2010-2013 Beetle Data from Machair LIFE+ Project Plots

Royal Society for the Protection of Birds

Description

Machair Life+ was a four-year project which ran from January 2010 to June 2014, and aimed to demonstrate that traditional crofting practices have a sustainable future.

This dataset contains all records of beetles identified from pitfall trapping conducted across the 62 Machair LIFE+ biodiversity monitoring plots. For some records an aggregate of 2 species was recorded which is not available through the NHM species dictionary. In these cases the record is given here as the genus, with the species aggregate recorded in the comments.

Precise dates for the records are not known, and thus the year of the observations is given here. The grid references for each record relate to the central point of the recording plot. As the plots were generally quite small (c.150m by 50m) these are reasonably geographically accurate.

Geographic Description

Machair LIFE+ plots on North Uist, South Uist and Benbecula.

Data quality

All identifications were made from retained samples by an experienced recorder, and there is a therefore a high level of confidence in the quality of these records. Exact spatial information is not available, but as the plots were small, (generally around 150 m x 50 m, the location information is reasonably good quality. Records were only provided for each year, and thus exact dates are not available

Methods

Random pitfall trap sampling was undertaken across all 62 project monitoring plots. Five pitfall traps (set in a line at three metre centres) were placed in each plot to collect ground active invertebrates. All samples were identified, with the specimens being retained.

Citation

Please acknowledge all project funders (the RSPB, EU LIFE+, Scottish Natural Heritage, the Scottish Crofting Federation and Comhairle nan Eilean Siar) in any use of these data.

Rights

CC-BY

Digitised records