Natur Cymru

Issue 30

Read inside...

Life...but not as we know it...tracking trilobites

The time-travelling Doctor (Dr Who?) has become associated with Wales, where the programmes are made, and Wales has become known to geologists around the world for another form of time travel, the study of geology. Here a naturalist becomes part of the script, as Richard Birch uncovers the trail left by a vanished life-form, the trilobites.

Summary

Wetland

Hard work on the wetlands of Wales

The first reference to the Life project on the Berwyn and Migneint mountains was made in the Winter 2007 issue of Natur Cymru. It’s a project which aims to restore the blanket bog habitat on these uplands. The project has been in the pipeline for three years, and we’re now well on the way to reaching the targets. From the practical efforts to restore habitats to working with the local community, the project helps to spread the word on the importance of this rare habitat. Michael Morris, advisory officer with the LIFE project and warden on the Migneint, describes the progress made to date.

Ctenophore

Glowing ghosts of the sea...

In the year that the Marine Bill is included in the government's draft legislative program, David Wright tells us about a group of marine animals which resemble jellyfish, but are really quite distinct.

Island

From the edge of the picture - an island perspective

Though apparently eccentric and particular, islands offer in microcosm wider insights into how people and wildlife might belong together. The view from Skomer, Skokholm and Ramsey offers a wider perspective from the edge of the picture. This, John Rodwell suggests, can help us live with change, manage with confidence, seize the moment and bring a salty savour to a sense of place.

Guillemots

Guillemots on Skomer - a long term view

It takes dedication, continuity and funding to keep long term studies going, all of which are hard to find. The guillemots on Skomer have been giving up their secrets for decades, and the result is a picture of endearing, sociable sophistication, and a crucial window onto the changing conditions at sea which human activities, from fishing to global warming, are causing, as Tim Birkhead explains.

Manx Shearwaters

Tracking the movements of Manx shearwaters at sea

Manx shearwaters undertake huge journeys, are long-lived and come ashore in the dark. Their mysterious lives lend them undeniable charisma. Wales is home to a large proportion of the world’s breeding population; efforts to secure their conservation, notably through a better understanding of what they depend on when at sea, are being pioneered here, as Chris Perrins reports.

Butterfly

Native plants on a Brecon Beacons farm

Native plants provide a living link between the earliest farmers and the present. But the link is now tenuous, continues to be eroded by current farming methods, and sometimes only survives because of the passion of an individual for nature. One such farmer, Ruth Watkins, tells her farming story.

Bellflower

Conserving Wales' rarest plants at the National Botanic Garden of Wales

The world’s plant diversity is under threat. Botanic gardens around the world can use their expertise to benefit threatened plants. Here Natasha De Vere describes what the National Botanic Garden of Wales is doing to conserve some of Wales’ rarest plants.