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Red Moss, Greater Manchester
Red Moss is a wetland mossland in Greater Manchester, located south of Horwich and east of Blackrod. This is a national Site of Special Scientific Interest in the United Kingdom, due to its biodiversity and undisturbed character. Pollen analysis has revealed the first peat deposits of the northwest's mosslands to be from around 8,000 years BC making Red Moss an impressive 10,000 years old. Red Moss covers an area of 47.2 hectares. A severed female head was discovered in Red Moss in the 19th century dating from the Bronze Age or early Iron Age. Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council owns most of the moss, but parts of the site are also owned by British Rail and United Utilities. History In 1999, the Wildlife Trust for Lancashire, Manchester and North Merseyside was asked to manage the area of land owned by Bolton Council with the aim of restoring suitable water levels and conditions for the growth of mossland species. Since 1999, the Trust has been undertaking large-scale capit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wetland
A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (Anoxic waters, anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The primary factor that distinguishes wetlands from terrestrial land forms or Body of water, water bodies is the characteristic vegetation of aquatic plants, adapted to the unique anoxic hydric soils. Wetlands are considered among the most biologically diverse of all ecosystems, serving as home to a wide range of plant and animal species. Methods for assessing wetland functions, wetland ecological health, and general wetland condition have been developed for many regions of the world. These methods have contributed to wetland conservation partly by raising public awareness of the functions some wetlands provide. Wetlands occur naturally on every continent. The water in wetlands is either freshwater, brackish or seawater, saltwate ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Common Snipe
The common snipe (''Gallinago gallinago'') is a small, stocky wader native to the Old World. The breeding habitats are marshes, bogs, tundra and wet meadows throughout the Palearctic. In the north, the distribution limit extends from Iceland over the north of the British Isles and northern Fennoscandia, where it occurs at around 70°N, as well as through European Russia and Siberia. Here it is mostly on the northern edge of the Taiga zone at 71°N, but reaches 74°N on the east coast of the Taymyr Peninsula. In the east it extends to Anadyr, Kamchatka, Bering Island and the Kuril Islands, The southern boundary of the distribution area in Europe runs through northern Portugal, central France, northern Italy, Bulgaria, and Ukraine, with populations in the west being only very scattered. In Asia, the distribution extends south to northern Turkestan, locally to Afghanistan and the Middle East, through the Altai and further to Manchuria and Ussuri. It is migratory, with European b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sites Of Special Scientific Interest In Greater Manchester
This is a list of the Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs) in Greater Manchester, a metropolitan county in North West England. In England the body responsible for designating SSSIs is Natural England, which chooses a site because of its fauna, flora, geological or physiographical features. , there are 21 sites designated within this Area of Search, of which 14 have been designated due to their biological interest, 5 due to their geological interest, and 2 for both biological and geological interest. Natural England took over the role of designating and managing SSSIs from English Nature in October 2006 when it was formed from the amalgamation of English Nature, parts of the Countryside Agency and the Rural Development Service. Natural England, like its predecessor, uses the 1974–1996 county system and as such the same approach is followed here, rather than splitting these sites between the Lancashire and Cheshire lists. The data in the table is taken from English Natu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Molinia Caerulea
''Molinia caerulea'', known by the common name purple moor-grass, is a species of grass that is native to Europe, west Asia, and north Africa. It grows in locations from the lowlands up to in the Alps. Like most grasses, it grows best in acid soils, ideally pH values of between 3.5 and 5, however, it can continue to live under more extreme conditions, sometimes to as low as 2. It is common on moist heathland, bogs and moorland throughout Britain and Ireland. Introduced populations exist in northeastern and northwestern North America. The specific epithet ''caerulea'' means "deep blue" and refers to the purple spikelets. Description ''Molinia caerulea'' is a herbaceous perennial bunchgrass (tussock-forming), growing up to tall (taller when sheltered by gorse and heather), with many closely packed stems. The leaves are coarse, green, taper to a point, long, flat and sometimes slightly hairy on top. Due to the dense tussock it is very resistant to heath fires. Its ligule is a r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eriophorum Vaginatum
''Eriophorum'' (cottongrass, cotton-grass or cottonsedge) is a genus of flowering plants in the family Cyperaceae, the sedge family. They are found throughout the arctic, subarctic, and temperate portions of the Northern Hemisphere in acid bog habitats, being particularly abundant in Arctic tundra regions.Flora Europaea''Eriophorum''/ref> They are herbaceous perennial plants with slender, grass-like leaves. The seed heads are covered in a fluffy mass of cotton-like fibers which are carried on the wind to aid dispersal. The cotton grass also maintains a height of 12 inches and around 2 inches in water. In cold Arctic regions, these masses of translucent fibres also serve as 'down' – increasing the temperature of the reproductive organs during the Arctic summer by trapping solar radiation. Paper and the wicks of candles have been made of its fiber, and pillows stuffed with the same material. The leaves were formerly used in treating diarrhea, and the spongy pith of the stem for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eriophorum Angustifolium
