Further Changes in Vegetation since the Advent of Myxomatosis

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Abstract
Accurate records of changes in vegetation have been made by the use of point-quadrats at fixed places along a series of permanent transects in the south of England and Wales, repeated each year from 1954 to 1961. When the rabbits were almost exterminated by disease, there was a spectacular increase of palatable grasses and clovers; rare plants such as orchids appeared in abundance where they were scarcely visible when rabbits abounded. But the rabbits have again increased, despite epidemics of myxomatosis, and many changes in vegetation have been reversed; this fact shows how much floristic poverty is due to rabbits. These detailed studies throw light on the fluidity of vegetation, both in the composition of grasslands and in the transition from grassland to woodland.

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