Butterfly monitoring using systematically placed transects in contrasting climatic regions - Exploring an established spatial design for sampling

摘要: Butterfly monitoring schemes are recording programs initiated to monitor nationwide butterfly abundance and distribution patterns, often with help from volunteers. The method generates high-resolution data, but may be associated a degree of habitat sampling bias if volunteers prefer survey areas perceived high-quality habitats. This can result in habitats becoming underrepresented the data set, leading less information about populations there. In present study, we investigate possibility applying spatial design used by Swedish Bird Survey for nationwide, gridbased sampling, goal get covering representative sample different We surveyed four 2×2 km squares, split into 100 m segments, southernmost region Sweden (Scania) northernmost (Norrbotten). grid-based transects were compared volunteer-selected G IS analysis using refined version CORINE land cover see how well these two transect designs represent true coverage. A total 53 was monitored, resulting 490 individuals 29 species recorded. found that correlated significantly overall both methods, though standardised outperformed representation Scania, not Norrbotten. Butterflies aggregate specific habitats, contrasting results geographically regions. Grasslands regions generated high number recorded butterflies, although so did clear-cut residential Norrbotten as well. highest per bogs Scania. study emphasises value complementing free site selection spatially such Survey, sheds some light on general preferences butterflies climatic Copyright Elin Videvall et al. is an open access article distributed under terms Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction any medium, provided original author source credited. (Less)