The UK Pollinator Monitoring Scheme needs the help of volunteers to collect data on pollinating insects, to help inform their conservation.
The Pollinator Monitoring and Research Partnership (PMRP) aims to combine improved analyses of long-term records with new systematic survey activity to establish how insect pollinator populations are changing across Great Britain.
It is working with existing recording schemes to improve understanding of population trend estimates from opportunistic (unstructured) records, and increase their capacity for data flow and record verification.
There are two ways to get involved.
FIT Count
A simple systematic survey to engage a wider range of volunteers, collecting data on abundance and flower visitation of pollinators to target flower species from a specified list. During 2017 the “Flower-Insect Timed Count” activity was developed with project partners across a variety of urban and rural locations, and this is being expanding for wider involvement in 2018.
1km square surveys
A systematic survey of pollinators and floral resources with a core set of 75 monitoring sites (randomly allocated 1km squares), stratified on cropped and non-cropped land across England, Wales and Scotland. The site network and baseline surveys have been set up by CEH surveyors, and there are now opportunities for volunteer involvement to ‘adopt’ the squares and help carry out the surveys – if you’d like to know more about this please contact poms@ceh.ac.uk
Further project details
Data from across these different monitoring approaches will be integrated to deliver key metrics on pollinator population status and trends, including updates of the UK Pollinator Indicator at species and country-level resolution.
These activities will be coupled with ongoing links with the wider research community to facilitate use of the data in research, conservation and survey planning, and deliver a sustainable UK Pollinator Monitoring and Research Partnership (PMRP). Initial funding is provided for 2017 and 2018.
The project will focus on bees and hoverflies (based on evidence that they provide a high proportion of the pollination service to crops and wildflowers), although the methods used will sample or survey a wide range of other flower-visiting insects. Protocols and materials will be made widely accessible to allow their use beyond core survey sites and to measure the impacts of specific activities.
Further information and getting involved
Further information on the project, including background information to pollinator monitoring in the UK, and how to get involved can be found on the CEH website