Annex A
Title of project: National Plant Monitoring Scheme
Date and time for return of Monday 18 August 2014 @16:00 hours tenders:
Contract Reference No: C14-0263-0847
Address for tender 1 electronic copy to be sent to submission: [email protected] PLEASE DO NOT SEND TENDERS DIRECTLY TO CHRIS CHEFFINGS, LYNN HEELEY, DORA IANTOSCA OR GORDON GREEN VIA THEIR PERSONAL EMAIL ADDRESSES, AS THIS WILL INVALIDATE YOUR TENDER Tender responses must be less than 10 MB in size. On receipt of your tender, you will receive an automated e-mail to confirm receipt by JNCC Support Co. If you do not receive this automated email, please contact, in the following order: Sue Wenlock (00 44 1733 866880) Chris Downes (00 44 1733 866877)
Contacts for technical Chris Cheffings information relating to this Joint Nature Conservation Committee project specification: Email: [email protected] Tel:+44 1733 866805
OR Lynn Heeley Joint Nature Conservation Committee Email: [email protected] Tel: +44 1733 866858
Contact for any queries Dora Iantosca or Gordon Green regarding the tendering Finance Team procedure: Joint Nature Conservation Committee Email: [email protected] or [email protected] Tel: 01733 866894 or 01733 866806
1 Proposed start-date: September 2014
Proposed end-date: September 2017
2 National Plant Monitoring Scheme Contents
3 1. Joint Nature Conservation Committee The Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) is the statutory adviser to the UK Government and devolved administrations on UK and international nature conservation. Its work contributes to maintaining and enriching biological diversity, conserving geological features and sustaining natural systems. Our role is to provide evidence, information and advice so that decisions are made that protect natural resources and systems. Our specific role is to work on nature conservation issues that affect the UK as a whole and internationally: advising Government on the development and implementation of policies for, or affecting, nature conservation in the UK and internationally; providing advice and disseminate knowledge on nature conservation issues affecting the UK and internationally; establishing common standards throughout the UK for nature conservation, including monitoring, research, and the analysis of results; and commissioning or supporting research which it deems relevant to these functions. The Committee comprises 14 members: a Chairman and five independent members appointed by the Secretary of State; the Chairman of CNCC; the Chairmen or deputy Chairmen of Natural Resources Wales, Natural England and SNH; and one other member from each of these bodies.
JNCC, originally established under the Environmental Protection Act 1990, was reconstituted by the Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act 2006. Support is provided to the JNCC by a company limited by guarantee (JNCC Support Co) that the Committee established in 2005.
2. Project Aims This project is to administer and develop a scheme to coordinate and collect data on the abundance of target plant species in semi-natural habitats and assess the associated trends in habitat quality to provide a part of the evidence base on the state of the countryside and key drivers of change.
Aims: Deliver a sustainable and flexible scheme that utilises volunteer recorders to monitor changes in the abundance of plant species in semi-natural habitats throughout the UK over the long- term Through collection of annual data on the abundance of key plant species, detect change in the quality of semi-natural habitats throughout the countryside Allow and facilitate analysis of the collected data with other environmental datasets, in order to assist in understanding why change is occurring (pressures and drivers) Contribute data that can be used to produce meaningful ecological indicators and other relevant reporting products on semi-natural habitats
4 3. Project Background The National Plant Monitoring Scheme is a new project that will coordinate, collect and analyse data on plant communities, in order to provide a part of the evidence base that can be used to address policy issues and give an indication of changes in the quality of key habitats in the countryside. The scheme will monitor the abundance of target plant species, mostly in semi-natural habitats, and builds on the initial project design of 2010 (JNCC Report No. 440) and the 2012-2014, Defra- funded, field trial of the method led by CEH with partners BSBI and Plantlife. There are currently only extremely limited annual data on plant abundance and change, or on the quality status of much of the semi-natural habitat outside of protected sites. The scheme will fill a significant gap in the UK-wide surveillance programmes, many of them coordinated through JNCC. Volunteer effort will be critical to the successful delivery of the scheme, although there is scope to supplement the data with paid surveyors in more remote or under represented habitats. The method and delivery will also serve as a backbone for bolt on modules covering complementary aspects of ecosystem function such as information on pollinators.
