Tentsmuir has been a scene of human activity for over 10,000 years. It witnessed one of the earliest known occurrences in Scotland of Mesolithic hunter-gatherers and has supported human activities throughout the Neolithic and Iron Age. In medieval times it was a home for the Norman nobility, and then a royal hunting forest with highly-valued fishing rights for Scottish Kings. Tentsmuir is prone to flooding in winter due to the front line of dunes blocking drainage to the sea. It provides a natural refuge for a wide range of plants, as well as resident and migrating birds, and other animals, including outstanding populations of butterflies and moths. Consequently, this led to the creation in 1954 of a National Nature Reserve at the north-eastern end of the Tentsmuir Peninsula. Initially, an active period of coastal accretion more than trebled the size of the reserve. Now, however, Tentsmuir is eroding in places. The probability of rising sea levels and increasing exposure to storms may cause a level of destruction such that the physical existence and biological future of Tentsmuir cannot be guaranteed. This book is an attempt to record how even within a limited geographical area, such as this peninsula on the east coast of Scotland, plant and animal communities are constantly reacting to environmental change. Frequently, it is difficult to decide whether or not these changes should be resisted, encouraged, or ignored. Examples are provided of instances where human intervention to counteract change has resulted in negative as well as positive consequences for biodiversity.
Author(s): Grażyna Bąkowska-Czerner; Rafal Czerner
Publisher: Archaeopress Archaeology
Year: 2019
Language: English
Pages: 203
City: Oxford
Cover
Title Page
Copyright Information
Dedication
Contents
Preface
Acknowledgements
Acknowledgements
Chapter One
Tentsmuir in pre-history
Mesolithic Tentsmuir
Mesolithic shell gatherers
Norwegian Holocene Storegga Slide tsunami
Neolithic, Bronze and Iron-age Tentsmuir
Chapter Two
Tentsmuir in history
Medieval Tentsmuir
The Normans at Leuchars
Late Medieval Tentsmuir
Salmon fishing rights
Tentsmuir - a Royal hunting Forest
Agricultural improvement
The draining of Tentsmuir
Malaria at Tentsmuir
Tentsmuir’s farms
German spies at Tentsmuir
Chapter 3
Sand and water
Sand and water interactions
Afforestation of Tentsmuir
Dune slacks
Permanent wetlands
Coastal accretion and longshore drift
Coastal accretion
Coastal accretion time-scale
Erosion
Long-term history of the Tentsmuir coast
The future survival of Tentsmuir
Chapter 4
Tentsmuir’s dunes –a changing landscape
Dune structure and stability
Physical versus biological fragility
Sand dune grasses
Plant geography at Tentsmuir
Grey Dunes
Woody plants on sand dunes
Drought tolerance
Plant survival in sand dunes
Conclusions
Chapter 5
Tentsmuir’s wetlands
Dune slacks and salt Marshes
Avoidance of anoxic stress
Dune-slack variation
Flood-line Alder Association
Salt Slacks
Lotus corniculatus Slack
Erica tetralix slacks
The desiccation of the slacks
Chapter 6
Land, people and resources
Tentsmuir as a sporting estate
Tentsmuir ornithology
The Tentsmuir Grouse Moor
Grouse Disease
Bird migration
20th Century Tentsmuir
The Afforestation and Drainage of Tentsmuir
Tentsmuir Drainage
Creation of Morton Lochs Nature Reserve
Morton Lochs
Tentsmuir Forestry
Water table levels
Chapter 7
Tentsmuir’s thriving birds
Bird habitats at Tentsmuir
Winter visitors
Tentsmuir’s Geese
Shore Birds
Birds of Fresh Waters
Birds of the forest
Morton Lochs restored
Tentsmuir‘s ornithological future
Chapter 8.
Tentsmuir’s declining birds
Bird losses from Tentsmuir
Declining Wader populations
Plovers
Historical bird records from the Eden Estuary
Wigeon
Physiology of Swan-song
Chapter 9
Tentsmuir’s mammals butterflies and moths
Wildfowl and lead poisoning
Seals
Lepidoptera
Rodentia
Chapter 10
Saving the Wilderness
Tentsmuir’s origins
Creating a Wilderness Reserve
Ecological history of Tentsmuir Point
Biological birch control
Dune invasion by Scots Pine
Onset of Coastal Erosion
The Great Slack
Erosion at the Eden Estuary
Ecological restoration
Conservation and Education
Environmental recording
Tentsmuir in the Future
References
Back cover
