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van der Wal, René; Anderson, Helen; Robinson, Annie; Sharma, Nirwan; Mellish, Chris; Roberts, Stuart; Darvill, Ben and Siddharthan, Advaith
(2015).
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-015-0709-x
Abstract
To assess the ability of traditional biological recording schemes and lay citizen science approaches to gather data on species distributions and changes therein, we examined bumblebee records from the UK’s national repository (National Biodiversity Network) and from BeeWatch. The two recording approaches revealed similar relative abundances of bumblebee species but different geographical distributions. For the widespread common carder (Bombus pascuorum), traditional recording scheme data were patchy, both spatially and temporally, reflecting active record centre rather than species distribution. Lay citizen science records displayed more extensive geographic coverage, reflecting human population density, thus offering better opportunities to account for recording effort. For the rapidly spreading tree bumblebee (Bombus hypnorum), both recording approaches revealed similar distributions due to a dedicated mapping project which overcame the patchy nature of naturalist records. We recommend, where possible, complementing skilled naturalist recording with lay citizen science programmes to obtain a nation-wide capability, and stress the need for timely uploading of data to the national repository.
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About
- Item ORO ID
- 51047
- Item Type
- Journal Item
- ISSN
- 1654-7209
- Keywords
- BeeWatch; Biological recording; Bumblebees; Citizen science; National Biodiversity Network; Species distribution
- Academic Unit or School
-
Faculty of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) > Knowledge Media Institute (KMi)
Faculty of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) - Copyright Holders
- © 2015 The Authors
- Depositing User
- Advaith Siddharthan