4. Project Objectives To meet the overall aims of this project (Section Project Aims), the objectives are to: 1. Deliver an operational network of volunteers using NPMS methods 2. Finalise development of NPMS methods and review these at the end of the project period 3. Ensure effective online recording conforming with data standards 4. Publish and analyse data annually 5. Consider possible solutions and synergies for the delivery of data on additional taxon groups
5. Project Objectives: Detailed tasks These detailed objectives constitute the required outputs for the contract. It should be noted that all outputs must comply with JNCC EQA procedures as detailed in the accompanying documentation. Costings from the tenderer are required for each of the objectives and the tasks contained within these including time/resource allocation per partner organisation where a joint tender is submitted. As a very rough guide, it is suggested that costs for Objective 1 are likely to account for 65 to 80 % of the total costs by the final year of the project.
Objective 1 – Deliver an operational network of volunteers using NPMS methods
JNCC requires operational support of the new National Plant Monitoring Scheme, consequently, the following tasks are required: Build a sustainable network of volunteer recorders capable of delivering the survey results throughout the UK
5 Support a network of ~1000-5000 new and existing recorders monitoring habitat plots on allocated monads o monad allocation and provision of mapping1 o training and support (including ensuring some progression to at least ’Indicator plots’2) o production of appropriate guidance information o promotion (including targeted promotion) of the scheme to potential recorders within the wider recording community
Objective 2 – Finalise development of NPMS methods and review these at the end of the project period
In the first year, it will be necessary to assess the outcomes of developmental work undertaken in the 2014 field season, and make any required changes to the methods prior to the 2015 field season. All developmental work will be available as short options reports by 30 September 2014. Aspects that are being studied include:
Volunteer ability to identify habitats (and hence appropriateness of the habitat classification and guidance) Plot size Plot selection Target species lists
To ensure that the survey method and the analysis of the resulting data are the best they can be in answering the required project aims it is essential to periodically review these aspects of the scheme. This will need to be done at the end of the initial three year project period. Elements should include:
Does the target species list tell us enough about each habitat and are the volunteers encountering the species in high enough numbers to tell us about the quality of habitat throughout the UK? Are there regional issues with species lists, access to certain habitats or lack of recorders etc.? Are there further refinements required either to the field method or the analysis to ensure policy relevance? Are there enough samples to ensure statistically robust evidence, particularly for individual countries? Proposals for how to target network development to improve power to detect change.
Objective 3 – Ensure effective online recording conforming with data standards
The tenderer must ensure that any online recording system conforms to data standards and ensures data flow to the NBN Gateway and is generally fit for purpose i.e. provides clear guidance and downloadable survey forms; allows efficient and
1 Work is currently underway to produce a selection of monads for survey. These will also be available within the current online recording system. It is envisaged that volunteers will select a preferred monad from the list, however there may be a need for assistance in some cases. Additionally, there may be a need to work with some of the existing volunteers to help change monads where this is appropriate. 2 A brief description of the survey methods and plot types is provided in the Appendix.
6 accurate data entry; validates the data appropriately on entry; provides interactive mapping functionality; and feedback via summary statistics/mapping to recorders. An initial online indicia based recording system was rolled out in 2012 (see: http://www.brc.ac.uk/npms/) and then improved in 2013 - 14. Tenderers should note that it is more likely to be cost-efficient to either negotiate with the current provider of the online system, or to use the indicia code, rather than create an entirely new system. There may be scope for further development, e.g. additional reporting features. The contractor is invited to propose online developments that would improve the efficiency and/or effectiveness of the system or detail a new system delivering equitable functionality. Note that (other than essential system maintenance), further development work may be desirable, but is not essential to the continuance of the scheme, and whether or not it is funded will depend on funds available.
