As part of its 20th anniversary celebrations during 2020, the National Biodiversity Network Trust (NBN Trust) was highlighting the 20 most popular datasets on the NBN Atlas. Rather than being swayed by subjectivity, this “top 20” was an objective measure of the most downloaded wildlife datasets – taking into account the length of time the dataset had been on the NBN Atlas.
So, these are the 20 datasets that you have found interesting enough to download most frequently either for your work or for your personal use.
As the NBN Trust’s 20th anniversary year has come to a close, we are looking at the remaining “top 20” favourite NBN Atlas wildlife datasets in turn.
The datasets
Here are another four NBN Atlas datasets from the ‘top 20’ most downloaded:
Welsh Invertebrate Database (WID)
We continue with the 590,309 records from Natural Resources Wales’ Welsh Invertebrate Database (WID).
These predominantly Welsh records include terrestrial, freshwater and coastal air-breathing invertebrates but not marine species. The database also contains records of associated taxa and incidental records of other species, including alga, vascular plants, amphibians, mammals, birds, fungi, reptiles and bryophytes. The records have been derived from a wide variety of sources, including publications, records provided by schemes and societies, records created by Countryside Council for Wales and Natural Resources Wales staff as part of their normal work, records provided by amateur recorders, other inventories, as well as results from structured surveys or monitoring projects. There are over 5,000 different recorders listed in the database.
These 590,309 records comprise 12,731 species – the most frequently recorded include: the Marsh Fritillary (2,360), the hoverfly Helophilus pendulus (2,164) and the Yellow or Golden Dung fly (1,960). The records cover 4,981 genera and 959 families.
This dataset has been downloaded?16,208 times, enabling the sharing of 11,133,027 records.
The three most common reasons for downloading this dataset are:?’Education’ (2,938 times), ‘Environmental assessment’ (1,454 times) and ‘Ecological research’ (1,427 times).
Why not take a look at this dataset from Natural Resources Wales yourself?
Tullie House Museum Natural History Collections
Another of the “top 20” most downloaded datasets are the 59,328 records from Tullie House Museum Natural History Collections.
These records include the specimen collections of local naturalists – donated to the Tullie House Museum from 1893 to the present – which have been digitised so far. They cover mainly Cumbrian zoology and botany, as well as some UK-wide species. Recent material includes voucher specimens for specific invertebrate surveys in Cumbria.
These 59,328 records cover 7,500 species – the most frequently recorded being the Common Froghopper or the Meadow Spittlebug (342). The records cover 3,240 genera and 584 families.
This dataset has been downloaded?13,568 times, enabling the sharing of 1,020,314 records.
The three most common reasons for downloading this dataset are:?’Education’ (2,853 times), ‘Environmental assessment’ (1,156 times) and ‘Scientific research’ (1,025 times).
Why not take a look at this dataset from the Tullie House Museum yourself?
Bryophyte records via iRecord
The 38,272 Bryophyte records via iRecord are another of the “top 20” most downloaded datasets – and these have only been hosted on the NBN Atlas since January 2020.
This dataset contains bryophyte records for Britain and Ireland that have been entered and verified through iRecord. These mostly originate with unstructured, ad hoc sampling, although some records may also come from more structured or semi-structured recording programmes.
These 38,272 records comprise 711 species – the most frequently recorded include: Cypress-leaved Plait-moss (631), Common Feather-moss (484) and the Grey-cushioned Grimmia or Pulvinate dry rock moss (431). The records cover 256 genera and 100 families.
Downloaded?576 times, this has allowed 112,647 records to be shared from this dataset.
The three most common reasons for downloading this dataset are:?’Education’ (191 times), ‘Commercial’ (100 times) and ‘by the public for personal use’ (98 times).
Why not take a look at this dataset of bryophyte records from iRecord yourself?
ERIC NE Combined dataset to 2017
Another of the “top 20” most downloaded datasets are the 981,657 records from ERIC NE Combined dataset to 2017.
Collected by the Environmental Records Information Centre North East (ERIC NE), either as part of directed surveys or from casual sightings. These species records span all taxa and are primarily from the north east of England. Records date from 1769 to 2017. The resolution of these records has been reduced to 10km and full resolution data is available by contacting ERIC NE.
These 981,657 records cover 6,917 species – the most frequently recorded include: the Red Squirrel (24,363), the Grey Squirrel (20,052), Mallards (15,613) and the Common Moorhen (13,190). The records cover 3,422 genera and 1,101 families.
This dataset has been downloaded?15,910 times, enabling the sharing of 20,457,077 records.
The three most common reasons for downloading this dataset are:?’Education’ (3,938 times), ‘Environmental assessment’ (1,383 times) and ‘Ecological research’ (932 times).
Why not take a look at this dataset from the Environmental Records Information Centre North East yourself?
Read about the other Top 20 datasets