Tools, resources and publications
NBN member documents and information
Below we have links to some current or recent projects from Network members.
Field Studies Council
FSC BioLinks
FSC BioLinks is an exciting project for FSC which will bring together existing volunteers with skills in biological recording and identification, and new volunteers. The aim is to unite them in a community with a shared vision and sense of purpose by providing training and learning opportunities. This in turn will increase the quality of invertebrate species data being submitted to our national biodiversity datasets and develop individuals as more highly skilled biodiversity volunteers.
FSC has been awarded a National Lottery grant of £1.23 million from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) for this project. Work began in early 2018.
FSC BioLinks Consultation Report (Jan 2017)
FSC BioLinks Development Plan for Training Provision (Jan 2017)
What is a biological record?
The FSC BioLinks project provides training to develop the skills of existing biological recorders and to create new recorders. This will help to build and strengthen the biological recording community…but what is a biological record? The FSC BioLinks project team has written a handy guide to explain!
Go to “What is a biological record?”
FSC and Eco Sapien have also created a short video on “What is a biological record?”
This is one of three short videos, with the other two available below:
Who’s who in the world of biological recording?
Another great blog by the FSC BioLinks team is “Who’s who in the world of biological recording?”. This helps to explain who the various organisations involved in biological recording are and what they each do.
Go to “Who’s who in the world of biological recording?”
TomBio
Tomorrow’s Biodiversity is a Field Studies Council project which was funded by Esmée Fairbairn for five years (2013-2017 inclusive). It helped to identify gaps in biodiversity monitoring and barriers to wider uptake and participation in biodiversity monitoring. The project enabled the FSC to play its part in filling the gaps and overcoming barriers. The initial two year research and consultation phase was used to identify a number of ‘exemplar’ projects which were delivered over the period 2015-2017. The TomBio project finished on 1 January 2018.
Bristol Natural History Consortium
Let’s Talk About Data
Communication principles for the wildlife recording community – The Let’s Talk About Data Toolkit has been designed in consultation with 90 members of the UK recording community and communications experts to help recorders, organisations and volunteer groups communicate about recording and data more effectively.
The Linnean Society
Biological Journals
The following journals are related to biological recording, surveying, modelling or analysis and may be of interest across the Network. They are all taken from a special issue of the Biological Journal of the Linnean Society from 2015, which was a special issue for 50 years of the Biological Records Centre.
Emerging technologies for biological recording – August et al
Unbiased inference of plant ?owering phenology from biological recording data – Chapman et al
Taking the oldest insect recording scheme into the 21st Century – Foster
The effectiveness of protected areas in the conservation of species with changing geographical ranges – Gillingham et al
How will the ‘molecular revolution’ contribute to biological recording? – Handley
Bias and information in biological records – Isaac et al
The use of opportunistic data for IUCN Red List assessments – Maes et al
Geographical range margins of many taxonomic groups continue to shift polewards – Mason et al
The pitfalls of ecological forecasting – Oliver et al
Air pollution and its effects on lichens, bryophytes, and lichen-feeding Lepidoptera: review and evidence from biological records – Pescott et al
Ecological monitoring with citizen science: the design and implementation of schemes for recording plants in Britain and Ireland – Pescott et al
The Biological Records Centre: a pioneer of citizen science – Pocock et al
Beyond maps: a review of the applications of biological records – Powney et al
Plant hybrids in the wild: evidence from biological recording – Preston et al
Tracking the distribution and impacts of diseases with biological records and distribution modelling – Purse et al
The contribution of volunteer recorders to our understanding of biological invasions – Roy et al
Fifty years of the Biological Records Centre – Roy et al
The role of ecological interactions in determining species ranges and range changes – Stewart et al
An agenda for the future of biological recording for ecological monitoring and citizen science – Sutherland et al
Recent trends in UK insects that inhabit early successional stages of ecosystems – Thomas et al
Do you have a project or resource you’d like to share?
If you are a NBN Trust member and would like to share information on one of your projects, or if you have produced a publication that would be a useful resource for the Network, then please let us know and we’ll add it to this page.