Objective 4 – Publish and analyse data annually
Production of annual trends and indicators is an important part of the NPMS. Additionally, making the results of the scheme accessible is vital to ensure maximum use of data and to provide feedback to volunteer recorders. Until at least 3 years of data are available, trends will not be possible; however annual summary metrics should still be produced. The following tasks are required: 4.1 Validate, clean and collate habitat plot data each year from all monads in the scheme to ensure analysis of results occurs within one calendar year of collection. 4.2 Produce annual metrics on species abundance for all ‘Wildflower’ and ‘Indicator’ species. 4.3 Produce annual metrics using combined species abundances within semi-natural habitat types. The habitat classification used must be agreed with the Project Steering Group. Publish these metrics as Official Statistics to an agreed timeframe within one calendar year from the data collection. 4.4 Produce similar habitat-based annual metrics by country (England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland) at the same time as UK metrics. The appropriate habitat classification must be agreed with the Project Steering Group. 4.5 Following advice from the Project Steering Group, produce annual indicator updates (e.g. C7 Plants in the wider countryside). In the first year, provide appropriate data and metrics for consideration by groups responsible for indicator development. 4.6 Work closely with the Project Steering Group to identify questions that need to be answered using the data. Where appropriate produce annual metrics for individual species or plant communities, or analyse against environmental drivers. 4.7 Provide access to field data, through the NPMS recording webpages and partner organisation websites, and by publishing distribution data on the National Biodiversity Network Gateway at full resolution in conformance with the data access policy by the end of the calendar year in which it is collated. 4.8 Publish metadata that allow the field data to be analysed alongside other environmental datasets by external organisations. 4.9 Publish a newsletter (with results of the scheme) to recorders, and other stakeholders following each recording season. 4.10 Publish summary statistics, mapping and feedback (such as the newsletter) to recorders online through the NPMS recording webpages and partner organisation sites following each recording season. 4.11 Periodically update text interpreting results on the NPMS and partner organisation websites.
7 Objective 5 – Consider possible solutions and synergies for the delivery of data on additional taxon groups
Ensuring that the scheme is sustainable for the long term is a key element of the initial project period. This scheme has the potential to provide very strong links to emerging approaches to more structured surveillance and the focus on semi-natural habitat provides an opportunity to integrate with surveillance planned by the country agencies. In order to assist in this, the method and delivery should also serve as a backbone for bolt on modules covering complementary aspects of ecosystem function such as information on pollinators and the presence/absence and abundance of other taxa. The tenderer is invited to suggest how this objective can be met, particularly in the context of considering the scheme within a broader strategic framework of surveillance.
6. Potential follow-on work Tenderers should be aware that there is the potential for the successful contractor to be invited by JNCC to undertake additional work on this contract into the financial year 2018/19 as follows: Modifying the scheme in line with recommendations from the review and from the Project Steering Group for delivery in the 2018 field season Please note however that the potential for additional work to be undertaken is subject to a continuing need, availability of funds, and satisfactory contractor performance. For the avoidance of doubt, no guarantee can be given, that you will be asked to undertake the potential additional work outlined within this Annex A document. Tenderers are not asked to provide detailed project plans for these follow- on aspects at this stage.
7. Outputs Outputs are as defined within the detailed project objectives. All outputs must comply with JNCC EQA procedures as detailed in the accompanying documentation. Key outputs include: A UK wide network of a minimum of 1000 volunteer recorders using NPMS methods Guidance documents for volunteers, including finalised methods A review of methods at the end of the initial project period An effective online recording system with summary statistics and feedback Annual metrics on species and habitats including indicators Full resolution field data and metadata made freely available Recorders newsletter
8. Dissemination Any reports produced under this contract will be jointly owned by the partners and acknowledge all partners. All reports will be made publicly available. They will at
8 some point be published on the JNCC website. The findings from this contract will also be made available to JNCC, the Project Steering Group, Natural England, Scottish Natural Heritage, Natural Resources Wales, the Northern Ireland Environment Agency, Defra, Scottish Government and Welsh Government.
