Owen Mountford

Plant Ecologist

Research interests

Although my background was in phytosociology (the classification and study of plant communities), my research has become more focused on the interactions between plants, both species and communities, and the water-regime. I originally applied such “eco-hydrology” in tracing and explaining the causes of declining abundance in wetland and aquatic vegetation, especially within the grazing marshes of England and Wales. Increasingly I work in partnership with hydrologists to investigate how one can manage water to conserve and restore functioning wetlands in the landscape. Through this common theme of water and wetlands, my research has broadened to include a range from detailed experimental study of the water-regime requirements of individual plants to the management of river catchments as large as the Danube. At present, my research can be placed in seven main areas:

Planning large-scale restoration. Some of the largest habitat restoration schemes ever planned in northwest Europe are currently taking place within the Fenland basin adjacent to CEH Monks Wood. We also contributed to the Tisza project in Hungary, working in a multinational team under the EU 5th Research Framework.

Restoration of lowland wet grasslands. This includes a Defra project assessing how digging surface-water channels (known as grips) affects the soil conditions and food availability for birds.

Riparian plants. I am part of a consortium led by King’s College London investigating interactions between vegetation, river flows, and sediment/vegetation-propagule dynamics in groundwater-fed rivers. At CEH Monks Wood, we created an Experimental Water Facility (known as “The Tanks”) where plants or sediments could be investigated under different water-regimes.

Biological indicators: A background theme of my work over some 15 years has been the derivation and use of indicator values for plants and the application of biodiversity indicators. This has included applying the Ellenberg system to the British flora, characterising the water-regime requirements of wetland plants and animals, and applying novel concepts to assessing ecosystem health and function.

Related interests and activities

The themes of my CEH are also developed and applied in extra-curricular activity and links that I have with institutions outside CEH.

Wicken Fen National Nature Reserve

Since 1990 I have been a member of the Local Advisory Panel to this nature reserve, and for most of that time Botanical Secretary to the Local Management Committee.  As such my role is to compile botanical records for the National Trust’s property, to stimulate plant ecological research on the reserve and to advise on plant ecological aspects of site management. From 2003, this role has deepened with the formation of the Wicken Recording and Research Group, which I chair. Our strategy has been to focus volunteers, undergraduate and postgraduate students as well as major research projects on both the old fen and especially on the land acquired as part of the “100 Year Vision” i.e. the large-scale wetland restoration scheme.  Recent studentships have included both the Institute of Water and Environment at Cranfield and Anglia Ruskin University.

Eastern Europe

My involvement in the Tisza project led to collaboration with the Karl-Franzens University, Graz, and scientists from the Institute of Ecology of the Carpathians, Lviv, in studying the riverine forests of Transcarpathia (Western Ukraine). They represent the largest surviving refuge of the ancient riverine forests of Central Europe, described in the CORINE Biotopes manual as the "most diverse, structurally, floristically and faunistically, of all European ecosystems (and now) are reduced to a few highly vulnerable examples”.  With support from WWF-UK, we have assessed the current status of these forests in Ukraine, the threats to which they are subject and the scope for sustainable protection of their biodiversity.

As an active member of the Romanian Ecological Society, I have built up close links with key research institutions in Romania e.g. the University of Bucharest Department of Systems Ecology and the Institute of Biology of the Romanian Academy. I have been closely involved in biodiversity assessment in the Carpathians and Transylvania, most notably within the Retezat and Piatra Craiului National Parks.

University of Cambridge Institute of Continuing Education In helping to meet CEH’s role in the public understanding of science, I am an occasional tutor for the Workers’ Educational Association, and especially for the CU Institute of Continuing Education, where I have recently designed and delivered courses on ecology, nature conservation and the British Flora, as well as the natural history of eastern England.

BSES Expeditions

I am both a Council member of BSES and Science Advisor to the Expeditions committee of BSES. The role of BSES is to provide people aged 16-20 with “an intense and lasting experience of self-discovery in a demanding and natural wilderness environment”. BSES Expeditions are distinct from other similar youth development charities is stressing the role of science within the expedition. Most of this science seeks to investigate the wilderness environments, and to work with in-country organisations and British research institutions to deliver useful and important environmental fieldwork results. My role as Science Advisor is to stimulate a diversity of practical and relevant projects for each expedition, working both with the adult leaders in developing their plans and with the young people themselves in integrating the science with the adventure. As well as my advisory role, I helped lead expeditions to the Tien Shan in 1999 and the Tanzanian Rift valley in 2004.

