The Good Archive - Habitat Information

• Habitat information
• Habitat summary
• Habitat comparisons

Habitat Information

Map showing all of the sites surveyed (click on the map for larger picture)

Some of the stands in the Marshwood Vale (click on the map for larger picture)

In all 7575 stands were surveyed across Dorset excluding the built-up area around Bournemouth and Poole and three parishes which were formerly part of Hampshire. All of the stands, which were marked on a set of the 2nd series 6" maps, have now been scanned in to the computer and rectified according to the current Ordnance Survey projection enabling each stand to be precisely marked on to the present OS map.

Each site is accompanied by a list of species found while walking the stand. The plates below show a list from the original diaries which have now been entered on to the Recorder database.

Good made a comprehensive survey of all the habitats in Dorset with particular attention to the more natural vegetation communities such as woodlands or meadows, but he also surveyed man made habitats such as walls and open vegetation communities. In some cases more detailed descriptions of habitat type can be found which identify the dominant species. Examples include Bogs and Marshes with Hydrocotyle vulgaris and Hypericum elodes or Woods of Beech or Oak and Hazel.

Top

Table summarising the habitat type and the number surveyed

Some of the lists taken from Fitzworth Peninsula (click on the picture for a closer view)

Habitats	Sites surveyed (Approx)
Aquatic vegetation: Rivers, Riversides, Streams, Lakes, Ponds, Pools	350
Marshes, Marshy meadows, Swamps	315
Maritime sites: Cliffs, Undercliffs, Rocky shores, Shingle Mud flats, Salt marsh. Sand Dunes	240
Heathland sites: Grass heath, Boggy heath, Bracken heath, Heath tracks	505
Grassland sites: Meadows, Pastures and hayfields, Embankments, roadsides	1504
Hedgebanks, Boundaries, Drove roads and Trackways	1700
Thickets: (Scrub) mixed with grassland	431
Woodland: Deciduous and Coniferous woodland, Parkland and copses etc	1535
Arable fields	365
Walls	111
Other sites: Quarries, Rabbit warrens, Fallow fields	572
Adapted from. Horsefall, A (1989) Some Effect of Habitat Change on the Dorset Flora. Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Archaeological Society, Volume III

Top

Habitat Comparisons

Stands surveyed within a Dorset Wildlife Trust reserve (click on the map for larger picture)

The site information, which carries habitat information, is now an invaluable source of comparison with, for example, sites of known conservation status such as Dorset Wildlife Trust Reserves, or for similar comparisons with habitats where the present conservation status is less well known. Many of the stands found outside conservation designations show lists of interesting species identifying habitats of conservation importance which are now no more. Traditional pastures and meadows appear to be one of the most changed habitats since the survey.

The map opposite shows some of the stands (in red) occurring within a Dorset Wildlife Trust Reserve (in blue). Comparisons are similarly available with many other conservation designations now managed and kept on DERC's Geographical Information System.

Top