This month, some exciting ecological research is being conducted in Ladywell Fields to help us better understand the importance of London's urban orchards for conserving wildlife and capturing carbon from the atmosphere.
The study, designed in collaboration with The Orchard Project, is being led by Royal Holloway, University of London MSc student, Lucy Houliston. Lucy plans to visit our orchard a couple of times over the next few weeks to sample its plant, bee, and ground beetle communities (if you spot her pottering around the park with her insect net, do go and say hello)!
On Monday, she’ll be installing ten cup-sized, ground-based beetle traps (known as 'pitfall traps') in various locations around the orchard and leaving them in place for one week. Do keep an eye out for the tops of these traps sticking out of the ground—each one will be marked with a bright orange flag so it's easy to avoid tripping over or stepping on any of them!
Although the traps will be marked and positioned away from the main paths, we ask that you take extra care when moving around the orchard during this time and avoid touching any traps that you do come across. Information signs will be displayed around the site while the traps are in place so you can learn more about the work.
If you have any further questions, feel free to drop Lucy an email at Lucy.Houliston.2020@live.rhul.ac.uk.
