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Botham, M.; Brereton, T.; Harris, S.; Harrower, C.; Middlebrook, I.; Randle, Z.; Roy, D.B.

United Kingdom Butterfly Monitoring Scheme: collated indices 2019

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This dataset is available under the terms of the Open Government Licence

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https://doi.org/10.5285/657a64b2-8c34-43d2-a0f0-662ddf73c720
Collated indices are a relative measure of butterfly abundance across sites monitored as part of the UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme. Data from all survey sites (standard UKBMS transects, Wider Countryside Survey transects and targeted species surveys such as timed, larval web and egg counts) are used in the calculation of these indices. The statistics are presented as log10 values. These values are centred round an arbitrary value of 2 as a mean for the time series in order to help show which years are below or above average. Collated indices are calculated annually for each individual butterfly species that has been recorded on five or more sites in that year. Indices are calculated at UK level and at individual country level for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland where sufficient data are available. Based on this criterion, collated indices have been calculated for the entire time series from 1976 (UK, England and Wales), 1979 (Scotland) and 2004 (Northern Ireland) to the current year for the majority of species, but for some rarer species this has not been possible in some years, particular those in the first part of the time series. Collated indices are calculated using a log-linear model incorporating individual site indices from all monitored sites across the UK or country for a given species in a given year. The number of sites for each species ranges from 5 to several hundred or more and fluctuates from year to year. By 2010 almost 2,000 sites were monitored in total across the UK, with this number rising to more than 3,000 over the next decade.

Collated indices are calculated so that we can determine how butterfly populations are changing over time across the UK. This data can be used, for example, to determine where to target conservation efforts and more generally the condition of the UK countryside. Butterflies are recognised as important indicators of biodiversity and environmental change, for example in UK and country Biodiversity Indicators, and have been used in numerous studies of the impacts of climate and habitat change on biodiversity.

The UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme is organized and funded by Butterfly Conservation (BC), the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (CEH), the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), and the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC). The UKBMS is indebted to all volunteers who contribute data to the scheme.

This work was supported by the Natural Environment Research Council award number NE/R016429/1 as part of the UK-SCAPE programme delivering National Capability.
Publication date: 2020-07-17
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Format

Comma-separated values (CSV)

Spatial information

Study area
Spatial representation type
Tabular (text)
Spatial reference system
OSGB 1936 / British National Grid

Temporal information

Temporal extent
1976-04-01    to    2019-09-30

Provenance & quality

Collated indices are produced using a series of statistical models on butterfly transect counts recorded by a volunteer network. These indices are a relative measure of each species' abundance across the UK compared to the baseline in 1976. The statistics are presented as log10 values. These values are centred around an arbitrary value of 2 as a mean for the time series in order to help show which years are below or above average (a technique used in other biodiversity indicators).

Licensing and constraints

This dataset is available under the terms of the Open Government Licence

Cite this dataset as:
Botham, M.; Brereton, T.; Harris, S.; Harrower, C.; Middlebrook, I.; Randle, Z.; Roy, D.B. (2020). United Kingdom Butterfly Monitoring Scheme: collated indices 2019. NERC Environmental Information Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/657a64b2-8c34-43d2-a0f0-662ddf73c720

© UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology

© Butterfly Conservation

© British Trust for Ornithology

© Natural Environment Research Council

© Joint Nature Conservation Committee

Contains UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme (UKBMS) data © copyright and database right Butterfly Conservation, the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, British Trust for Ornithology, and the Joint Nature Conservation Committee.

Related

This dataset is included in the following collections

United Kingdom Butterfly Monitoring Scheme (UKBMS) 1976-2019 data

Citations

Akçakaya, H.R., Hochkirch, A., Bried, J.T., van Grunsven, R.H.A., Simaika, J.P., De Knijf, G., & Henriques, S. (2021). Calculating population reductions of invertebrate species for IUCN Red List assessments. In Journal of Insect Conservation (Vol. 25, Issue 2, pp. 377–382). Springer Science and Business Media LLC. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10841-021-00303-0

Supplemental information

Correspondence/contact details

Marc Botham
UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology
Maclean Building, Benson Lane, Crowmarsh Gifford
Wallingford
Oxfordshire
OX10 8BB
UNITED KINGDOM
 enquiries@ceh.ac.uk

Authors

Botham, M.
UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology
Brereton, T.
Butterfly Conservation
Harris, S.
British Trust for Ornithology
Harrower, C.
UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology
Middlebrook, I.
Butterfly Conservation
Randle, Z.
Butterfly Conservation
Roy, D.B.
UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology

Other contacts

Custodian
NERC EDS Environmental Information Data Centre
 info@eidc.ac.uk
Publisher
NERC Environmental Information Data Centre
 info@eidc.ac.uk

Additional metadata

Topic categories
biota
INSPIRE theme
Environmental Monitoring Facilities
Keywords
Biodiversity , UK-SCAPE
Funding
Natural Environment Research Council Award: NE/R016429/1
Last updated
27 February 2024 16:18