Tentsmuir : : ten thousand years of environmental history / / Robert M. M. Crawford.

• VerfasserIn: Crawford, R. M. M.,
• Place / Publishing House: Oxford : : Archaeopress Publishing Limited,, [2019]; ©2019
• Year of Publication: 2019
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (205 pages) :; color illustrations, color maps

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.

Table of Contents

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.