Floodplain Meadows Partnership

Historic Floodplain Meadows in the Landscape: Investigating Anthropogenic Habitats Important for Nature Conservation, Carbon Sequestration and Flood Attenuation - Environmental Management In contemporary river valley floors, floodplain meadows are associated with rare grassland plant communities that are important for their conservation value. This article outlines a desk-based method ...

It is freshwater Friday, so a good time to flag our recent open access article with @floodplainmead.bsky.social on using a historic landscape approach to identify former meadow habitats with origins in the early medieval period: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Join us for a free winter workshop to hear about the latest findings from the annual snake’s-head fritillary count at North Meadow NNR and craft your own fritillary.

🍰Refreshments and cake will be provided 🫖

Sign up here: tinyurl.com/6xjyhftc

Maize growth for energy: A growing threat to soil health | The Wildlife Trusts Maize grown for biogas is accelerating soil erosion and river pollution – yet Government support for the sector continues. Gemma Lane, Land Use Policy Manager, explains why this threatens our soils, w...

Very much in agreement with the concerns raised by The Wildlife Trusts here. Maize is incredibly damaging to floodplains.

tinyurl.com/2tvz8xfw

The sun came out briefly yesterday. We are longing to be back in the meadows rummaging around in quadrats. Not long to wait...

Yesterday we delivered the last of four training webinars for 231 stautory agency staff from @naturalengland.bsky.social, DEFRA, and EA on the new Floodplain Meadow CSHT
Option.

Anyone giving advice on or hoping to apply for the option can register for the next series here 👇

tinyurl.com/84chmc7p

Securing the future of monitoring data from the Somerford Mead long-term experiment — ECOLOGICAL CONTINUITY TRUST - David Gowing writes about securing the future of monitoring data from the Somerford Mead long-term experiment for the Ecological Continuity Trust (ECT).

New blog from our director, Professor David Gowing, @openuniversity.bsky.social on the long-term monitoring at Somerford Mead.

tinyurl.com/5cswcf7p

How Can Art Save Meadows? Find out in this lovely article by @openuniversity.bsky.social team @artandecology.bsky.social, @vickybowskill.bsky.social and our own Emma Rothero 👇

(Image: ‘Long Mead in Late June’, by Julia Loken)

tinyurl.com/mssv8usy

Historic Floodplain Meadows in the Landscape: Investigating Anthropogenic Habitats Important for Nature Conservation, Carbon Sequestration and Flood Attenuation - Environmental Management In contemporary river valley floors, floodplain meadows are associated with rare grassland plant communities that are important for their conservation value. This article outlines a desk-based method ...

🥳🌱New Paper!🌱🥳

Check out how we have been working with our friends at Fjordr to detect historical locations of floodplain meadows using physical and documented traces in the landscape, suppporting the case for restoration. 👇

tinyurl.com/y8frpr2h

Check out our new paper on the newly defined oceanic wet grasslands of Scotland in the latest issue of British and Irish Botany 👀👀 @bsbibotany.bsky.social @naturescot.bsky.social
britishandirishbotany.org/index.php/bi...

YouTube video by The Open University OU Research & Societal Impact Showcase 2023: Sam Shaw - Art and Ecology Project

'Art and visual culture has a huge role to play in communicating information about the environmental crisis' youtu.be/TXdoHdZRXnU?...

Biological Flora of Britain and Ireland: Geranium sylvaticum* Geranium sylvaticum is a perennial forb of upland grasslands, woodlands and riverbanks in northern Britain, with scattered native occurrences also in Wales, central England and Northern Ireland. It h...

Our Biological Flora on Wood Crane's-bill is out in @journalofecology.bsky.social. besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... A team effort w/ @ruthsk.bsky.social @sandravarga.bsky.social @spp-rich.bsky.social @duncanwestbury.bsky.social, irina Tatarenko & artist Lucy Hulmes on pen and ink.

Biological Flora of Britain and Ireland: Geranium sylvaticum* Geranium sylvaticum is a perennial forb of upland grasslands, woodlands and riverbanks in northern Britain, with scattered native occurrences also in Wales, central England and Northern Ireland. It h...

Check out this new @journalofecology.bsky.social paper on Geranium sylvaticum. Produced by @openuniversity.bsky.social, @ukceh.bsky.social, @naturalengland.bsky.social, North Pennines AONB Partnership, University of Lincoln and Royal Agricultural University

Read for free here: tinyurl.com/4vrn979j

This #WorldWetlandsDay, let’s celebrate floodplain meadows, pieces of living history woven into our culture.
Managed communally for centuries, they supported shared livelihoods, local traditions and rich biodiversity.

Find out more about these fascinating landscapes here: tinyurl.com/2s4byw74

Herefordshire Meadows Newsletter January 2025 Herefordshire Meadows Newsletter January 2025

Check out the latest newsletter from our friends at Herefordshire Meadows 👇

tinyurl.com/356d2rza

How can art save meadows? | Art UK Discover artworks, explore venues and meet artists. Art UK is the online home for every public collection in the UK, featuring over 750,000 artworks by over 70,000 artists.

Check out this fantastic online art exhibtion by @artandecology.bsky.social showing how art can help us understand and conserve our wonderful floodplain medows.

artuk.org/discover/cur...

Some lovely events coming up at the wonderful Mottey Meadows, do go along if you can. Info and booking links below.

Saturday 18 April: Fritillary walk: tinyurl.com/uxvc4tfu

Saturday 27 June: Summer Walk tinyurl.com/3rdumwdh

Thursday 2 July: Summer Evening walk tinyurl.com/46cus9xw

Merry Christmas to all our followers, see you on the other side 🎄☃️

New grassland toolkit!

Realising Grassland Potential: An Ecosystem Service Toolkit for Farmers' is a free toolkit designed to help increase understanding of nature markets and their potential to support grassland restoration.

Access it here: url.td/7F7E1 and read more here: tinyurl.com/2s3v3w2e

YouTube video by FloodplainMeadows Soils of Floodplain Meadows Professor David Gowing

It's #worldsoilday 🥳Floodplain meadow soils are ecosystem service superheros.

Watch Professor David Gowing's video on floodplain meadow soils here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIki...

Learn more about floodplain meadow soils in the OU's FREE course here: www.open.edu/openlearn/na...

As part of tiny.cc/azov001 we spent a day at
@bbowt.bsky.social
reserve Meadow Farm assesing soils to determine suitability for floodplain meadow restoration. Some of the techniques demonstrate just how much water these very well-structured soils can hold, reducing overland flooding.

A pleasure to meet @alasdairallanmsp.bsky.social in the Scottish Parliament today to discuss our research work on the Outer Hebrides on the threatened Oceanic Wet Grasslands bit.ly/43FpLML. Hopefully we have made him as keen as we are to protect and conserve these uniquely Scottish habitats!

PhD opportunity 👇 Come and work with our awesome team to explore whether our understanding of niche segregation can be harnessed to predict the response of vegetation to alterations in hydrological regimes that are likely to result from global change. 🌱

centa.ac.uk/studentship/...

How the National Trust’s art collections can shape meadow restoration Treasures inside the National Trust’s cultural collections can also draw attention to what is going on outside these estates.

theconversation.com/how-the-nati...

Lovely article from @artandecology.bsky.social on our recent joint project with @nationaltrust.org.uk, looking at how how art and visual culture can help us better understand and engage audiences with meadow restoration 🥰🌱

Read it here: tinyurl.com/39r2kkk2

The Open University Mitti Matters is a collaborative project involving a selected group of experts and citizens from Milton Keynes with varying interests in nature and the environment, working with Open University staff....

Floodplain meadows are rich both in fungi and carbon stored in the soil. Our co-created research project looks at fungal communities in meadows influence long-term sequestration, and whether we can seed meadows with the right fungi to store even more! 🍄

university.open.ac.uk/stem/environ...

The fascinating world of fungi More than 90% of fungi are unknown to science. But what we do know about this incredibly adaptable and unique life-form is mind-blowing.

As we celebrate our amazing fungi today take 5 minutes to top up your knowledge with this BBC Ideas video written in partnership with our own FMP Director Professor David Gowing – top facts to make you the fun-guy at parties! 🤪🍄

www.bbc.co.uk/videos/czrgg...

Floodplain meadows are rich in fungi & carbon stored in the soil. We’re piloting research following a co-creating project that identified fungi as an area to explore. Do fungal communities living on the meadows have an active influence on this incredible long term sequestration? #UKFungusDay #fungi

The fascinating world of fungi More than 90% of fungi are unknown to science. But what we do know about this incredibly adaptable and unique life-form is mind-blowing.

As we celebrate our amazing fungi on #UKFungusDay take 5 minutes to top up your knowledge with this BBC Ideas video written in partnership with our own FMP Director Professor David Gowing. Top facts to make you the fun-guy at parties..!
bit.ly/3Iu5NNN #fungi #fungus @openuniversity.bsky.social

@britmycolsoc.org.uk

Our friends over at Herefordshire Meadows Group have been busy bees this summer 🌱💪. See what they've been up to here: tinyurl.com/59s756yf

We're very pleased to have contributed data to this great piece of work 😁🌱