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Atlantic Rain Forests

I visited a rainforest recently, but close to home. A temperate rainforest. They have been known as Temperate Rainforests since the beginning of the 20th century, but the term has been used more often more recently, probably to enable us to connect better with the most exotic of forests, the Tropical Rainforest. They were previously known as High Latitude Rainforest, Atlantic wildwood, Quercus... well, see below . Rodwell's British Plant Communities does not contain the word rainforest but W17- Quercus petraea-Betula pubescens-Dicranum majus woodland refers to these woodlands, while Fossit's WN1 Oak - birch - holly woodland comes close, and it is hard to see which of the new Irish Vegetation Classification classes would apply.

Leaving aside issues of classification of floral associations, the mixture of oak, birch and holly is common enough along the Atlantic western coasts of UK and Ireland. These woodlands, although relatively sparely distributed these days, also support a variety of other trees and plants, not to mention fungi, insects, birds, mammals, and a host of other living things. What makes a rainforest is a combination of a small temperature range across the year, between a max of c. 16 degrees and a min of c.4 degrees, on average, a rainfall of over 1 metre each year, at least 10% of annual rainfall occurring during the summer, and, most crucially, a lack of human disturbance.

Rodwell defines this woodland in the key as "Well-defined tree canopy or thicket-like tree/ shrub layer or coppice regrowth with Quercus petraea (rarely Q. robur) and/or Betula pubescens constant, and dominant and Sorbus aucuparia, Corylus avellana and Ilex aquifolium the most frequent associates; field layer sometimes sparse but with Deschampsia flexuosa constant and Pteridium aquilinum, Vaccinium myrtillus and Oxalis acetosella frequent; ground layer always well-developed with six or more of the following present: Rhytidiadelphus loreus, Polytrichum formosum, Dicranum majus, Hylocomium splendens, Pleurozium schreberi, Plagiothecium undulatum, Dicranum scoparium, Thuidium tamariscinum". This is named as "W17 Quercus petraea-Betula pubescens-Dicranum majus woodland".

In Ireland we have two systems of Floral Habitat classification. The earlier one was compiled by Fossitt and does not mention rainforest at all. However, it does contain a couple of woodland types that could be applicable.

Fossitt's classification has now been superceded by the Irish Vegetation Classification that has been compiled by the National Biodiversity Centre in Waterford.

TO BE COMPLETED

These classification systems are intuitive in that we can see the sense in identifying a community of plants with an environment; and environment that suits the plant communities that grow in them. This idea of course is what biodiversity is all about; plants - and other organisms - moving into and occupying niches that are suited to that organism's specific needs and requirements. And research is starting to show that it is not just the environment that matters, but the organisms that are in it, that has an influence on which other organisms move in and survive. There are intimate relationships between organisms that can make the difference between survival in, and extinction from, an environment. The obvious example is the fungal mycorrhizal connections between plants, even between utterly unrelated plant types. And a predator-prey relationship both in the animal world, but also in the plant-predator relationship.

In the 19th century and continuing to the present day, particularly in Europe, such communities and relationships have been used as a basis for Phytosociological community definitions - the defining of societies of plants; and also Phytogeographical classifications. Each of these has inspired a great deal of work and a profusion of terminology - but there is still something missing.

I suspect we are getting to the stage where the "phyto" will come out of phytosociology and instead attention will focus on a more diverse range of organisms - "biosociology" perhaps?