Biodiversity in Glasgow (BiG) Project
British Trust for Ornithology
Description
The Biodiversity in Glasgow (BiG) project was set up in 2007 by BTO Scotland, in partnership with Butterfly Conservation Scotland (BCS). The main aim was to record the birds, butterflies and habitats of Glasgow City green spaces using trained local volunteers. The information was used to identify the habitat features of importance to the bird and butterfly communities in Glasgow. The output of the project, therefore, not only informs the management for biodiversity within urban green spaces within Glasgow but within other Scottish cities as well.
1. To raise awareness of the value of urban biodiversity at the local and national scale.
2. To survey and describe the bird and butterfly communities in the public green spaces of Glasgow by involving local volunteers.
3. To analyse how habitat type, size and structure affect breeding bird and butterfly communities in urban green spaces and gardens.
4. To provide habitat management recommendations to Glasgow City Council.
Geographic Description
The administrative region covered by Glasgow City Council.
Data quality
The number of bird records was thought to be reasonably good as all areas within sites were covered to within 50m. Hence the dataset is a fair representation of those found in the green spaces during the summer in Glasgow.
Butterfly records were lower in number than anticipated. This was thought to be partly due to poor weather (butterfly recording is more weather dependent) and incomplete coverage of sites (as transect methodology was used).
Methods
Bird surveys: Volunteers were requested to walk a survey route in such a way that they covered the whole site to within 50m ensuring that they did not double count any birds (this could either be done walking in a zig-zag fashion or in parallel lines). Bird numbers were recorded and allocated to the habitat they were first seen in.
Butterfly Surveys: Volunteers were requested to walk at a slow, steady pace counting all butterflies seen within 2.5m either side of their transect line and 5m ahead. In addition to butterflies, day-flying moths were also recorded by some volunteers. Transects were ideally carried out in good weather conditions (warm, bright, dry and wind speeds less than 5 on the Beaufort scale) but this was not always possible.
Citation
British Trust for Ornithology ([Insert download year]). Biodiversity in Glasgow (BiG) Project. Occurrence dataset on the NBN Atlas
Rights
CC-BY-NC
Usage statistics
Loading...
Digitised records
Looking up... the number of records that can be accessed through the NBN Atlas. This resource was last checked for updated data on 07 Feb 2023. The most recent data was published on 07 Feb 2023.
Click to view records for the Biodiversity in Glasgow (BiG) Project resource.