9. Timescale The anticipated contract start date will be in September 2014. The contract duration will be for a maximum of 3 years, and will end no later than the last day of September 2017. JNCC may choose to terminate all or part of the contract if there is substantial change in funding availability, stakeholder requirements for information, or the ability of the voluntary sector to deliver it. Termination of all or a major part of the contract would be at 6 months’ notice and would be by the formal process set out in JNCC’s contractual terms and conditions. The Project Steering Group will review factors affecting the range of outputs required each year with the contractor, together with factors influencing minor change to the overall level of resources available to do the work as provided by JNCC and any contribution from the contractor and any other funding partner. Alterations to the work programme, including the level of resources available may be agreed each year as part of the process of setting and agreeing a work programme (annual change control mechanism). This will then be confirmed as a standard contract variation. Intra-year changes to the annual work schedule can be modified by mutual agreement between the JNCC Project Officer and the contractor following approval by the Project Steering Group.
10. Health and safety The Contractor is expected to follow appropriate Health & Safety procedures and undertake appropriate risk assessments, evidence of which should be supplied to JNCC. (NB under no circumstances should any work or service commence prior to the receipt of written approval of the risk assessment by JNCC H&S advisor) Any incidents occurring within the contract should be immediately reported to JNCC.
11. Product specification Any reports shall adhere to the JNCC report template and house style guidance, both available from JNCC on request. Reports should be provided electronically via email both as a Microsoft Word document and an Adobe PDF. JNCC’s policy is that where public money is invested in a surveillance scheme the resulting data will be made freely available for all legal purposes, except where the data comprises sensitive information where its release would harm the environment. The tenderer should ensure any required permissions from volunteers are collected at source for sharing at full access to be possible. Tenderers should describe the approach that they will take to data management and storage. The successful tenderer will be required to:
9 Develop a data access policy for the field data, interpretations of that data, collated attributes or any other resource created under the contract that can be organised as a reusable data set. The data access policy must allow fully open access and application of the datasets. The primary means of data sharing will be through the National Biodiversity Network and the NPMS and partner websites. The contractor will agree the data access policy with the Project Steering Group and operate the policy. Develop a data security policy for any data held for the purposes of the contract. The policy will prevent accidental or deliberate loss/alteration of the data, or disclosure outside the agreed data access policies. It will cover physical protection, network access, knowledge transfer between data management staff, database access, backup strategies, anti-virus policy and contingency. The contractor will agree the data security policy with the Project Steering Group and operate the policy. Ensure that confidential data is dealt with in accordance with the Data Protection Act. Please note that all intellectual property rights in any information or material existing prior to the date of the contract shall remain the property of the partner introducing such information. The data and the results of the project arising from this contract or variations of this contract will be licensed over the Open Government Licence, with the exception that where disclosure of such information would lead to environmental harm. Please also note that it is the responsibility of the contractor/s to ensure that any intellectual property rights introduced into this project arising from this contract or variations of this contract can be licensed under the Open Government Licence.
12. Project management The contract will be managed in accordance with JNCC’s Standard Terms and Conditions, which are circulated with this specification. The contract will be managed by a JNCC project officer who will be responsible for signing off deliverables. The contractor will also appoint a project manager who will act as the principal point of contact for JNCC. A Project Steering Group comprising representatives from JNCC, partner conservation organisations and JNCC’s country stakeholders, has been established. It is envisaged that this Project Steering Group will meet at six monthly intervals throughout the project and also communicate via email correspondence. The Project Steering Group will advise the JNCC Project Officer and the contractor on workplans, deliverables and project direction. The successful contractor needs to be proactively responsible for the day to day running of the contract, ensuring deadlines are met and that there is effective communication with the JNCC Project Officer and Project Steering Group. The contractor must demonstrate how this will be achieved. The contractor will be responsible for organising and providing the secretarial and administrative support for the project and for maintaining records of key correspondence. Each objective (set out in Section 4) will have a defined set of deliverables that will be set out in a detailed annual work schedule. The annual work schedule for each calendar year will be prepared by the contractor by November 1 of the year preceding and agreed by the JNCC Project Officer, following approval by the Project Steering Group, by December 1 of that year.
