General enquiries on this form should be made to: Defra, Science Directorate, Management Support and Finance Team, Telephone No. 020 7238 1612 E-mail: [email protected] SID 5 Research Project Final Report z Note In line with the Freedom of Information Act 2000, Defra aims to place the results Project identification of its completed research projects in the public domain wherever possible. The 1. Defra Project code CR 0304 SID 5 (Research Project Final Report) is designed to capture the information on the results and outputs of Defra-funded 2. Project title research in a format that is easily Developing a UK-wide butterfly monitoring scheme: publishable through the Defra website. A SID 5 must be completed for all projects. integrating the wider countryside • This form is in Word format and the boxes may be expanded or reduced, as 3. Contractor CENTRE FOR ECOLOGY AND appropriate. organisation(s) HYDROLOGY, MONKS WOOD ABBOTS RIPTON z ACCESS TO INFORMATION HUNTINGDON The information collected on this form will CAMBRIDGESHIRE be stored electronically and may be sent PE28 2LS to any part of Defra, or to individual researchers or organisations outside Defra for the purposes of reviewing the project. Defra may also disclose the information to any outside organisation acting as an agent authorised by Defra to process final research reports on its behalf. Defra intends to publish this form on its website, unless there are strong reasons not to, which fully comply with 4. Total Defra project costs £ 428,878 exemptions under the Environmental (agreed fixed price) Information Regulations or the Freedom of Information Act 2000. 5. Project: start date................ 01 January 2005 Defra may be required to release information, including personal data and commercial information, on request under end date................. 31 March 2008 the Environmental Information Regulations or the Freedom of Information Act 2000. However, Defra will not permit any unwarranted breach of confidentiality or act in contravention of its obligations under the Data Protection Act 1998. Defra or its appointed agents may use the name, address or other details on your form to contact you in connection with occasional customer research aimed at improving the processes through which Defra works with its contractors. SID 5 (Rev. 3/06) Page 1 of 37 6. It is Defra’s intention to publish this form. Please confirm your agreement to do so....................................................................................YES NO (a) When preparing SID 5s contractors should bear in mind that Defra intends that they be made public. They should be written in a clear and concise manner and represent a full account of the research project which someone not closely associated with the project can follow. Defra recognises that in a small minority of cases there may be information, such as intellectual property or commercially confidential data, used in or generated by the research project, which should not be disclosed. In these cases, such information should be detailed in a separate annex (not to be published) so that the SID 5 can be placed in the public domain. Where it is impossible to complete the Final Report without including references to any sensitive or confidential data, the information should be included and section (b) completed. NB: only in exceptional circumstances will Defra expect contractors to give a "No" answer. In all cases, reasons for withholding information must be fully in line with exemptions under the Environmental Information Regulations or the Freedom of Information Act 2000. (b) If you have answered NO, please explain why the Final report should not be released into public domain Executive Summary 7. The executive summary must not exceed 2 sides in total of A4 and should be understandable to the intelligent non-scientist. It should cover the main objectives, methods and findings of the research, together with any other significant events and options for new work. Butterflies are widely recognised as being uniquely placed amongst British terrestrial insect and other invertebrate groups to act as indicators of the state of the environment and the progress of policy initiatives such as the UK Biodiversity Action Plan, agri-environment schemes and protected areas. The UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme (UKBMS) is a world-renowned scheme that has operated since 1976 with support from the Joint Nature Conservation Committee and the Natural Environment Research Council. Between 2005 and 2008 the scheme has undergone a major re-development and expansion through funding by a broader multi-agency consortium led by Defra. The major highlights from the UKBMS between 2005 and 2008 have been: 1. A single scheme for monitoring the changing abundance of UK butterflies • The scheme comprises an integrated network of over 1500 transect and 250 non-transect monitored sites, with more than 900 sites monitored each year. • The monitoring network has undergone significant expansion, especially in Wales and Northern Ireland where, for example, transect coverage has improved by 400%. • There have been substantial efficiency improvements. • The UKBMS project has enabled the network of monitored sites that can be collated by a single co- ordinator (now at BC) to increase from 140 sites in 2007, to ~870 in 2007. • The level of annual electronic data entry has increased from ~60% in 2004 to ~95% by. 2006. 2. An expanded dataset for reporting on species population trends • There has been a large (551%) increase in the number of sites used to compile national species abundance indices, with the increase evident in all UK countries. • There has also been an increase in reliable annual indices and population trends for resident and regular migrant butterflies in the United Kingdom from 41 to 49 species (out of 62). 3. New assessments of species status Over the UKBMS project, there have been a number of important analyses completed. These include: • Assessment of species qualifying for inclusion on the revised UK BAP Priority Species list • Assessment of long-term trends in UK butterflies for a major new review of status, through the publication the State of Butterflies in Britain and Ireland, published in 2006 • A re-assessment of the status of butterflies on agriculturally managed land in and outside of agri- environment scheme agreement. • Compilation and annual updates to Government adopted Biodiversity Indicators. • Recent, rapidly declining species of urgent conservation concern include the Duke of Burgundy, Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary, Pearl-bordered Fritillary and Wood White. • Conservation management is beginning to have a positive impact regionally for some declining SID 5 (Rev. 3/06) Page 2 of 37 species including High Brown Fritillary and Heath Fritillary. Populations of two BAP Priority species, Silver-spotted Skipper and Adonis Blue have recovered and these species have been removed from the revised UK BAP Priority species list. 4. A review of the suitability of current UKBMS methods for species monitoring The review evaluated current methods for all UK butterfly species and highlighted that: • The majority of habitat specialist species are well monitored. • The main butterfly group currently not monitored effectively through current UKBMS methods are the canopy-dwelling species, especially the hairstreaks. • There is potential to develop improved methods for these species, through further research. • Research is also required to develop suitable monitoring methods for high altitude species such as Mountain Ringlet. • A further recommendation is to incorporate scientifically validated adult, egg and larval web count data for Black Hairstreak, Brown Hairstreak, Glanville Fritillary and Large Blue data into the UKBMS and to develop an overall strategy for UK butterfly monitoring. 5. The development of Government adopted Butterfly biodiversity indicators • Butterfly biodiversity indicators have been published for England, Scotland and the United Kingdom. The UKBMS has also contributed to international initiatives, including a European Butterfly Indicator. • The work has involved developing an analytical procedure for rapid compilation of the indicators to enable timely annual updates. • The indicators highlight the continued problems that habitat specialist butterflies face across the UK, with the problems most acute in lowland woodland habitats. • Specialist species are also in decline on semi-natural farmland, though agri-environment schemes are helping to slow or reverse some of the species, including BAP Priority species. • In contrast, wider countryside species have fared better, with stable trends in England and the UK and a significant increase in Scotland since 1979. 6. A scheme for monitoring butterflies in the wider countryside • A new scheme has been developed that is both scientifically valid and efficient has been developed, field tested and piloted using volunteer recorders. • The basic method involves recording along two parallel 1-km transects within 1-km squares identified by stratified random sampling. Butterflies and other insects with similar search images (day-flying moths and dragonflies) are recorded in the conventional 5m box in equal length transect section. An additional method for monitoring a suite of easily identifiable insect species has been developed to be carried out after the main survey. • Field testing took place over three years and in 2007 the method was tested by volunteer recorders on 310 squares and the