Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, UK, 20th – 21st September, 2012
This two-day conference organised jointly by the Botanical Society of the British Isles and the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh will commemorate the 50th anniversary of publication of the first Atlas of the British Flora, described as “a great leap forward” by Max Nicholson at the dinner held to celebrate its appearance in 1962. The main subject of the conference will be use of data from biological recording schemes to analyse trends in distributions over space and time over recent decades. The conference will demonstrate how approaches pioneered by the BSBI in the 1962 Atlas have been adopted by biologists studying many other taxonomic groups, in mainland Europe as well as the UK.
A stellar line-up of speakers will explore the evolution and outcome of recording schemes, factors influencing species-richness, abundance and distribution, and the implications of recording data for land management and conservation. The presentations will be of interest and relevance to a broad audience including professional and amateur naturalists, researchers, consultants and staff in government and conservation organisations.
Booking is now open via the BSBI website
The provisional programme is listed below. This programme is current as of April 2012. Co-authors of presentations are omitted at present and the timing of talks is subject to change
A Great leap forward – Biological Recording since the 1962 Atlas of the British Flora
Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, 20-21 September 2012
Thursday 20th September
09.00 Registration and coffee
Session 1
09.45 Welcome on behalf of BSBI and RBGE.
10.00 Peter Marren (UK) – The 1962 Atlas: history, approach and production.
10.30 Chris Preston (CEH Wallingford, UK) – Following the BSBI’s lead: the influence of the Atlas of the British Flora.
11.00 Coffee break
Session 2
11.20 Trevor Dines (Plantlife, UK) – Biogeographic patterns in the British and Irish flora.
11.50 Robert Crawford (University of St Andrews, Scotland, UK) – Distribution of British plants in relation to their ecophysiology.
12.20 Richard Ennos (Institute of Evolutionary Biology, University of Edinburgh, UK) -Biogeography of European trees: glacial refugia and postglacial migration routes.
12.50 Alison Jukes (University of York, UK) – Predicting non-native plant species distributions and variation in recorder effort in Britain.
13.20 Lunch
Session 3
14.10 Simon Smart (CEH Lancaster, UK) – Ten years of vegetation change since the BSBI Future Flora Conference: matching predictions with observations.
14.40 Natasha de Vere, (National Botanic Garden of Wales, Carmarthenshire, UK) – Barcode Wales: Creating and using a DNA barcode database for the nation’s native flowering plants and conifers.
15.10 Brian Huntley (University of Durham, UK) – A context for recent changes: Late-quaternary dynamics of species’ distribution and abundance patterns.
15.40 Tea Break
Session 4
16.00 Mark Hill (Biological Records Centre, CEH Wallingford, UK) – How much apparent change is real? Recording bias and how to correct for it.
16.30 Wouter van Landuyt (Brussels, Belgium) – Regional variation in floristic change: a comparison between the British and Flanders Flora Atlas’.
17.00 Sebastian Sundberg (Uppsala University, Sweden) – Decrease of boreal plants in Sweden established by repeated surveys during the 20th Century,
17.30 Reception and poster session
19.30 Conference dinner (optional)
Friday 21st September Session 5
09.10 Michael Braithwaite (UK) – Changes in the flora of Berwickshire since the New Atlas.
09.40 Helen Roy (CEH Wallingford, UK) – Responses of insects to a changing flora.
10.10 Antje Ahrends (Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh, UK) – Fragmentation in the British Flora.
10.40 Coffee Break
Session 6
11.00 Carly Stevens (Lancaster Environment Centre, University of Lancaster, UK) – Assessing the impact of atmospheric nitrogen deposition on UK habitats: evidence from national surveys.
11.30 Peter Carey (Bodsey Ecology Ltd, Huntingdon, UK) – Population studies and national distributions.
12.00 Chris Thomas (University of York, UK) – Animal distributions and climate change.
12.30 Giovanni Rapacciuolo (Imperial College and CEH Wallingford, UK) – Species distribution models for British species under climate change: high explanatory power for range size but low predictive accuracy for range change.
13.00 Lunch
Session 7
14.00 Rob Marrs (University of Liverpool, UK) – Over-dominance in British woodland ground flora – a potential cause of reduced species-richness?
14.30 David Pearman (BSBI, Truro, UK) – Separating the native and alien flora: progress and problems.
15.00 Petr Pysek (Institute of Botany, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic) – Standing on the shoulders of giants: from floristic data to understanding plant invasions.
15.30 Tea Break
Session 8
16.00 Keith Porter (Natural England, UK) – How botanical recording benefits conservation.
16.30 Pete Hollingsworth (Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, UK) – Species distribution: insight from genetics.
17.00 Mick Crawley (Imperial College, London, UK) – Are we recording the right things?
17.30 Closing remarks
17.40 Close of conference
General information
1) Venue
The conference will be held in the lecture theatre and adjacent rooms of the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh (RBGE). Note that car parking is limited and potentially costly. The Gardens are well-served by public transport.
2) Registration and catering
The cost of registration including coffee-tea breaks and a buffet lunch on both days is £98 per delegate including VAT. An optional dinner at RBGE on the evening of 20th September can be booked at the cost of £27 per person. Spaces for dinner are limited and will be allocated on a first come, first served basis. Please specify any dietary requirements on the booking and payment form.
3) Accommodation
A limited number of rooms have been pre-booked for bed and breakfast at the University of Edinburgh’s Masson Hall for the nights of 19th and 20th September. The cost of single occupancy of a double en suite room (including breakfast) is £77 per night including VAT. For those staying at Masson Hall, coach travel will be provided between the Hall and RBGE on Thursday morning and evening, and Friday morning. Alternatively, Edinburgh is very well supplied with accommodation at a range of prices.
4) Posters
We welcome offers of posters to be displayed throughout the conference. Please send details of title, authors and a short summary (200 words max) to John Bailey (jpb@leicester.ac.uk)
5) Enquiries, bookings and payment
Booking is now open via the BSBI website
Specific enquires can be sent to
Dr John Bailey, Biology Dept., University of Leicester, Leicester LE1 7RH or email John