10 The contractor will be responsible for undertaking periodic reviews of the work schedule and for delivery of a final report that will include recommendations for continuation of work once the contract has ended. Before the end of the contract, the contractor will be required to attend a meeting with the Project Steering Group to discuss the management and performance of the contract with a view to informing each other of any strengths and weaknesses exposed. JNCC’s main contact points will be: Chris Cheffings Email: [email protected] Tel: +44 (0)1733 866805 or Lynn Heeley Email: [email protected] Tel: +44 (0)1733 866858
13. Instructions for tender submission This specification sets out the requirements of the JNCC and Project Steering Group for the scheme. The tenderer or joint tenderers will provide details of how the work proposed fits with their own organisation’s ambitions and strategic aims, where they are interested in investing to achieve any of the outputs, and of any work they are undertaking that would complement or compete with the requirements. Note, that a tenderer or joint tenderers able to co-invest, provide in-kind contribution and/or attract co-funding for this project will be strongly favoured. The tender submission should include the following: A brief summary of the potential Contractor’s experience in relation to the requirements of this contract; A proposed approach for achieving the objectives of the contract (and delivering the detailed tasks identified within each objective). This should be sufficiently detailed to allow assessment against the evaluation criteria (Section 14); A detailed project plan (including Gantt chart), including the proposed work programme and an estimate of time required to achieve each objective and any dependencies. The project plan should be in the form of a three year outline with indicative milestones for delivery in each year of the contract. A more detailed one year work schedule should also be provided with milestones and deliverables identified; A Risk Register, along with proposals for minimising the risks and a set of contingency actions; Details of Quality Control procedures to be followed, including any components which will require peer review; Details of the Contractor’s own internal Quality Management System; Details of the Project Team, including their roles and experience, an estimate of their time input into each task, and CVs of all personnel involved in the contract; Overall quote for the contract, to include:
11 1. Daily rates for all members of the Project Team; 2. Rates for meetings in Peterborough (costs for travel and accommodation are attached and should be used. These rates are analogous to the civil service rates); 3. Overheads; 4. Total travel and subsistence; 5. Any costs associated with obtaining necessary data; 6. Costs and time allocation should be clearly allocated to specific tasks within this contract; and 7. VAT if applicable. The contractor is to specify whether VAT at the prevailing rate would be applicable to this project and to provide their company’s VAT registration number. Details of all planned and potential marketing activities over the duration of the contract, including costs and where applicable whether or not any would be offered as an in-kind contribution. Please indicate any funding, in-kind contributions or staff resource that you could contribute to achieving the aims and outputs. The following documentation: 8. Copies of health and safety policy statements where available or a note regarding such items as lone working, emergency procedures and accident reporting; 9. Copies of current public and employer liability insurance certificates; and 10. Copies of any appropriate risk assessments. 11. Copies of any environmental policies should you have them In addition, note that the tender submission should provide sufficient information to allow assessment against the criteria outlined in Section 14.
14. Evaluation Criteria JNCC are not bound to accept the lowest priced or any tender. Having the technical expertise and experience to complete the work to a high standard, and being able to complete it within the timescale, are of essence for this contract. All evaluation criteria must reach at least a minimum standard.
