Forty Years of Change in Lady Park Wood: The Old-Growth Stands

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Abstract
(1) The 35-ha stand of mixed native broadleaves at Lady Park Wood was designated as an unmanaged nature reserve in 1944. It had for centuries been treated as coppice or coppice-with-standards, and this had enabled the native mixture of beech, oak, ash, lime, elm, birch, maple, hazel, etc., to survive unaffected by significant planting. (2) Part of the stand had been felled in 1943. The remainder has been largely untouched since 1902, and is dominated by trees dating from 1800-1900; this old-growth stand is the subject of this paper. (3) Nine transects, placed across the main topographical features, were established from 1945 to 1950, and have been recorded at intervals until 1983-85. The location, species and size of all trees and shrubs achieving 1.3 m height or more was recorded. (4) Until the 1970s the stand remained undisturbed, increasing in basal area and decreasing in density. Beech steadily increased in dominance by faster growth, lower mortality or both than other trees. The shrub stratum was almost eliminated. Only on the precipitous lower slopes, where beech was uncommon and the stand was perpetually disturbed by trees falling from insecure rootholds, were other species generally dominant and the shrub layer vigorous. (5) In the early 1970s disease struck the elms and thus further opened the woodland on the lower slopes. In the openings created by this and earlier falls, regeneration has been patchy. (6) The severe summer drought of 1976 killed many mature beeches and greatly reduced the vigour of the rest. As a result, the canopy of the stand on the dry upper slope has disintegrated in patches and openings have been increased by windthrow. This process was still continuing in 1983, by which date regeneration had not startled. (7) Stand development has thus been influenced by extraneous disturbances whose impact has varied from one topographical position to another. The succession towards beech dominance has been abruptly halted, and the most likely beneficiaries are ash and lime. Succession is seen as an unpredictable process without a definite outcome.