Data from hedgerow management and biodiversity restoration experiments

There are three datasets from a set of long running hedgerow experiments within this collection. The main dataset contains data on vegetation composition, flower counts, berry availability over winter, pollinators, invertebrates, and hedge structure and regrowth, and was collected between 2010 and 2016 although for one experiment there is data from 2005. There are two other datasets from Master's projects that focus on moth community data (in 2011) and plant community data from the basal area of the hedgerows (in 2016).

The hedgerow experiments had two linked aims focused on management to maintain and restore the hedgerow resource under the agri-environment schemes:

- to examine the effects of simple cutting management regimes promoted by Entry Level Stewardship (ELS) and Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) on the quality and quantity of wildlife habitat, and food resources in hedgerows; and

- to identify, develop and test low-cost, practical options for hedgerow restoration and rejuvenation applicable at the large-scale under both ELS and HLS.

There were three randomised plot experiments split over sites in Cambridgeshire, Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Devon and Northamptonshire. The experiments were investigating the long-term effects of timing and frequency of cutting on resource provision for wildlife (experiment 1), the effect of timing, intensity and frequency of hedgerow cutting (experiment 2) and the effects of different rejuvenation techniques on hedgerows (experiment 3).

The research was funded by Defra (project number BD2114: Effects of hedgerow management and restoration on biodiversity) and managed by the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH).