News and events
NBN Conference – short videos
Four NBN Trust members have created short videos to highlight some of their project work at the NBN Conference 2021. Summary information on each of these is below.
The Woodland Trust
Project name: Our Approach to Woodland Creation
Project overview: The Woodland Trust has written a comprehensive guide to woodland creation and will be launching it as an online publication in the next 2 months. An important part of woodland creation projects is a desk-based assessment of the site before deciding on the suitability for woodland creation, and if suitable, to inform the eventual design – i.e. what to plant, where to plant, what other habitats to incorporate, what wildlife species to encourage etc. We include links and mentions of the NBN and biological record centres throughout the guide, so this a great example of using biological records for major conservation initiatives.
Royal Agricultural University
Project name: Ancient woodland indicators: can historic herbarium data supplement recent records?
Project overview: To explore the value of historic ancient woodland indicator (AWI) specimens for present day ecological management, 246 pre-1950s (1835-1949) AWI herbarium specimens in VC33 East Gloucestershire were mapped and compared to recent records in the same localities. Records located within the 1km square containing a historic point record or within the 1km squares covered by an area record were counted as relocations. Point records within a contiguous habitat such as a woodland were treated as area records. Forty-five percent of the historic records were not relocated in recent records, suggesting uses in ancient woodland identification or as restoration target species.
UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology
Project name: UK Pollinator Monitoring Scheme (PoMS)
Project overview: The UK Pollinator Monitoring Scheme collects systematic data on the abundance of bees, hoverflies and other flower-visiting insects across the UK, through Flower-Insect Timed Counts (FIT Counts) and a more intensive survey of 1 km squares. Together with long-term occurrence records collated by the Bees, Wasps and Ants Recording Society and Hoverfly Recording Scheme, these data will form an invaluable resource from which to measure trends in pollinator populations and target conservation efforts. PoMS approaches are also now being developed across Europe and S America to inform global pollinator monitoring efforts
Royal Horticultural Society
Project name: Slugs Count
Project overview: This project investigates the distribution, dominance and abundance of slug species in UK gardens. 60 volunteer “citizen scientists” have been trained in a systematic sampling method and slug identification. Physical specimens are sent in by post to have identifications verified. So far we have collected and identified just under 20,000 slugs representing at least 30 species, many of which are not native to Britain and Ireland. These records will be available via the NBN Atlas when the project is completed. The associated physical specimens also allow issues surrounding accurate identification of cryptic species to be explored.