Talk:Heath (habitat)
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this is rather euro-centric habitat speak, its not wrong but..., what about related habitats around the world, Fynbos in southern Africa, the spectacular Kwongan in Western Australia, 'heathlands' in Eastern Australia, the vast buttongrass moorlands in Tasmania, the heavy metal heaths of New Caledonia to name a few —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Meika (talk • contribs) 02:55, 19 August 2005.
- Good point, I see Western Tasmania is mentioned already - I'll add these other similar areas to the bottom of the page (4wd 00:42, 25 May 2006 (UTC))
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[edit] Split this page?
How much do heaths and moors really have in common? My impression as a non-specialist is that they're very different kinds of environment, and shouldn't be lumped together in one article. That said, if the page is to be split it really needs a lot more information to avoid ending up with two stubs. Blisco 18:21, 22 May 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Burning of Moorland
According to new scientist, burning of moors to encourage the growth of heather is significantly contributing to the UK's CO2 output. It's even got a journal reference we can use. But I'm not sure how to work this into the article. LinaMishima 16:16, 11 August 2006 (UTC)
- A start would be to have a paragraph on use and management of moorland, mentioning regular burning. This exemplifies my point above that a lot more information is needed. --Blisco 14:53, 14 August 2006 (UTC)
How can this be true unless the underlying peat was burned? The CO2 could only have been incorporated into the woody material from the atmosphere over the last few years - effectively neutral balance. Burning is essential as it keeps down the mass of dry material which can become a destructive wildfire in the Summer these hot fires are more likely to involve the peat below. Also the seeds of Ling require the brief heat to germinate. Moorland has developed in association with regular burning for millenia, stopping the practice will inevitably have undesireable consequences considering the relative rarity of the habitat globally.
I feel the Global Warming CO2 issue is entirely irrelevant in this article however a section highlighting the necessity of periodic burning to maintain the heather in good condition should perhaps be included4wd 22:55, 16 August 2006 (UTC)
- I've added a suggested split notice, as I feel a new article would encourage the addition of information like this. Of course, a lot of work would be necessary to fix all the piped links like [[heath (habitat)|moorland]]. --Blisco 08:59, 17 August 2006 (UTC)
Perhaps for a start a new heading might be made in the article. I'll insert the following and welcome any additions. 4wd 21:57, 1 September 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Management
Moorland and Heath is largely a man-made habitat which would slowly revert to other types of vegetation such as [Woodland] were it not for scrub and saplings being periodically removed, usually by [controlled burning].
Mechanical cutting of the heather has been used, but it is important the material is removed to avoid smothering regrowth. It has been found that heather seeds germinate better if subject to the brief heat of controlled burning.
If the heather and other vegetation is left for too long, a large volume of dry and combustible material builds up. This is likely to cause a Summer wildfire which may burn out a large area including the underlying peat and is much hotter than a controlled burn. Little wildlife can survive such a major fire. 4wd 21:57, 1 September 2006 (UTC)
[edit] What a horribly Eurocentric page
Seriously, the entire page talks exclusively about European heathlands. Yet European heathlands comprise maybe 1% of the world's heaths, and less than 1/1000th of a percent of the biodiversity. It's as though someone wrote an article about rainforests and mentioned only the Pacific Northwest while overlooking the Amazon, Congo, Indo-Malaya etc. It really is that bad. While doubtless very good for an article on European heaths the whole article is a joke if it is intended as a reference on heaths generally.
Numerous comments are simply wrong, such as claims that the largest heaths are found in Germany. That's funny when you consider that you could probably fit the whole of West Germany into the Australian heathlands. The whole page needs a major re-write. Much of the Europe specific material needs to be removed, we simply don't have room for it if we wish to avoid European bias. There's no justification in adding a complete list of European heathland vertebrate fauna if we aren't also going to list the 100 or so Australian species, and a further 200 or so from South America, and so on and so forth. Either we list them all or we list none. My vote is that we list none, or maybe one "typical" example form each major region.
The claims that all heathlands are anthropogenic is just nonsense. The Australian and Southern African heathlands existed for millions of years. before humans even evolved.
Ultimately the article is totally inaccurate because it speaks as European heaths were the only heaths on earth, rather than just a very tiny, almost negligible speck in one corner. It needs a serious re-write, which I might get around to one day.
This is just a heads up so that if anyone comes back and finds all the Europe specific stuff deleted you know why. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 211.29.68.206 (talk • contribs) 09:09, September 8, 2006 (UTC)
- STOP - Reference! Whilst the changes you made are actually rather good, all this hassle would have been avoided if the article had been properly referenced in the first place. before adding anything else, I advise that references are found. LinaMishima 14:27, 8 September 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Split
Right, I've moved the information on moorland to a separate article where it belongs; hopefully both articles can now get the serious attention they deserve. People who know about the subject, please tidy up as appropriate! I removed the sentence beginning Until recently, modern techniques of agriculture threatened some of this habitat because it didn't seem to fit with anything else and I had a feeling it was over-simplistic and possibly inaccurate (as well as perhaps being more relevant to moorland), but feel free to put it back and expand. --Blisco 18:47, 8 September 2006 (UTC)
