Boosting biodiversity through grazing in limestone habitats

Limestone pavements and grasslands are important for conservation, especially in the Yorkshire Dales where they are much more common that other parts of the country. 

These limestone habitats host a range of rare and scarce species. However, despite their importance for nature conservation there has been very little research conducted on how we should best manage them for biodiversity. 

Grazing is a key part of managing limestone pavements but at the moment we don’t really know when is the best time of year to graze to maximise biodiversity. This project will set up a grazing experiment in grassland and limestone pavement that is part of Horton in Ribblesdale Quarry. 

The experiment will investigate whether summer or winter grazing is better for biodiversity and I will monitor how plant communities change over time.