English Lowlands beech forests

The English Lowlands beech forests is a terrestrial ecoregion in the United Kingdom, as defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the European Environment Agency (EEA). It covers of Southern England, approximately as far as the border with Devon and South Wales in the west, into the Severn valley in the north-west, into the East Midlands in the north, and up to the border of Norfolk in the north-east. The WWF code for this ecoregion is PA0421.

Ecoregional context

To the north, west and south-west lies the similar Celtic broadleaf forests ecoregion, which covers most of the rest of the British Isles. In addition, two further ecoregions are located in the south-western and north-western edges of Ireland, and the north-western fringes of Scotland (North Atlantic moist mixed forests), and beyond the Scottish Highland Boundary Fault ( Caledonian conifer forests). The whole of this Atlantic archipelago is thus considered as originally (or in some sense ideally) forested, with only the far mountainous north being primarily coniferous. Across the English Channel lies the Atlantic mixed forests ecoregion in northern France and the Low Countries.

The difference between the English lowlands beech forests and the Celtic broadleaf forests lies in the fact that south-eastern England is comparatively drier and warmer in climate, and lower-lying in terms of topography. Geologically, something of the distinction can be found in the dominance of the Southern England Chalk Formation in this ecoregion, and the Tees-Exe line, which divides the island of Great Britain into a sedimentary south-east, and a metamorphic and igneous north-west. However, the WWF division was preceded by that of the Hungarian biologist Miklos Udvardy, who had considered the greater part of the British Isles as just one biogeographic province in the Palearctic Realm, which he termed British Islands.

Characteristics

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Historically, much of this lowland and submontane region was covered with high-Canopy (forest)">canopy forests dominated by European beech (''Fagus sylvatica''), but also including other species of tree, including English oak, oak, European ash, ash, rowan and Taxus baccata, yew. In summer, the forests are generally cool and dark, because the beech produces a dense canopy, and thus restricts the growth of other species of tree and wild flowers. In the spring, however, thick carpets of bluebells can be found, flourishing before the beech leafs out and shades the forest floor.

The National Vegetation Classification (NVC) plant communities associated with beech forests (together with their occurrence ratios in England as a whole) are:

* W12 ''Fagus sylvatica'' – ''Mercurialis perennis'' (dog's mercury

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