''Eriophorum angustifolium'', commonly known as common cottongrass or common cottonsedge, is a species of flowering plant in the sedge family, Cyperaceae. Native to North America, North Asia, and Northern Europe, it grows on peat or acidic soils, in open wetland, heath or moorland. It begins to flower in April or May and, after fertilisation in early summer, the small, unremarkable brown and green flowers develop distinctive white bristle-like seed-heads that resemble tufts of cotton; combined with its ecological suitability to bog, these characteristics give rise to the plant's alternative name, bog cotton. ''Eriophorum angustifolium'' is a hardy, herbaceous, rhizomatous, perennial sedge, able to endure in a variety of environments in the temperate, subarctic and arctic regions of Earth. Unlike ''Gossypium'', the genus from which cotton is derived, the bristles which grow on ''E. angustifolium'' are unsuited to textile manufacturing. Nevertheless, in Northern Europe, t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sphagnum Moss
''Sphagnum'' is a genus of approximately 380 accepted species of mosses, commonly known as sphagnum moss, peat moss, also bog moss and quacker moss (although that term is also sometimes used for peat). Accumulations of ''Sphagnum'' can store water, since both living and dead plants can hold large quantities of water inside their cells; plants may hold 16 to 26 times as much water as their dry weight, depending on the species.Bold, H. C. 1967. Morphology of Plants. second ed. Harper and Row, New York. p. 225-229. The empty cells help retain water in drier conditions. As sphagnum moss grows, it can slowly spread into drier conditions, forming larger mires, both raised bogs and blanket bogs. Thus, sphagnum can influence the composition of such habitats, with some describing sphagnum as 'habitat manipulators'. These peat accumulations then provide habitat for a wide array of peatland plants, including sedges and ericaceous shrubs, as well as orchids and carnivorous plants.Ked ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sympetrum Danae
''Sympetrum danae'', the black darter or black meadowhawk is a dragonfly found in northern Europe, Asia, and North America. At about long, it is Britain's smallest resident dragonfly. It is a very active late summer insect typical of heathland and moorland bog pools. Members of the genus '' Sympetrum'' are known as darters in the UK and as meadowhawks in the US and Canada. Identification Both sexes have black legs and pterostigmata and a very broad base to the hind wing. The thorax has yellow sides separated by a bold black panel in which are three yellow spots, resembling a highland darter ('' Sympetrum nigrescens''). The male has a mainly black thorax and abdomen. The abdomen has small yellow marks on the side, that darken with age. The wings are clear. The female has black legs and brown eyes. The abdomen is mainly yellow, becoming browner with age. It has small yellow patches at the wing bases. Breeding This darter is restricted to acidic shallow pools, lake margins and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eurasian Teal
The Eurasian teal (''Anas crecca''), common teal, or Eurasian green-winged teal is a common and widespread duck that breeds in temperate Eurosiberia and migrates south in winter. The Eurasian teal is often called simply the teal due to being the only one of these small dabbling ducks in much of its range. The bird gives its name to the blue-green colour teal. It is a highly gregarious duck outside the breeding season and can form large flocks. It is commonly found in sheltered wetlands and feeds on seeds and aquatic invertebrates. The North American green-winged teal (''A. carolinensis'') was formerly (and sometimes is still) considered a subspecies of ''A. crecca''. Taxonomy The Eurasian teal belongs to the "true" teals, a group of small ''Anas'' dabbling ducks closely related to the mallard (''A. platyrhynchos'') and its relatives; that latter group in fact seems to have evolved from a true teal. It forms a superspecies with the green-winged teal and the speckled ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wildlife Trust For Lancashire, Manchester And North Merseyside
The Lancashire Wildlife Trust or Wildlife Trust for Lancashire, Manchester and North Merseyside is a wildlife trust covering the county of Lancashire and parts of Greater Manchester and Merseyside in England. It includes all of the ceremonial county of Lancashire, including the unitary authority districts of Blackburn with Darwen and Blackpool; from Greater Manchester the districts of Bolton, Bury, Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford and Wigan; and from Merseyside the districts of Liverpool, Sefton, Knowsley and St Helens. It also covers adjacent areas of the Irish Sea including parts of Morecambe Bay and Liverpool Bay. The trust is part of the Wildlife Trusts partnership, which is the UK's leading conservation charity dedicated to all wildlife. The network of 47 local Wildlife Trusts and its junior branch, Wildlife Watch, work together with local communities to protect wildlife in all habitats across the UK, in towns, countryside, wetlands and seas. The trust was formed as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: Manchester, Salford, Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford and Wigan. The county was created on 1 April 1974, as a result of the Local Government Act 1972, and designated a functional city region on 1 April 2011. Greater Manchester is formed of parts of the historic counties of Cheshire, Lancashire and the West Riding of Yorkshire. Greater Manchester spans , which roughly covers the territory of the Greater Manchester Built-up Area, the second most populous urban area in the UK. Though geographically landlocked, it is connected to the sea by the Manchester Ship Canal which is still open to shipping in Salford and Trafford. Greater Manchester borders the ceremonial counties of Cheshire (to the south-west and south), Derbyshire (to the south-east), West Yorkshire (to the n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
United Utilities
United Utilities Group plc (UU), the United Kingdom's largest listed water company, was founded in 1995 as a result of the merger of North West Water and NORWEB. The group manages the regulated water and waste water network in North West England, which includes Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Merseyside, most of Cheshire and a small area of Derbyshire, which have a combined population of more than seven million. The United Utilities Group was the electricity distribution network operator for the North West until 2010, when its electricity subsidiary was sold to Electricity North West. United Utilities' headquarters are in Warrington, England, and the company has more than 5,000 direct employees. Its shares are listed on the London Stock Exchange and it is a constituent the FTSE 100 Index. North West England is the wettest region in England, and water hardness across the region is soft to very soft. History In 1989 the North West Water Authority, which was responsibl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
