might find: (See table lower down)
"Let's look for 20 or 22 mosses, then stop and look for 20 Lichens" I said. So, once in our monad, we did this. We progressed a whole 50metres within an hour and a quarter.. by which time it was lunch time.
We sat on some limestone rocks in a dip near the wall, in the sun, and sheltered from the wind. A walker appeared, descending from Fountains Fell. He had walked up via the Pennine Way from Malham in the morning - and was now returning on a different route.
We had seen two lapwings - not the 100s I used to see 30 years ago - but we had seen two. and a curlew.
There were skylarks and meadow pipits.
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| This is Candelariella coralliza. It grows on the top side of acid rocks which have harsh conditions- both heat and cold - and which may be bird perches and thus get extra nutrients |
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| Some amazingly big Aspicillia contorta on a limestone rock in a wall. with a tuft of Schistidium moss |
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| Collema fuscovirens - This black jelly lichen is quite thin. It grows on the tops of rocks and the middle part of the thallus has usually blown away |
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| Thelidium decipiens (probably) |
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| Thelidium decipiens |
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| We spent time searching in the scree in this dry valley (that leads down to Stangill Barn, and thence to Cowsde beck) |
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| Farnoldia jurana |
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| Opegrapha dolomitica (saxicola) |
| Microhabitat | Moss/liverwort | Lichen |
| Limestone wall (N Side) | Neckera complanata | Verrucaria nigrescens |
| Sandstone in wall (Top/N side) | Parmelia saxatilis | |
| Foot of wall (more moist) | Plagiochyla porelloides, Plagiomnium undulatum | |
| Moss on Limestone wall | ||
| Wooden fence post | They are a bit hard | |
| Limestone pavement- side of shady gryke | Thamnobryum alopecurum | |
| Limestone pavement bottom of shady grike | Concocephalum | |
| North facing limestone cliff face and crevice | Solorina saccata, Lepraria nivalis | |
| South facing scree | None | Farnoldia jurana, Opegrapha dolomitica |
| Turfy long limestone grassland | Hylocomium splendens | |
| Pile of acid and basic stones in a depression | Racomitrium lanuginosum | Cladonia furcata and rangiformis |
| Polytrichum commune tussocks | Polytrichum commune | |
| Sphagnum areas | Sphagnum palustre etc | |
Well we covered one field.
There is another 100m (300ft) of ascent in this monad, and a further 50m in the next.. will that reveal different habitats?
Rough counts gave just over 45 Mosses and liverworts and just over 40 Lichens. I'll give the actual totals once we have checked our packets.
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