A wet woodland is a type of

plant community A plant community is a collection or association of plant species within a designated geographical unit, which forms a relatively uniform patch, distinguishable from neighboring patches of different vegetation types. The components of each plant co ...

. It is a biodiversity habitat 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 ...

as part of the

British National Vegetation Classification __NOTOC__ The British National Vegetation Classification or NVC is a system of classifying natural habitat types in Great Britain according to the vegetation they contain. A large scientific meeting of ecologists, botanists, and other related pr ...

system. Wet

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with trees, or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the ''plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade (see ...

s occurs on poorly drained or seasonally wet soils. They may occur in

river valleys A valley is an elongated low area often running between Hill, hills or Mountain, mountains, which will typically contain a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers ...

, the surroundings of mires and raised

bog 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; a ...

, the transition zones between open water and drier ground, and beside small winding streams.

British National Vegetation Classification

Within the British National Vegetation Classification, seven types of wet woodland are recognised as part of the

Woodland and scrub communities in the British National Vegetation Classification system This article gives an overview of the woodland and scrub communities in the British National Vegetation Classification system. Introduction The woodland and scrub communities of the NVC were described in Volume 1 of British Plant Communities, fi ...

: *W1. Grey sallow – marsh bedstraw woodland *W2. Grey sallow – Downy birch – reed woodland *W3.

Bay willow A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a gulf, sea, sound, or bight. A cove is a small, circular bay with a narr ...

– bottle sedge woodland *W4. Downy birch – purple moor grass woodland *W5. Alder – tussock sedge woodland *W6. Alder – nettle woodland *W7. (Alder-Ash-Yellow Pimpernell woodland)

Ecology

In the UK, alder,

birches A birch is a thin-leaved deciduous hardwood tree of the genus ''Betula'' (), in the family Betulaceae, which also includes alders, hazels, and hornbeams. It is closely related to the beech-oak family Fagaceae. The genus ''Betula'' contains 30 to ...

and willows are the characteristic trees found in this type of habitat, as they are able to extract oxygen from the water saturated habitat. The UK contains between {{convert, 50, -, 70000, ha of wet woodlands. Wet woodland supports many types of species. E.g. the humidity favours

bryophytes The Bryophyta s.l. are a proposed taxonomic division containing three groups of non-vascular land plants (embryophytes): the liverworts, hornworts and mosses. Bryophyta s.s. consists of the mosses only. They are characteristically limited i ...

(mosses). The shrub and tree community supports many invertebrates: the beetles ''Melanopion minimum'' and ''Rhynchaenus testaceus'', the craneflies ''Lipsothrix errans'', ''Lipsothrix nervosa'', and mammals such as Eurasian otters. In the UK Woodland Maintenance and Restoration grants are available to protect this type of Woodland under Natural England's Environmental Stewardship Scheme.

Condition assessment and ideal management

* Native species are dominant. Non-native and invasive species account for less than 10% of the vegetation cover. * A diverse age and height structure. * Free from recent damage from stock or wild mammals - there should be evidence of tree regeneration e.g. seedlings, saplings and young trees. * Standing and fallen dead trees of over 20 centimetres diameter are present. * The area is protected from damage by agricultural and other adjacent operations. The term 'recent' in this context means less than five years.

Example Wet Woodland sites

Fire Beacon Hill Fire Beacon Hill is a Local Nature Reserve in East Devon, England. It is registered as Common land and known as Harpford Common. Sidmouth Town Council are the current owners, and are responsible for the management of the site. Geology The si ...

in Devon, England * Amberley Wild Brooks in West Sussex, England * Wicken Fen in Cambridgeshire, England

References

UKBAP Wet Woodland Habitat

The Forestry Commission- Management of Wet Woodland
Environment of England Forest ecology