Biodiversity thriving at LJMU

An environmental study has revealed dozens of species of wildflowers and grass are thriving across the LJMU estate.

The findings come from the university’s participation in Plantlife’s No Mow May initiative, in which three areas of lawn across the campuses were left to grow throughout the month.

Surveys at the end of the month show that those areas have an abundance of species:

• John Foster Building’s grassland area had a total of 17 species – 12 more than previously counted;
• Copperas Hill’s grassland had a total of 21 species – 11 more than previously counted; and
• Byrom Street’s grassland had a total of 20 species – seven more than previously counted.

Increasing biodiversity across the estate

The findings will help to inform a future Biodiversity Plan for LJMU, which will deliver on the university’s commitment to increase biodiversity across the estate.

Tally Anderson, LJMU's Environmental Sustainability Project Manager, said: “We are pleased to have been part of the successful No Mow May initiative and the results give us some extremely useful information about the grassland habitats on our campuses.

“Some of these areas may previously have been considered to be of low value but our surveys now show that they are actually thriving with a host of wildflower and grass species. We also observed throughout the month a variety of visitors to the longer grassland areas, including bumble bees, ladybirds, hoverflies and several small bird species.

“We will now use this information to decide the most appropriate way to manage our grassland areas and deliver the target set in our Climate Action Plan of increasing biodiversity at LJMU.”