ecologiasociale

Shared Ground — how living things share a place

The register

All thirty-one entries, in section order. Nothing here is dated; entries are revised in place when the evidence moves.

01 · SuccessionSection page
What comes back firstBare ground does not stay bare. The order is broadly predictable — wind-blown colonisers, then scrub, then trees — but the details depend entirely on what the disturbance left behind.Long entry
The seed bankViable seed sitting in the soil for decades, waiting for light.Short entry
Pioneer speciesFast, light-seeded and short-lived — built for a gap.Short entry
After fireHeat as a trigger rather than only a destroyer.Short entry
Arrested successionGround held at an early stage by grazing, cutting or flooding.Short entry
Old growthWhat only appears after a very long time without disturbance.Short entry
02 · EdgesSection page
The line where two habitats meetAn edge is not a boundary but its own environment — brighter, windier, drier — and it holds species that live in neither side.Medium entry
Edge depthHow far into a wood the edge conditions actually reach.Short entry
HedgerowsA linear habitat that is mostly edge, and how age is read from what grows in it.Medium entry
The woodland rideA cut track through trees, managed as habitat rather than access.Short entry
Who benefitsEdge specialists, and the interior species that lose out.Short entry
03 · CorridorsSection page
Getting from patch to patchA population split in two behaves differently from one population. What a corridor does and what the evidence for it actually shows.Medium entry
FragmentationSame total area, more pieces, fewer species.Short entry
Stepping stonesSmall patches that work as staging posts rather than habitat.Short entry
Road crossingsUnderpasses and overpasses, and which animals use them.Short entry
Rivers as corridorsContinuous linear habitat that ignores field boundaries.Short entry
04 · ReturnsSection page
Remove one animalTaking out a single species can change vegetation, water and soil — and putting it back rarely reverses things neatly.Medium entry
Grazing pressureHow much is eaten, by what, and how often.Short entry
The beaver effectAn animal that rebuilds the hydrology it lives in.Short entry
Invasive arrivalsA species with no local checks, and how the term is defined and disputed.Short entry
Nothing goes back exactlyRestoration produces a new state, not the previous one.Short entry
05 · PavementSection page
The city is a habitatWalls, verges, ballast and roofs are not degraded countryside; they are dry, alkaline, disturbed environments with their own specialists.Medium entry
Wall floraFerns and mosses in lime mortar, and why repointing removes them.Short entry
Railway ballastHot, sharp-draining and regularly disturbed — and full of colonisers.Short entry
The road vergeLinear grassland managed by a mower rather than a grazier.Short entry
Green roofsThin substrate, full exposure, and what actually persists up there.Short entry
06 · CountingSection page
How any of this is knownQuadrats, transects and repeat visits. Most ecological claims rest on somebody counting the same square metre for years.Medium entry
The quadratA square frame thrown down, and the discipline of where it lands.Short entry
TransectsA fixed line walked repeatedly, and why the route must never change.Short entry
Indicator speciesUsing one organism as a proxy for conditions, and the limits of that.Short entry
Long runsDatasets decades long, and why the old ones cannot be replaced.Short entry