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Butterfly monitoring using systematically placed transects in contrasting climatic regions - Exploring an established spatial design for sampling

Videvall, Elin LU ; Öckinger, Erik LU and Pettersson, Lars LU orcid (2016) In Nature Conservation 14. p.41-62
Abstract

Butterfly monitoring schemes are recording programs initiated to monitor nationwide butterfly abundance and distribution patterns, often with help from volunteers. The method generates high-resolution data, but may be associated with a degree of habitat sampling bias if volunteers prefer to survey areas perceived to be high-quality butterfly habitats. This can result in habitats becoming underrepresented in the data set, leading to less information about the butterfly populations there. In the present study, we investigate the possibility of applying a spatial design used by the Swedish Bird Survey for nationwide, gridbased sampling, with a goal to get butterfly monitoring data covering a representative sample of different habitats. We... (More)

Butterfly monitoring schemes are recording programs initiated to monitor nationwide butterfly abundance and distribution patterns, often with help from volunteers. The method generates high-resolution data, but may be associated with a degree of habitat sampling bias if volunteers prefer to survey areas perceived to be high-quality butterfly habitats. This can result in habitats becoming underrepresented in the data set, leading to less information about the butterfly populations there. In the present study, we investigate the possibility of applying a spatial design used by the Swedish Bird Survey for nationwide, gridbased sampling, with a goal to get butterfly monitoring data covering a representative sample of different habitats. We surveyed four 2×2 km sampling squares, split into 100 m segments, in the southernmost region of Sweden (Scania) and four in the northernmost region (Norrbotten). The grid-based transects were compared with volunteer-selected transects in a G IS analysis using a refined Swedish version of CORINE land cover data to see how well these two transect designs represent true habitat coverage. A total of 53 km transect was monitored, resulting in 490 individuals and 29 different species recorded. We found that transect cover correlated significantly with overall land cover using both monitoring methods, though standardised transects outperformed volunteer-selected transects in habitat representation in Scania, but not in Norrbotten. Butterflies were found to aggregate significantly in specific habitats, but with contrasting results for the two geographically different regions. Grasslands in both regions generated a high number of recorded butterflies, although so did clear-cut and residential areas in Norrbotten as well. The highest number of individuals recorded per transect was found in bogs in Scania. This study emphasises the value of complementing free site selection monitoring schemes with spatially representative schemes such as the Swedish Bird Survey, and sheds some light on general habitat preferences for Swedish butterflies in two contrasting climatic regions. Copyright Elin Videvall et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

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author
; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Biodiversity, Boreal, Butterflies, Continental, CORINE, GIS, Habitat, Monitoring, Populations, Sampling, Transects
in
Nature Conservation
volume
14
pages
22 pages
publisher
Pensoft Publishers
external identifiers
  • wos:000387482500004
  • scopus:84971463439
ISSN
1314-6947
DOI
10.3897/natureconservation.14.7497
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
e340d1b7-d148-4aaa-94e6-f153218b5133
date added to LUP
2016-09-16 13:34:52
date last changed
2024-01-04 12:26:44
@article{e340d1b7-d148-4aaa-94e6-f153218b5133,
  abstract     = {{<p>Butterfly monitoring schemes are recording programs initiated to monitor nationwide butterfly abundance and distribution patterns, often with help from volunteers. The method generates high-resolution data, but may be associated with a degree of habitat sampling bias if volunteers prefer to survey areas perceived to be high-quality butterfly habitats. This can result in habitats becoming underrepresented in the data set, leading to less information about the butterfly populations there. In the present study, we investigate the possibility of applying a spatial design used by the Swedish Bird Survey for nationwide, gridbased sampling, with a goal to get butterfly monitoring data covering a representative sample of different habitats. We surveyed four 2×2 km sampling squares, split into 100 m segments, in the southernmost region of Sweden (Scania) and four in the northernmost region (Norrbotten). The grid-based transects were compared with volunteer-selected transects in a G IS analysis using a refined Swedish version of CORINE land cover data to see how well these two transect designs represent true habitat coverage. A total of 53 km transect was monitored, resulting in 490 individuals and 29 different species recorded. We found that transect cover correlated significantly with overall land cover using both monitoring methods, though standardised transects outperformed volunteer-selected transects in habitat representation in Scania, but not in Norrbotten. Butterflies were found to aggregate significantly in specific habitats, but with contrasting results for the two geographically different regions. Grasslands in both regions generated a high number of recorded butterflies, although so did clear-cut and residential areas in Norrbotten as well. The highest number of individuals recorded per transect was found in bogs in Scania. This study emphasises the value of complementing free site selection monitoring schemes with spatially representative schemes such as the Swedish Bird Survey, and sheds some light on general habitat preferences for Swedish butterflies in two contrasting climatic regions. Copyright Elin Videvall et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.</p>}},
  author       = {{Videvall, Elin and Öckinger, Erik and Pettersson, Lars}},
  issn         = {{1314-6947}},
  keywords     = {{Biodiversity; Boreal; Butterflies; Continental; CORINE; GIS; Habitat; Monitoring; Populations; Sampling; Transects}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{04}},
  pages        = {{41--62}},
  publisher    = {{Pensoft Publishers}},
  series       = {{Nature Conservation}},
  title        = {{Butterfly monitoring using systematically placed transects in contrasting climatic regions - Exploring an established spatial design for sampling}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/natureconservation.14.7497}},
  doi          = {{10.3897/natureconservation.14.7497}},
  volume       = {{14}},
  year         = {{2016}},
}