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United Kingdom Butterfly Monitoring Scheme: collated indices 2022

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 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. Full details about this dataset can be found at https://doi.org/10.5285/1b522961-9d5e-460c-8762-389f2314e85b

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Date (Publication)
2023-12-20
Identifier
https://catalogue.ceh.ac.uk/id/1b522961-9d5e-460c-8762-389f2314e85b
Identifier
doi: / 10.5285/1b522961-9d5e-460c-8762-389f2314e85b
Other citation details
Botham, M.S., Middlebrook, I., Heywood, J., Harrower, C., Conway, R., Roy, D.B. (2023). United Kingdom Butterfly Monitoring Scheme: collated indices 2022. NERC EDS Environmental Information Data Centre 10.5285/1b522961-9d5e-460c-8762-389f2314e85b
Author
  UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology - Botham, M.S.
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5276-1405
Author
  Butterfly Conservation - Middlebrook, I.
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0448-9144
Author
  British Trust for Ornithology - Heywood, J.
Author
  UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology - Harrower, C.
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5070-5293
Author
  Butterfly Conservation - Conway, R.
Author
  UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology - Roy, D.B.
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5147-0331
Point of contact
  UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology - Botham, M.S.
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5276-1405
Owner
  UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology
Owner
  Butterfly Conservation
Owner
  British Trust for Ornithology
Owner
  Natural Environment Research Council
Owner
  Joint Nature Conservation Committee
Custodian
  NERC EDS Environmental Information Data Centre
Publisher
  NERC EDS Environmental Information Data Centre
GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0
  • Environmental Monitoring Facilities
Access constraints
otherRestrictions Other restrictions
Other constraints
no limitations
Use constraints
otherRestrictions Other restrictions
Other constraints
This resource is available under the terms of the Open Government Licence
Use constraints
otherRestrictions Other restrictions
Other constraints
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.
Use constraints
otherRestrictions Other restrictions
Other constraints
If you reuse this data, you should cite: Botham, M.S., Middlebrook, I., Heywood, J., Harrower, C., Conway, R., Roy, D.B. (2023). United Kingdom Butterfly Monitoring Scheme: collated indices 2022. NERC EDS Environmental Information Data Centre https://doi.org/10.5285/1b522961-9d5e-460c-8762-389f2314e85b
Spatial representation type
textTable Text, table
Metadata language
EnglishEnglish
Character set
utf8 UTF8
Topic category
  • Biota
Begin date
2022-04-01
End date
2022-09-30
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Unique resource identifier
OSGB 1936 / British National Grid
Unique resource identifier
OSNI 1952 / Irish National Grid
Distribution format
  • Comma-separated values (CSV) ()

Distributor
  NERC EDS Environmental Information Data Centre
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Conformance result

Date (Publication)
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).
File identifier
1b522961-9d5e-460c-8762-389f2314e85b XML
Metadata language
EnglishEnglish
Character set
ISO/IEC 8859-1 (also known as Latin 1) 8859 Part 1
Hierarchy level
dataset Dataset
Hierarchy level name
dataset
Date stamp
2025-11-05T08:46:08
Metadata standard name
UK GEMINI
Metadata standard version
2.3
Point of contact
  NERC EDS Environmental Information Data Centre
Lancaster Environment Centre, Library Avenue, Bailrigg , Lancaster , LA1 4AP , UK
https://eidc.ac.uk/
 
 

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GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0
Environmental Monitoring Facilities

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