Our little oasis of diversity

(Guest post by Jessica Palmer)

Biodiversity is the variation of life forms either within a species, or species within a larger ecosystem. Why is this important?

Increased biodiversity increases productivity because each species has an important role to play in a healthy ecosystem. A larger biodiversity within a species will help it survive disasters because some of those variations will help it adapt to the situation. If each specimen in a species was exactly the same it would not allow for a fast recovery and would lead to higher extinction rates. Biodiversity also helps sustainability and variation of our crops.


 It is well known that many of the habitats for grassland butterflies have been damaged by farming and pesticides as well as climate change causing a decline in these species. These wonderful creatures are not only beautiful to look at but also help those busy bees with the pollination of our fruits and vegetables. We are trying to do our part by leaving many areas as natural as possible and having a varied site including grass land, woodland, stream and agricultural areas.

I have not spent as much time as I would have liked to capture our beautiful wildlife but here are a few examples. We had a beautiful swallowtail butterfly but it eluded my camera. We had common ones like small and large whites, admirals etc. Unfortunately I only captured the most common ones.

Peacock  

Small Tortoiseshell

Painted Lady

a type of skipper I think

 and this special one who is giving me some trouble to identify.

Please help identify and correct me if I am wrong on the others.  As our little Freya is often running by my side scattering the flying ones so the caterpillars are easier to capture. 

We had:
Swallowtail (Papilio Machaion if I am not mistaken)

Cinnabar Moth

Orgyia Antiqua Moth

again I can't identify this one so help please

The damselflies love the water as did the dragonflies but they were to fast for my focusing. 

Here are a few poor snaps to show the 4 most commonly seen at our stream.

 
 

Why Margins Matter!

One of the key principles of Permaculture is to use the edges and value the marginals.  The "invisible" line between things is where some of the most valuable, interesting and productive things can happen in any Permaculture system.

A simple example, the below picture is of a "modern" monoculture approach to farming, where big is best, wipe out all the margins and suppress (through chemical and pesticide treatments) the "integrity" of your single crop.

But where is the diversity, how is the soils condition and health maintained, where is the LIFE?

(image courtesy of http://www.permanentculturenow.com/permaculture-as-a-revolutionary-force-for-change/)

If you compare that with  any rudimentary permaculture site (above)you will see that the margins are everywhere, the growth of pioneer species and what would be considered by most farmers or gardeners as weeds, can encourage beneficial insects to keep your food stuffs disease and insect free; which encourages a more divers range of birds to feed on the insects berries and what not depositing them further afield; as more plants grow from self-seeding, more insects lead to more birds and more mammals and even larger predators and your small holding can produce SO much more then the ocean of green above!

So let the wild ones in!  These are all the little ones we find in the margins around La Fieffe:

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Some of these are duplicates, have some fun identifying them, if you like (or can).  I'd like to share what I think they are, but one of the blog followers is a horticulturist and a pedant to boot, so I dare not claim to know absolute truth, you know who you are ;~)