The Burnt-Tip Orchid (Neotinea ustulata), future restoration in Kent

The Orchid species Neotinea ustulata is a small terrestrial species native across Europe, the populations found in the British Isles have been decline since the 1930's. As part of this decline the populations once found in the county of Kent have reduced to just one site in the past decade. The decline of this species is little understood and the drivers of it have only been speculated about in recent literature. This research aimed to assess two areas of concern for the species long-term viability, the effects of anthropogenic climate change on it's pollination phenology and the potential for pollinator decoupling and the public perception of the species to develop an understanding of the species within the funding landscape. The Best-Worst Scaling Type 3 questionnaire constructed and distributed indicated the species as being competitive from within the funding landscape within the context of other species found it its immediate habitat, calcareous grasslands. Scoring the highest proportion of the votes in five of the six choice experiments conducted among both relevant orchid and flora species found on calcareous grasslands. The pollination ecology of N. ustulata is little known in the British Isles with pollinating species only known from Germany. The known pollen vector for the subspecies var. ustulata (Leptura livida) is known from the British Isles whereas the pollen vector for var. aestivalis is not regularly reported from the British Isles. Potential pollen vectors for var. aestivalis in the British Isles were identified as Tachina grossa¸T. fera, T. ursina, and T. lurida. All pollen vectors showed a response to historic increases in springtime temperature of between 1.9 and 11.9 days earlier per ℃ increase in mean springtime temperature for peak flight dates. N. ustulata also showed the same response with a change of 4 days earlier per ℃ increase in mean springtime temperature. The findings of this thesis indicate the potential for positive community engagement with the conservation of N. ustulata as well as the potential risks to the pollution ecology of N. ustulata with advancing climate change