A floristic survey of Fair Isle

Abstract

Fair Isle is a small isolated island located off the northern tip of Great Britain. Recognised internationally for rare migratory birds and important seabird colonies, the flora of Fair Isle has received far less attention. To rectify this, we present the first comprehensive floristic study of the island. A botanical survey was performed for each monad, and habitat information was collated following the NCC Phase 1 habitat survey method. These data were compiled to give a comprehensive checklist of 318 species, classified into 31 orders, 68 families and 191 genera according to APG IV. Of the total number of species, 255 are native to Great Britain and the remaining 63 are aliens. The list includes 10 species under threat, seven nationally scarce and one nationally rare species. Our results reveal that even though Fair Isle is about 200 times smaller than the full archipelago of Shetland, it holds over one-third the number of species. The island is also notable for its complex mosaic of habitats, which include a range of communities that are rare or under threat elsewhere in the British Isles. We provide a detailed commentary of island diversity, and recommendations for future monitoring to record changes in land-use and the effects of climate change.

Keywords:

• island biodiversity
• Shetland
• island biogeography
• alien plants
• colonisation

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Sally Eaton for advice and supervision; Jenny Farrar & Jo Whatmough for their guidance in fieldwork and plant identification; The Fair Isle Bird Observatory Trust and its wardens, Susannah and David Parnaby, for use of facilities at the Bird Observatory; Lee Gregory for his help in the field and photographic material; Steven Sylvester for identification of grasses; Jim McIntosh for project guidance and providing access to the BSBI Distribution Database; and two anonymous reviewers for improvements to the original text. This paper is dedicated to the memory of Tessa McGregor, a field biologist who encouraged this research.

Supplemental data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed 10.1080/20423489.2017.1393191.

Additional information

Funding

This study formed part of CQP's MSc Thesis at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE), supported by the Scottish Government’s Rural and Environmental Science and Analytical Services Division. Additional funds were provided by the RBGE Sibbald Trust. Research by ADT is supported by NERC Fellowship NE/L011336/1.