Tenders will be evaluated using the following criteria:
Max Scor EVALUATION CRITERIA Scor e e
1. Quality of proposal, (40% of the total for the three assessment categories)
Clarity of proposal (particularly work plan and deliverables) 10 Probability of success 10
Quality and range of proposed outputs 7
12 Realism and measurability of milestones 7 Identification and proposed solutions to potential 6 problems/risks Sub Totals 40 2. Details of Contractor (30 % of the three assessment categories)
Expertise, experience and balance of team 14 Proposed solutions to risks if important team members drop 10 out Adequacy of proposals to engage with stakeholders 6
Sub Totals 30 3. Cost (30% of the total for the three assessment categories)
Transparency and correctness of presentation 5 Fairness/reasonableness for the level of work and expertise required including appropriateness of ratio of senior to junior 5 staff time Ability to co-fund or attract co-funding or provide in-kind 20 contribution including existing and potential volunteer base Sub Totals 30 Total score 100
15. Payment Payment will be made quarterly, following the submission of an invoice(s); and based on satisfactory undertaking of the contractual elements to the agreed standard of the JNCC Project Officer.
16. Additional Contractor requirements All tenderers are requested to carefully read the Terms and Conditions applying to this contract. Payment will only be made upon delivery of key milestones (Section 13). It is assumed that all costs associated with the production of figures, reproduction of photographs and the final report are accounted for within the rates and fees given. The Contractor is expected to supply all necessary equipment, software, licences etc. to carry out the obligations required under the contract.
17. Appendices Appendix 1 : Short description of survey methods (May 2014)
13 Geographic scope The scheme will focus on UK wide coordination and participation as well as the likely inclusion of the Isle of Man (and possible interest from the Channel Islands). A complementary scheme, using the same methods, is likely to be launched in the Republic of Ireland.
Monitoring Scale Volunteers will monitor small habitat plots within a target monad. The monads will be pre-selected and retained in a pool to be released in tranches by geographic unit (vice county or 100km square) in proportion to the number of volunteers available in that unit. The pre-selection method will produce a randomised selection which is weighted towards monads containing rarer Land Cover Map land categories; zero weighting is given to Arable and Horticulture, Improved Grassland, Littoral sediment, Littoral rock, Saltwater, and Urban and Suburban. Maps suggest that monads that would receive high weighting using the Natural England Priority Habitat layer will also receive higher weighting using the LCM method, but the LCM method will tend to identify more monads with medium to high weights, particularly in upland areas. Weights are calculated using presence / absence of land cover categories in order to reduce bias towards monads containing large habitat patches.
Habitat plots A set of 29 target habitats for volunteer recording within the scheme has been established through discussions with Plantlife, CEH, BSBI and JNCC and practical guidance for volunteers to identify the habitats has been created. These target habitats have been designed particularly to be practical in the field for volunteer recognition (see end). Consideration has been given to translations between these target habitats and key classifications used throughout the UK (EUNIS Levels I-III, habitats listed in Annex 1 of the Habitats and Species Directive and NVC) so as to ensure that analyses of the data can use alternative habitat classifications. Both the classification and the guidance will be tested during the 2014 field season and reviewed under contract by habitat experts. Volunteers will measure abundance of plants in a minimum of 5 plots in each monad. These will be located in different semi-natural (target) habitats wherever possible. Each of the plots will be 5x5m or 10x10m (with equivalent areas for linear habitats). Both the plot selection method and the plot size will be finalised during the 2014 field season. The workshop held in February 2014, where expert statistical input was invited, highlighted a number of issues with the initially proposed plot selection method which required further investigation. The key issue was that without random plot allocation it would be likely that the best quality habitat in a monad would be selected and thereby the scheme could only detect and measure the extent of decline in habitat quality. It is important therefore to identify a tractable method of randomising the plot locations within a monad as well as ensuring the inclusion of areas of lower quality semi-natural habitat whilst at the same time balancing this with the practicalities of access issues and retaining volunteers.
14 Plots will be surveyed between April and end of September and two visits are encouraged to each plot in order to detect early and late flowering species with a minimum interval of 6-8 weeks apart. The exact advice on the optimum visiting time varies between habitats but the majority are June/July. Volunteers are encouraged to sketch maps and take photographs and notes in order to accurately relocate plots in subsequent years.
