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Soils of Wales

"The Welsh landscape is rightly celebrated for its beauty and variety".  The distribution of soils in the country reflects this, and is strongly correlated to geology, land-form and climate.  In order to understand patterns of differing soils across the landscape, it is necessary to define what we mean by "soils" in this context.  There is a variety of ways of classifying soils, the best known perhaps being the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) system, known as the USDA Soil Taxonomy, and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) system, which is known as the World Reference Base for Soil Resources.  These classifications are intended to be used on global scales, and require a technical level of understanding of soil chemistry and morphology.  At the British scale, the commonly used classification is that of Avery - Soil Classification of England and Wales

Land-use in Wales

Wales has a surface area of 20,779 km² or 2077900 Ha. It has a border with England to the east, and is bounded by the Irish Sea to the north and west, and by the Bristol Channel to the south. It has an oceanic temperate climate which is markedly influenced by the north Atlantic current carrying warm water from tropical latitudes. As a result it has a much milder climate than most places in the world at similar latitudes. Altitudes range fro sea-level to 1085 m on the Snowdon Massif.

The ways in which land is used in Wales reflect conditions of climate, geology and topography, modified by long traditions of land management. Sheep-grazed pasture predominates in all of the lowland zone, with arable fields mainly confined to the east of the country, although specialised early potato enterprises are favoured by the mild climate of the west. Some parts, like the Vale of Tywi and the coastal plain of Ceredigion are famed for dairy farming, as the combinations of soils and climate mean that good quality grass can be reliably grown. In contrast, many more elevated parts of the Welsh land are of limited use for agriculture, and extensive upland conifer forests were planted in in the years following the two world wars. Wild habitats occupy steep land and other areas that are less profitable for commercial use, such as wetlands, moorlands and mountainous terrain. Compared with many countries, wild habitats are scattered and inextensive, but they include significant cliff, dune and other coastal habitats, increasingly rare species-rich pastures and meadows and wet semi-natural pastures known as rhos in lowland situations. Ffridd grasslands are areas of open, moderately or lightly grazed often minimally managed pastures on the partially enclosed slopes above the cultivated farmland, whilst oak woodlands, are found on steep banks and valley sides, and there is an extensive assortment of moorland and mountain vegetation types. Limestone vegetation is not widespread, but is particularly important to conservationists because so many unusual species occur.

Farming and forestry account for nearly all of the land surface, but there are other land-uses trhat overlap with this. For example, 20% of Wales is designated as National Parks. Unlike the National Parks in some other countries, like the USA, the three Welsh Parks, Snowdonia, the Pembrokeshire Coast and the Brecon Beacons incorporate large swathes of farmed and afforested land. Other areas are designated Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, also comprising a mixture of land uses. Many forested areas are used for recreational activities like cycling, hiking and car rallying, whilst several of the rivers provde facilities for canoists, and some of the lakes and reservoirs are popular for sailing. The high rainfall of Wales means that the river catchments (called "watersheds" in American English) are important for water supply, and have to be used in ways compatible with the collection and storage of water supplies.

The most recent figures for proportions of agricultural land are from 2011, and for forest and woodland from 2015.

These figures show that nearly 50% of the land area is under permanent grass. Arable land occupies about 9%of the area, and rough grazing some 20%, with woodlands on farms accounting for more than 3%. Broadleaved (deciduous) woodland covers 5.5% and coniferous woodland (mainly forestry plantations) 6%. Other woodland types such as cleared and recently planted land covered a further 2% of the land.

The remaining 4.5% of the land is under urban and industrial land-uses, including a significant proportion of land spoiled by industrial waste, like coal and slate tips.

The proportions of land covered by urban and industrial uses vary hugely from region to region, with areas of south-east Wales in particular being heavily urbanised. For example, Blaenau Gwent in the industrial part of south Wales is 20% built up, whilst Powys in mid-Wales is less than 1% built up.

Sheep pasture at Cwmbyr, Powys, Wales

Grassland

Grasslands are defined by the Encyclopedia of Ecology and Environmental Management as areas "dominated by herbaceous species in which grasses or sedges are abundant, accompanied by forbs [herbs which are not grasses or sedges] .... with sometimes scattered shrubs and trees."

Ley grasslands are periodically ploughed and re-seeded with cultivated varieties of grasses, sometimes combined with clover, which are deemed suitable for the extant soil and climatic conditions.

Pasture (from the Latin pastus, past participle of pascere, "to feed") is land used for grazing.

Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, cattle, sheep or swine. The vegetation of tended pasture, forage, consists mainly of grasses, with an interspersion of legumes and other forbs. Pasture is typically grazed throughout the summer, in contrast to meadow which is ungrazed or used for grazing only after being mown to make hay or other forms of conserved grass for animal fodder.

"The composition of lowland grasslands in Wales, as in many other parts of western Europe, was transformed during the twentieth century. Over the period between 1950 and 1980 especially, farmers were encouraged and supported to undertake grassland improvement by ploughing, reseeding, fertiliser application and, where considered necessary, drainage."