UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme (UKBMS)

UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme

Description

The UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme (UKBMS) generates butterfly count data that is used to assess trends in the abundance of butterflies within the United Kingdom and for conservation policy and research. This dataset includes records from traditional fixed transect sites, often called 'Pollard Walks'; data from the Wider Countryside Butterfly Survey is excluded and available within a separate dataset – see https://registry.nbnatlas.org/public/show/dr1383

The surveys are undertaken by volunteers and other recorders, who contribute their data free of charge. Where you use the information you must acknowledge the UKBMS using the following attribution statement: Contains UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme (UKBMS) data © copyright and database right Butterfly Conservation, the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, British Trust for Ornithology, and the Joint Nature Conservation Committee.

Geographic Description

UK.

Purpose

As part of a national monitoring programme for butterflies.

Data quality

Confidence in the data is good. Automatic rules are used to classify some records as 'assumed correct'; other records are reviewed by expert verifiers.

Methods

The methodology and development of transect monitoring for butterflies has been reviewed in detail elsewhere (Pollard and Yates, 1993). In brief, a fixed-route walk (transect) is established at a site and butterflies are recorded along the route on a regular (weekly) basis under reasonable weather conditions for a number of years. Transect routes are chosen to sample evenly the habitat types and management activity on sites. Care is taken in choosing a transect route as it must then remain fixed to enable butterfly sightings to be compared from year to year. Transects are typically about 2-4km long, taking between 45 minutes and two hours to walk, and are divided into sections corresponding to different habitat or management units.

Butterflies are recorded in a fixed width band (typically 5m wide) along the transect each week from the beginning of April until the end of September yielding, ideally, 26 counts per year.

Citation

Contains UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme (UKBMS) data © copyright and database right Butterfly Conservation, the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, British Trust for Ornithology, and the Joint Nature Conservation Committee.

Digitised records