United Kingdom Butterfly Monitoring Scheme: collated indices 2016

Collated indices are a relative measure of butterfly abundance across monitored sites in the UK, calculated from data collected by the UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme (UKBMS). Collated indices are calculated annually for each individual butterfly species that has been recorded on five or more sites in that year. Based on this criterion collated indices have been calculated for the entire UKBMS time series from 1976 to the current year for the majority of species. For some rarer species the time series starts in a later year due to lack of data. Collated indices are calculated using a statistical model that accounts for missing data. The number of sites for each species ranges from 5 to several hundred and varies from year to year. Since 2008 more than 1,000 sites have been monitored across the UK each year. 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 to measure the condition of the UK countryside.

Butterflies are recognised as important indicators of biodiversity and environmental change (e.g. as official UK Biodiversity Indicators), and have been used in numerous research studies to understand the impacts of changes in climate and the extent and condition of habitats.

Although the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH) and Butterfly Conservation (BC) are responsible for the calculation and interpretation of the Collated indices, the collection of the data used in their creation is ultimately reliant on a large volunteer community. The UKBMS is funded by a consortium of organisations led by the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC).

This dataset is updated annually and more recent versions of the UKBMS collated indices are available. Full details about this dataset can be found at https://doi.org/10.5285/009334d6-ee33-43fc-a259-bf4d92fb69dc

Identification info

Metadata Language: English (en)

Character set: utf8

Dataset Reference Date (): 2017-12-01

Dataset Reference Date (): 2016-12-31

Identifier: https://catalogue.ceh.ac.uk/id/009334d6-ee33-43fc-a259-bf4d92fb69dc

Identifier: doi: / 10.5285/009334d6-ee33-43fc-a259-bf4d92fb69dc

Other citation details: Botham, M., Roy, D., Brereton, T., Middlebrook, I., Randle, Z. (2017). United Kingdom Butterfly Monitoring Scheme: collated indices 2016. NERC Environmental Information Data Centre 10.5285/009334d6-ee33-43fc-a259-bf4d92fb69dc

UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology

Butterfly Conservation

NERC EDS Environmental Information Data Centre

NERC Environmental Information Data Centre

Centre for Ecology & Hydrology - Botham, M.

Centre for Ecology & Hydrology - Roy, D.

Butterfly Conservation - Brereton, T.

Butterfly Conservation - Middlebrook, I.

Butterfly Conservation - Randle, Z.

Maintenance and update frequency: notPlanned

GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0 ()

Species Distribution

GeoNames

Keywords

Biodiversity
butterflies
Lepidoptera

Limitations on Public Access: otherRestrictions

Other constraints: no limitations

Use constraints: otherRestrictions

Other constraints: Licence terms and conditions apply

Use constraints: otherRestrictions

Other constraints: If you reuse this data, you should cite: Botham, M., Roy, D., Brereton, T., Middlebrook, I., Randle, Z. (2017). United Kingdom Butterfly Monitoring Scheme: collated indices 2016. NERC Environmental Information Data Centre https://doi.org/10.5285/009334d6-ee33-43fc-a259-bf4d92fb69dc

Spatial representation type: textTable

Topic category

Biota

Begin date: 1976-04-01

End date: 2016-09-01

Code: OSGB 1936 / British National Grid

Distribution Information

Data format

Comma-separated values (CSV) ()

Resource Locator: Supporting information
Supporting information available to assist in re-use of this dataset

Resource Locator: Download the data
Download a copy of this data

Resource Locator: Supporting information
Supporting information available to assist in re-use of this dataset

Resource Locator: Download the data
Download a copy of this data

Quality Scope: dataset

Other: dataset

Report

Dataset Reference Date (): 2010-12-08

Statement: 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).

Metadata

File identifier: 009334d6-ee33-43fc-a259-bf4d92fb69dc XML

Metadata Language: English (en)

Character set: ISO/IEC 8859-1 (also known as Latin 1)

Resource type: dataset

Hierarchy level name: dataset

Metadata Date: 2021-06-25T18:36:18

Metadata standard name: UK GEMINI

Metadata standard version: 2.3

Environmental Information Data Centre

Lancaster Environment Centre, Library Avenue, Bailrigg , Lancaster , LA1 4AP , UK

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