Survey levels and target species lists Species in the habitat plots can be recorded at 3 levels designed to accommodate, and provide upward progression, for a range of expertise from relative beginner to botanical expert. The different levels are currently referred to as: Wildflower plots, Indicator plots and Inventory plots. Wildflower plots are for relative beginners and involve recording the percentage cover of a set of target species (that are relatively easy to identify) for that particular habitat (with a total of 200 target species across all habitats). Indicator plots are the next level up in terms of expertise and again involve recording the percentage cover of a set of target species which includes the Wildflower plot species and additional species that are considered to have a greater degree of identification difficulty (with a total of 400 species across all habitats). The species lists for these first two levels are split by target habitat and therefore only 10- 20 specific to the habitat present in the plot are recorded. Inventory plots allow the volunteer to record the percentage cover of all the species encountered in the plot. It is envisaged that most volunteers will use the Indicator plots method, and this will be the focus for training and guidance. An objective method for the selection of the target species, used in the Wildflower and Indicator level plots, has been designed and will be peer reviewed. The species include both positive and negative indicators for each habitat, with a series of selection steps intended to ensure that the lists are not biased towards particular plant traits and have good geographic coverage. The selection criteria at each step have been documented and will be refined and completed over the 2014 field season.
The abundance is measured as cover of the plot using a 10 interval Domin scale. Also recorded using the same cover scale are moss and lichens, bare rock and gravel, litter and bare soil.
Additional information recorded The information recorded for each plot, in addition to the species cover scores, are intended to contribute to understanding why the quality of semi-natural habitat in a particular monad may be changing over time; to help to indicate the pressures and drivers of change in the local context. The additional attributes recorded by the volunteer are: habitat type, aspect, slope, vegetation height (3 point percent based scale against 5 height categories), management (type and description), how wooded the plot is (4 descriptive options including hedgerow), grazing pressure (low, moderate, high) and by which animals. Guidance on how to assess these elements has been provided.
15 This section may also include a grass:forb ratio.
Frequency of survey and power It is likely that there will be variation in survey frequency between volunteers, with many surveying the same monad every year, but others rotating between 3-5 different monads in different years. In addition, there will inevitably be ‘missing’ years and occasional drop-outs for monads. Literature reviews show that power is not adversely affected by adopting a mixed approach to survey frequency, although a core of annually recorded monads will start to produce trends more quickly. This should allow better volunteer retention, as varying recording practices can be accommodated. Power analyses for the survey are still being completed, as they have required considerable statistical innovation to devise a robust analytical framework for Domin data. This work is being written up for publication in a peer-reviewed journal. Preliminary results suggest that approximately 30 plots per habitat type will provide a reasonable power to detect trends in either single species or a combined metric. As is common in ecological indicators, the metric will be based on the geometric mean of the percentage cover, transformed into an odds ratio.
Online recording A series of online recording pages has been created and recently enhanced using the Indicia, open source, model. This includes secure login, mapping (aerial and googlemaps) as well as validated data entry and image upload. There is also now a user guide with screenshots to assist with data entry for volunteers.
16 Appendix 2: NPMS Habitats as defined for practical volunteer use in the field
Woodland and Hedgerows: Coastal vegetated shingle Hedgerows Maritime cliffs and slopes Broadleaved woodland Wet woodland Aquatic: Native pinewoods Species-rich lakes and ponds Species-poor lakes and pools Grassland, Meadow and Pastures: Rivers and streams Calcareous grassland Montane calcareous grassland Bogs, Mires, Fens and Flushes: Acid grassland Raised bogs Montane acid grassland Blanket bogs Pastures and meadows or neutral Acidic mires, fens and flushes grassland Base-rich mires, fens and flushes Wet grassland
Rocky: Heathland: Lowland and upland rocks and scree Dry heath Montane rocks and scree Wet heath
Montane heath Additional: Urban Coastal: Arable field margins Coastal saltmarsh Coastal sand dunes Machair
17