Natural Heritage Trends: Scotland 2001
Introduction
The natural heritage of Scotland – its plants and animals, geology and landforms, natural beauty and amenity – is remarkably diverse.
In the past few decades, many aspects of our natural heritage, including its diversity, condition and the way in which we exploit it, have changed substantially. In this report we try to summarise these changes, where possible identifying any emerging trends.
Chapter 2, as a prelude to accounts of more recent change, provides a glimpse of some of the dramatic events in the history of the Earth that formed and shaped Scotland. Change has been turbulent across geological time-scales, and has given rise to Scotland’s distinctive landscapes, to its unique array of habitats and species, and to the wealth of recreational pursuits that take place on land, fresh water, the coast and at sea.
Against that backdrop, the time-frame for reporting on natural heritage trends is decades rather than millennia, the agent of change being related predominantly to human activity rather than natural processes. Where possible, the focus of interest is on changes that have taken place over the past decade. An ability to predict likely future changes would be even more useful, examples of which are the likely consequences of air pollution and climate projections.
You can download PDFs of the report below, in sections, or as a complete report at 8.4Mb.
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Natural
Heritage Trends: Scotland 2001 complete report |
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Introduction
Format: PDF Size: 1.5MB |
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Biodiversity
Format: PDF Size: 1.8MB |
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The
Countryside Format: PDF Size: 0.8MB |
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Distinctive natural heritage
settings Format: PDF Size: 2.4MB |
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The sea Format: PDF Size: 1.1MB |
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Global pressures
affecting future change Format: PDF Size: 1.4MB |
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Synthesis,
abbreviations and appendices Format: PDF Size: 1MB |
Copies of the full report, print version, are available from our publications section on the website