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Botham, M.S.; Middlebrook, I.; Heywood, J.; Harrower, C.A.; Milborrow, J.; Roy, D.B.

United Kingdom Butterfly Monitoring Scheme: phenology 2024

https://doi.org/10.5285/b9d237fc-5a79-4449-bcee-34c52d87608f

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PLEASE NOTE:

By accessing or using this dataset, you agree to the terms of the relevant licence agreement(s). You will ensure that this dataset is cited in any publication that describes research in which the data have been used.

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

These are the most up to date versions of the data and should be those used unless there is otherwise a reason to require older versions of the data

Open Government Licence - UKBMS (this is the OGL with a UKBMS-specific attribution statement)

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This dataset provides data on the timing of butterfly flight periods for each UK butterfly species across all monitored sites in the UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme (UKBMS). Annual data from over 2,500 sites are presented relating to the timing (first appearance, last appearance, date of peak abundance and mean flight date) and the duration (total number of days, standard deviation around the mean flight date) of the flight period for all UK butterfly species from 1976 to the year in the name of this dataset.

Phenology change is a widely used measure of the biological impacts of climate change because of the close relationship between temperature and the timing of biological events. This dataset provides an invaluable tool for assessing the impacts of climate change both spatially and temporally.

The UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme is organized and funded by Butterfly Conservation (BC), the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH), 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: 2025-12-17

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View numbers valid from 17 December 2025 Download numbers valid from 17 December 2025 (information prior to this was not collected)

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

2024-01-01 to 2024-12-31

Provenance & quality

Phenology data include measurements of the timing and duration of flight periods for each butterfly species at each site in each year it was recorded there. Data on timing include the first day and last day on which a given species was recorded at each site in each year, the day on which the greatest (peak) count of each species was recorded for each site in each year, and the mean flight date (a weighted mean day number) for each species at each site in each year. Data on the duration of flight periods include the standard deviation around the mean flight date and the number of days (range) between the first and last days on which a species was recorded on a given site in each year it was recorded there.

Licensing and constraints

Open Government Licence - UKBMS (this is the OGL with a UKBMS-specific attribution statement)

Cite this dataset as:

Botham, M.S.; Middlebrook, I.; Heywood, J.; Harrower, C.A.; Milborrow, J.; Roy, D.B. (2025). United Kingdom Butterfly Monitoring Scheme: phenology 2024. NERC EDS Environmental Information Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/b9d237fc-5a79-4449-bcee-34c52d87608f

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These are the most up to date versions of the data and should be those used unless there is otherwise a reason to require older versions of the data