Scottish Natural Heritage Research Report No. 970 A report on butterfly abundance and flight periods at Tentsmuir National Nature Reserve, Fife, from 1978 to 2015 RESEARCH REPORT Research Report No. 970 A report on butterfly abundance and flight periods at Tentsmuir National Nature Reserve, Fife, from 1978 to 2015 For further information on this report please contact: Elspeth Christie Scottish Natural Heritage 46 Crossgate CUPAR KY15 5HS Telephone: 01738 458802 E-mail:
[email protected] This report should be quoted as: Fyfe, G.J. 2018. A report on butterfly abundance and flight periods at Tentsmuir National Nature Reserve, Fife, from 1978 to 2015. Scottish Natural Heritage Research Report No. 970. This report, or any part of it, should not be reproduced without the permission of Scottish Natural Heritage. This permission will not be withheld unreasonably. The views expressed by the author(s) of this report should not be taken as the views and policies of Scottish Natural Heritage. © Scottish Natural Heritage Year 2018. RESEARCH REPORT Summary A report on butterfly abundance and flight periods at Tentsmuir National Nature Reserve, Fife, from 1978 to 2015 Research Report No. 970 Contractor: Dr Gillian J. Fyfe Year of publication: 2018 Keywords butterfly; abundance; trends; ranking; flight period; habitat Background Butterflies have been monitored at Tentsmuir National Nature Reserve since 1978, with over 45,000 individual butterflies recorded. This document reports on the changes in relative abundance of different species and discusses trends in butterfly numbers. The Reserve is dominated by coastal dune grassland and the dynamic coastal environment impacts on the grassland habitat and butterfly ecology.