Part of UKCEH UKCEH logo
UKCEH website
Harrower, C.A. et al

UK moth trends from Rothamsted Insect Survey light-trap network (1968 to 2016)

Download/Access

THIS DATASET HAS BEEN SUPERSEDED The latest version is Moth trends for Britain and Ireland from the Rothamsted Insect Survey light-trap network (1968 to 2016)

The previous version failed to mention the inclusion of records from Ireland. The new version has an updated title to reflect the geographic range of records and column headings in the data file have been updated.

If you need access to the archived version, please contact the EIDC

https://doi.org/10.5285/e7e0e4ad-f8c1-46fc-85b5-6d88057024b8
The dataset contains national trends for 432 species of moths (mostly macro-moths) estimated using the moth data collected by Rothamsted Insect Survey (RIS) from their national light-trap network between the years 1968 and 2016. The trends were calculated using a Generalised Abundance Index (GAI) model. The trends are presented as year coefficients from the statistical model, Annual Growth Rates (AGR), and the total percentage changes over the whole time series. For each trend metric 95% and 90% confidence intervals are also provided. The dataset additionally contains a related set of trends produced specifically for the Atlas of Britain & Ireland’s Larger Moths which used a restricted subset of the data from UK analysis, specifically only using data from traps in Great Britain and only data from 1970 and 2016.
Publication date: 2019-07-23
923 views *

More information

View numbers valid from 01 June 2023 (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
1968-01-01    to    2016-12-31

Provenance & quality

The Rothamsted light-trap network is a network of standardised light-traps that are operated throughout the year by volunteers. Using standardised traps means that the data from different sites and/or times are directly comparable. Although for the majority of species the time period of the data used in the analysis was 1968-2016, there was a handful of species of species where the time period had to be modified due taxonomic or data issues. For example the time period used for many pug species in the analysis was 1986 onwards due to inconsistency in the identification of these species in earlier years through a lack of suitable identification resources such as field guides. A few other species had initial years excluded due to data issues in those earlier years.

The GAI methodology is a two-step statistical method designed to analyse count data for taxa showing seasonal patterns in abundance, such as Butterflies and Moths. The first step uses statistical models, in this case generalised additive models (GAMs) with a smoothing spline, to estimate annual flight curves for each species. The second stage takes these annual flight curves and uses them to correct for seasonal gaps in recording, producing estimated annual abundance indices for each site (site indices), to which a Poisson general linear model (GLM) is fitted allowing to the year and sites effects upon the site. The year coefficient from these GLMs are one of the measures of the temporal abundance trend presented in this data. In addition to the coefficient itself two additional metrics of temporal trend were estimated and are presented here, specifically the Annual Growth Rate (AGR) and the total percentage change over the time series for each species. Confidence intervals on the trend metrics were determined by bootstrapping (1000 replicates).

The research was primarily funded by Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) under research programme NE/N018125/1 LTS-M ASSIST – Achieving Sustainable Agricultural Systems. The Rothamsted Insect Survey, a National Capability, is funded by the BBSRC under the Core Capability Grant BBS/E/C/000J0200. The research builds upon model development supported by NERC award number NE/R016429/1 as part of the UK-SCAPE programme delivering National Capability.

Licensing and constraints

THIS DATASET HAS BEEN SUPERSEDED The latest version is Moth trends for Britain and Ireland from the Rothamsted Insect Survey light-trap network (1968 to 2016)

The previous version failed to mention the inclusion of records from Ireland. The new version has an updated title to reflect the geographic range of records and column headings in the data file have been updated.

If you need access to the archived version, please contact the EIDC

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

Cite this dataset as:
Harrower, C.A.; Bell, J.R.; Blumgart, D.; Botham, M.S.; Fox, R.; Isaac, N.J.B.; Roy, D.B.; Shortall, C.R. (2019). UK moth trends from Rothamsted Insect Survey light-trap network (1968 to 2016). NERC Environmental Information Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/e7e0e4ad-f8c1-46fc-85b5-6d88057024b8

© UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology

© Rothamsted Research

© Butterfly Conservation

Citations

Macgregor, C.J., Thomas, C.D., Roy, D.B., Beaumont, M.A., Bell, J.R., Brereton, T., … Hill, J.K. (2019). Climate-induced phenology shifts linked to range expansions in species with multiple reproductive cycles per year. Nature Communications, 10(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-12479-w
Vindenes, Y., Langangen, Ø., Winfield, I.J., & Vøllestad, L.A. (2016). Fitness consequences of early life conditions and maternal size effects in a freshwater top predator. Journal of Animal Ecology, 85(3), 692-704 https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.12489

Correspondence/contact details

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

Authors

Harrower, C.A.
Centre for Ecology & Hydrology
Bell, J.R.
Rothamsted Research
Blumgart, D.
Rothamsted Research
Botham, M.S.
Centre for Ecology & Hydrology
Fox, R.
Butterfly Conservation
Isaac, N.J.B.
Centre for Ecology & Hydrology
Roy, D.B.
Centre for Ecology & Hydrology
Shortall, C.R.
Rothamsted Research

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
ASSIST , Biodiversity , Environmental survey
Funding
Natural Environment Research Council Award: NE/N018125/1
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council Award: BBS/E/C/000J0200
Last updated
08 February 2024 17:37