Derek Almey Ratcliffe (9 July 1929 – 23 May 2005) was one of the most significant

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

nature conservationists of the 20th century. He was Chief Scientist for the

Nature Conservancy Council The Nature Conservancy Council (NCC) was a United Kingdom government agency responsible for designating and managing National Nature Reserves and other nature conservation areas in Great Britain between 1973 and 1991 (it did not cover Norther ...

at the

Monks Wood Experimental Station Monks Wood is a National Nature Reserve north-west of Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire, and a Nature Conservation Review site, Grade I. A slightly more extensive area of is the Monks Wood and The Odd Quarter biological Site of Special Scientific I ...

, Abbots Ripton, Huntingdon, retiring in 1989. Ratcliffe was the author of the 1977

Nature Conservation Review ''A Nature Conservation Review'' is a two-volume work by Derek Ratcliffe, published by Cambridge University Press in 1977. It set out to identify the most important places for nature conservation in Great Britain. It is often known by the initial ...

, a document which set out the most important sites for

nature conservation Nature conservation is the moral philosophy and conservation movement focused on protecting species from extinction, maintaining and restoring habitats, enhancing ecosystem services, and protecting biological diversity. A range of values unde ...

in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

. He also published various works on nature and conservation.

Biography

Derek Ratcliffe grew up in Carlisle, and married his wife, Jeannette, in March 1978.Obituary, Des Thompson & H.J.B. Birks ''British Wildlife'' Vol. 16 No.6 pp. 410–412, August 2005 Ratcliffe was the first person to discover the link between the use by farmers of

pesticides Pesticides are substances that are meant to control pests. This includes herbicide, insecticide, nematicide, molluscicide, piscicide, avicide, rodenticide, bactericide, insect repellent, animal repellent, microbicide, fungicide, and lampric ...

—such as

DDT Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, commonly known as DDT, is a colorless, tasteless, and almost odorless crystalline chemical compound, an organochloride. Originally developed as an insecticide, it became infamous for its environmental impacts. ...

and Dieldrin—and the decline of British populations of birds of prey, particularly the peregrine falcon. He was instrumental in persuading the UK government to end the tax advantages available for planting non-native

conifer Conifers are a group of conifer cone, cone-bearing Spermatophyte, seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the phylum, division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a single ...

forests on Scottish

peat bogs A bog or bogland is a wetland that accumulates peat as a deposit of dead plant materials often mosses, typically sphagnum moss. It is one of the four main types of wetlands. Other names for bogs include mire, mosses, quagmire, and muskeg ...

, which was threatening the internationally important large wetland area of

Caithness Caithness ( gd, Gallaibh ; sco, Caitnes; non, Katanes) is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. Caithness has a land boundary with the historic county of Sutherland to the west and is otherwise bounded by ...

and

Sutherland Sutherland ( gd, Cataibh) is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area in the Highlands of Scotland. Its county town is Dornoch. Sutherland borders Caithness and Moray Firth to the east, Ross-shire and Cromartyshire (later ...

known as the

Flow Country The Flow Country is a large, rolling expanse of peatland and wetland area of Caithness and Sutherland in the North of Scotland. It is the largest expanse of blanket bog in Europe, and covers about . It is an area of deep peat, dotted with bog ...

. Ratcliffe studied for a PhD at the

University of Wales, Bangor Bangor University ( cy, Prifysgol Bangor) is a Public university, public university in Bangor, Gwynedd, Bangor, Wales. It received its Royal charter, Royal Charter in 1885 and was one of the founding institutions of the federal University of Wales ...

, completing it in 1953. He then undertook

National Service National service is the system of voluntary government service, usually military service. Conscription is mandatory national service. The term ''national service'' comes from the United Kingdom's National Service (Armed Forces) Act 1939. The ...

. He was awarded the British Trust for Ornithology's

Bernard Tucker Medal The Bernard Tucker Medal is awarded by the British Trust for Ornithology for services to ornithology. It is named in memory of Bernard Tucker, their first Secretary. It has been awarded since 1954, usually annually although there are some years ...

in 1964. One of his most often cited works is a study on

egg shell An eggshell is the outer covering of a hard-shelled egg and of some forms of eggs with soft outer coats. Diversity Worm eggs Nematode eggs present a two layered structure: an external vitellin layer made of chitin that confers mechanical ...

breakage conducted in the 1960s. Some, including

Rachel Carson Rachel Louise Carson (May 27, 1907 – April 14, 1964) was an American marine biologist, writer, and conservationist whose influential book '' Silent Spring'' (1962) and other writings are credited with advancing the global environmental ...

in her book ''

Silent Spring ''Silent Spring'' is an environmental science book by Rachel Carson. Published on September 27, 1962, the book documented the environmental harm caused by the indiscriminate use of pesticides. Carson accused the chemical industry of spreading d ...

'', have interpreted the study as establishing a causal link between

contamination and thinning of egg shells in raptors. Among his many other studies of the topic are papers on the effect on specific bird species, such as the peregrine falcon, the raven, In these studies he developed "Ratcliffe's Index," considered "a reliable measure of relative shell thickness"

Publications

Derek Ratcliffe's most important publications include: * ''Plant Communities of the Scottish Highlands'' (1962, with Donald McVean) * ''

A Nature Conservation Review ''A Nature Conservation Review'' is a two-volume work by Derek Ratcliffe, published by Cambridge University Press in 1977. It set out to identify the most important places for nature conservation in Great Britain. It is often known by the initial ...

'' (1977 ) * ''The Peregrine Falcon'' (Poyser, 1980; expanded second edition 1993) * ''Bird Life of Mountain and Upland'' (Cambridge University Press, 1991 ) * ''The Raven'' (Poyser, 1997) * ''In Search of Nature'' (Broadfield, 2000) * ''Lakeland'' (Collins

New Naturalist The New Naturalist Library (also known as ''The New Naturalists'') is a series of books published by Collins in the United Kingdom, on a variety of natural history topics relevant to the British Isles. The aim of the series at the start was: "To ...

, 2002 ) * ''Lapland: a natural history'' (Poyser, 2005 ) * ''Galloway and the Borders'' (Collins

, 2007 . Completed a few days before his death in 2005)

References

External links

Joint Nature Conservation Committee
– press release on Ratcliffe's death {{DEFAULTSORT:Ratcliffe, Derek British ornithologists British ecologists British environmentalists 1929 births 2005 deaths People educated at Carlisle Grammar School Alumni of Bangor University Non-fiction environmental writers New Naturalist writers 20th-century British zoologists