Citizen Science and Species Surveys Flashcards
In urban landscapes what is the landscape for wildlife?
Urban Gardens
What is citizen science?
about involving non-scientists, members of the general in collecting data which can then be used in scientific research.
More data for a particular project means
higher-quality and more reliable results.
Getting people collecting data is also a way of involving them, and their communities in science and, in this case, in nature conservation.
What is the largest information resource on biodiversity?
Non-specialist sources.
What are the 2 most successful project in Britain ?
the annual RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch which does a census of garden birds on one day
all over the country
UK Big Butterfly Count organised by Butterfly
Conservation
What other research is taking place?
Plantlife, which promotes ‘No-Mow May’, asks
volunteers to count the open flowers in a quadrat (metre square) of lawn
Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, with two research projects which form part of the UK Pollinator Monitoring Scheme (PoMS), a ‘Ten Minute Count’ and a more demanding ‘One
km Square Survey’.
The more complex surveying builds on a long tradition in the British Isles of amateur naturalists contributing to science. These surveys tend to focus on key, and highly visible, pollinators like bees and butterflies.
What tests are the RHS doing?
surveys to monitor the spread of non-native garden pests. an internet-based survey enabled gardeners to submit their own records to the RHS website, which were then analysed and maps, web pages and advice updated.
The purpose of repeated assessments is to track
population changes and trends; recording could identify that a particular species, is less common now in a garden than it used to be.
How does this help you in other areas of horticulture?
Helping to provide data to scientists, conservation
organisations and environmental campaigners enables them to show how many species are being impacted by human activities,
Why is citizen science a good thing?
used to pressure politicians and business to make positive changes.
We often feel helpless when we consider the future of the world and of nature. Taking part
in citizen science surveys is something which is empowering –
we are actually doing something and if we work with other people, there are all those social
benefits from doing so.
If you are an employee managed by someone how does citizen science help?
the end result of scientific surveys can be used to support your case for developing or managing
gardens for nature; this might be building a pond, reducing grass cutting, a more targeted use of pesticides, tree planting.
What is the Buzz Club?
Organized by the School of Life Science at Sussex University.
Encourages gardeners to get involved in citizen science project (child friendly too).
The Buzz Club creates experiments that help us understand the wildlife we share our gardens with, and what we can do to conserve it
What is the UK Pollinator Monitoring Scheme (PoMS) ?
need to know how pollinator populations are changing, and with your help we are gathering data on a wide range of flower-visiting insects.
UKPoMS is the first scheme in the world to have begun (since 2017) generating systematic data on the abundance of bees, hoverflies and other flower-visiting insects at a national scale.
pollinator species recording
Flower-Insect Timed Count
Adopt a 1 km square (carry out systemic survey of insects and flowers)
Partly funded by DEFRA
What other surveys are there?
RHS: surveys on spread of non-native garden pests. (nformation submitted via the RHS website is analysed and maps, web pages and advice updated accordingly on an annual basis. This information is shared with the National Biodiversity Network (NBN).
Big Garden Birdwatch. (2023 house sparrow is most spotted bird for past 20 years) Blue Tit #2
Big Butterfly Count counting the amount and type of butterflies (and some day-flying moths)
Peoples Trust for Endangered Species: Advice to help bring wildlife in your garden.
The Wildlife Trusts: Reptile reporting in Cheshire; Hedgehogs in CUmbria, intertidal surveys of marine mammals etc
Nature Scot: Birdwatch, AMmphibians and reptiles. Invertebrates, PoMS; Butterfly, Garden moth, UK Ladybird, Bee-fly, Garden wildflower, Plant alert (for potential to become invasive) and Urban Flora of Scotland.
Plantlife: Wild plants and fungi support food chains and powerful force against climate crisis. 2 in 5 species at risk of extinction.
What non-native pests is the RHS looking at ?
lily beetle has the potential to threaten snakes-head fritillary populations (Fritillaria meleagris)
berberis sawfly can defoliate native Berberis vulgaris, threatening the rare barberry carpet moth (Pareulype berberata)
Box tree caterpillar could threaten box (Buxus)
rosemary beetle (Chrysolina americana),
Hemerocallis (day lily) gall midge (Contarinia quinquenotata),
Who are Peder Thellesen and Jennifer Owen
Thellesen: Denmark watched starlings on his farm, recording when they bred and the size of clutches and broods in 27 nesting boxes. and found that they bred progressively later in the year, adding an extra day for every five years, as average seasonal temperatures increased.
Owen, UK: between 1972 and 2001, recorded 2,673 species of plants, fungi and animals. The 2,000 or so species of insect didn’t include any attempt to count or identify similar species in large groups, and when she did look at one such group in detail, she found seven species previously unrecorded in Britain and four, entirely new to science. When Owen published the interim findings in 1991 it was ‘the most complete account of the wildlife in a garden any in the world.’
What wildlife might be present within a typical garden?
wildflowers
small mammals
birds
invertebrates