Conchological Society of Great Britain & Ireland: marine mollusc records

Conchological Society of Great Britain & Ireland

Description

The records in this dataset are the results of the Conchological Society's Marine Census which has been run since 1876. The dataset includes all the archival records which have so far been digitised, plus modern data which is included on receipt. A portion of the Society's marine records still remain in paper format. Many of the records have never been held centrally, by the Marine Recorder; the custodians have been the respective sea area representatives. A programme is underway to trace some of these archives in order to facilitate their digitisation, along with records already held centrally but waiting to be processed. This dataset is constituted from data where the recorder has signed the Society's access policy and represents the majority of the data holdings. The remainder of the records are held in a separate dataset on the NBN Atlas where access is more restricted.

Geographic Description

Great Britiain and Ireland, including offshore waters.

Purpose

The dataset is a combination of data collected for numerous purposes, originally to study and determine the distribution of mollusc species in British and Irish waters and subsequently to monitor any changes in these patterns.

Data quality

Data quality and accuracy is considered to be very good, all records having been determined by a nominated recorder and referred to a national or international expert where considered necessary.

Methods

The data have been collected by members of the Conchological Society as well as a wide range of other amateur and professional sources and are submitted often, but not always on customised recording cards. Field methods used vary widely, from simple field observation of strandlines to detailed surveys of wider coastal habitats, including techniques such as weed washing, rock scraping and microscopic analysis of the resulting samples, plus analysing shelly grits. Offshore work is also included, from sampling residue on boats to active sampling and subsequent sample analysis. Fish guts and those of other molluscivorous organisms are also examined where possible. Recording methodology always requires noting whether specimens were live or shell-only at point of sampling and an estimate of abundance (ACFOR).

Citation

Conchological Society of Great Britain & Ireland ([Insert year of download]), Conchological Society of Great Britain & Ireland: marine mollusc records. Occurrence dataset

Rights

CC-BY-NC

Digitised records