Case Study: Breen Wood, Co. Antrim

• A deciduous forest lying on the north facing slope of a river 6 miles from Ballycastle
• Breen Wood is a Special Area of Conservation- 36 hectare site
• One of the few deciduous woodlands remaining in Ireland

• Lies between 130 and 190m between sea level
• High rainfall totals of 1600mm a year
• Average temperatures are 4°C in January and 15°C in July
• Podzols are poor quality due to basalt parent rock which is low in nutrients
  
• High rainfall and sloping relief ensure leaching is significant
• As a result range of plants and animals is smaller than expected in deciduous forest- 200 year old oak trees in Breen Wood are half the size they should be

First Level

• Autotrophs are mainly oak and downy birch forming a 20m canopy layer above ground- below some shrubs such as hazel and holly and ground layer: ferns, brambles, bilberry and mosses as well as wood-rush, wood-sorrel and ferns on soil. Bluebells and anemones can grow in spring due to lots of light. All these fix solar energy via photosynthesis

Second Level

• Heterotrophs mainly herbivores- usually limited due to harsh climate mainly of one of the 15 species of butterfly including Orange Tip and Speckled  Wood as well as the red squirrel

Third Level

• Birds including omnivores such as gold crests and the great and blue **** which consume seeds and insects such as the butterflies

Fourth Level

• Omnivores and carnivores such as sparrow hawks and buzzards and badgers who also eat fruit and nuts as well as foxes and stoats who conusme rodents and eggs

• 90% of energy is lost due to respiration and excretion so fourth level is smallest
• Detritivores such as birch bracket fungi and earthworms decompose DOM but is limited due to slow decompsotion and acidic soils

• Few decomposers so decomposition is quite slow so may take years before leaves fully breakdown and transfer via decay pathway to soil store
  
• High rainfall and cool summer temps. with sloping relief means there is high leaching
• Basalt bed rock does not release many nutrients via weathering, leaving main input to come from precipitation
• Good uptake of nutrients from soil into biomass- each autumn trees shed leaves to reduce moisture loss via transpiration during winter, leaving fresh leaf litter via fallout pathway to litter store