Abstract
THE interesting studies of vegetation at Breckland, East Anglia, which Dr. E. Pickworth Farrow has been publishing in the Journal of Ecology, have now been gathered together and published, with additional matter, in book form. This work provides the most definite and striking data as to the effects produced by rabbits in determining the nature of the vegetation. Thus their influence is traced in the degeneration of Calluna heath to grassland and in the prevention of natural regeneration of woodland. Interesting notes are provided on wind effects upon Calluna in sandy soils and upon the water supply in the soil as a determining factor in the type of vegetation of the soils at higher levels at Breckland, but in the main this work is characterised by the manner in which it underlines the significance of biotic factors. Cases that may be cited, in addition to the rabbits, are the effect of the shade thrown by Pteris, notably by the dead fronds, upon the spread of Calluna, and the influence of the litter of needles below the pines upon the spread of Carex arenaria.
Plant Life on East Anglian Heaths: being Observational and Experimental Studies of the Vegetation of Breckland.
Dr.
E. Pickworth
Farrow
By. Pp. x + 108 + 23 plates. (Cambridge: At the University Press, 1925.) 7s. 6d. net.
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Plant Life on East Anglian Heaths: being Observational and Experimental Studies of the Vegetation of Breckland . Nature 116, 896 (1925). https://doi.org/10.1038/116896c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/116896c0