Changing the Climate of a Limestone Dale

The Unit of Comparative Plant Ecology based at Sheffield University is manipulating the weather artificially at a field site near Buxton, Derbyshire. This experiment is enabling us to study the way in which certain plants, both in the existing vegetation and among potential invaders, may behave in the future. As well as future climate scenarios, a range of land-use conditions are recreated in the experiment. Seeds of species with different geographical distributions have been sown in and their fate is being closely followed. The experiment began in 1990 and will run until at least 1997, by which time it should be possible to identify both vulnerable plants and potential colonists. Already, evidence has been obtained, for sown species from southern England, of benefits to establishment associated with elevated winter temperature and summer drought treatments,