Selected publications

See also the NERC Open Research Archive.

History and philosophy of restoration

Hughes, F.M.R, Colston, A. and Mountford, J.O. (2005).  Restoring Riparian Ecosystems: The Challenge of Accommodating Variability and Designing Restoration Trajectories.  Ecology and Society 10 (1): 12.

Mountford, J.O. and Klawer, I. (In press).  The principles of ecological management.   In: Environmental policy in the management of wetlands.  Edited A.C. Armstrong and C. Bradley.  Oxford: Blackwell (on behalf of European Science Foundation).

Targeting habitat restoration

Mountford, J.O., Cooper, J.M., Roy, D.B., Warman, E.A., Swetnam, R.D. and Manchester, S.J. (2002).  Restoring and re-creating grazing marsh: priorities and targets for grassland restoration.  In: Conservation Pays?  (ed. J. Frame).  British Grassland Society Occasional Symposium No. 36 pp. 51-54.

Mountford, J.O., Roy, D.B., Cooper, J.M., Manchester, S.J., Swetnam, R.D., Warman, E.A. and Treweek, J.R. (In press).  Methods for targeting the restoration of grazing marsh and wet grassland communities at a national, regional and local scale.  Journal for Nature Conservation.

Eco-hydrological guidelines

Mountford, J.O., Rose, R.J. and Bromley, J. (2005).  Eco-hydrological guidelines for wet heaths.  English Nature Research Report.

Wheeler, B.D., Gowing, D.J.G., Shaw, S.C., Mountford, J.O. and Money, R.P. (2004). Eco-hydrological Guidelines for Lowland Wetland Plant Communities.  Eds Brooks, A.W., José, P.V. and Whiteman, M.I.  Peterborough: Environment Agency (Anglian Region).

Planning large-scale wetland restoration

Mountford, J.O., Folwell, S.S., Manchester,S.J., Meigh, J.R., Wadsworth, R.A. and McCartney, M.P. (2004).  Feasibility study for wetland restoration at Baston and Thurlby Fens.  Final Report to the Baston and Thurlby Fens Project Steering Group.

Mountford, J.O., McCartney, M.P, Manchester, S.J. and Wadsworth, R.A. (2002).  Wildlife habitats and their requirements within the Great Fen Project.  Final report to the Great Fen Project Steering Group.

Grassland eco-hydrology and restoration

Mountford, J.O. (ed) (2003).  Guidelines for the management and restoration of lowland wet grassland.  London: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Stevens, C.J., Dise, N.B., Mountford, J.O. and Gowing, D.J.G. (2004).  Impact of Nitrogen Deposition on the species richness of grassland.  Science 303 (issue 5665): 1876-1879

Riparian plants and hydro-geomorphology

Tickner, D.P., Angold, P.G., Gurnell, A.M. and Mountford, J.O. (2001).  Riparian plant invasions: hydro-geomorphological control and ecological impacts.  Progress in Physical Geography, 25, 22-52.

Indicators

Hill, M.O., Roy, D.B., Mountford, J.O. and Bunce, R.G.H. (2000).  Extending Ellenberg’s indicator values to a new area: an algorithmic approach.  Journal of Applied Ecology, 37, 3-15.

Willi, J.C., Mountford, J.O. and Sparks, T.H. (2004). The modification of ancient woodland ground flora at arable edges.  Biodiversity and Conservation, 1-19

Eastern Europe

Drescher A., Prots B. and Mountford, J.O. (2003).  The world of old oxbow-lakes, ancient riverine forests and drained mires in the Tisza river basin.  Fritschiana. 39: 1-21

Mountford, J.O.  2002.  Botanical and nature conservation value of the Zanoaga and Judele area of the Retezat National Park, Hunedoara, România: Reconnaissance Assessment.  Retezat National Park Administration.

Mountford, J.O. and Akeroyd, J.R.  (in press)  A biodiversity assessment of the Saxon villages region of Transylvania.  Transylvanian Review of Systematical and Ecological Research

Mountford, J.O., Patriquin, D. and Treweek, J.R. An approach to surveying and mapping the biodiversity of national parks. Transylvanian Review of Systematical and Ecological Research.