Welcome to Butterfly Conservation's Science News. In this issue we focus on the latest in a series of groundbreaking reports and a recent paper that collectively demonstrate the scientific and advocacy value of the recording and monitoring work that we do and the datasets that are produced.
We also feature the first paper from a three-year study of silviculture methods written by lead scientist on the project BC Ecologist, Patrick Cook, on the response of bats to a switch from the more usual clear-fell and re-plant approach to forestry to continuous cover forestry. Bats! Surely some mistake? Well, no, this is the first of two papers on this subject – the second, focusing on the moth community responses, will hopefully be published later in 2024.
As always, Science News is an opportunity for Butterfly Conservation to acknowledge the huge contribution of, and to thank, the recorders that enable us to undertake the research we report on here.
Dr Emily Dennis, Senior Ecological Statistician, and other BC staff have been involved in the State of Nature Report’s development, contributing to the work on the creation of and interpretation of trends that assess how nature is doing in the UK, since the first one published in 2013. The latest assessment, the State of Nature 2023, is the fourth report and was released in September. The report, sadly, continues to describe an ongoing decline in UK wildlife, including butterflies and moths. The report, led by the RSPB, was created by a partnership of over 60 conservation and research organisations, of which Butterfly Conservation is proud to be a part. The report collates nearly 50 years of data from monitoring schemes and biological recording schemes, collected by many thousands of dedicated volunteers.
Lead author, Dr Andy Suggitt, describes his recently published paper ‘Linking climate warming and land conversion to species’ range changes across Great Britain’ published in Nature Communications and led by the University of Northumbria and involving Butterfly Conservation. The paper reports on the first nationwide assessment of the combined impacts of long-term land-use and climatic change on species distributions.
Woodlands in the UK have a long history of management, but since the early 20th Century, conifer plantations have become the dominant woodland cover in some landscapes. Plantations are often considered poor for biodiversity, as they have limited structural complexity and consist of single species monocultures, usually of non-native tree species such as Sitka Spruce. Usually, plantations are managed using a technique called clear-fell and replant, which has been criticised for the impacts it has on biodiversity, the provision of ecosystem services and local communities. Patrick Cook summarises his paper demonstrating that a switch to continuous cover forestry techniques could support bats in conifer plantations.
Finally, in our series of interviews featuring members of Butterfly Conservation’s research team and our close colleagues, we present an interview with Dr James Clarke who recently completed his PhD at the University of Kent under the supervision of Butterfly Conservation’s Senior Ecological Statistician Dr Emily Dennis, Professor Rachel McCrea from Lancaster University, and Professor Byron Morgan from the University of Kent. Congratulations to James on completing his important research to improve the statistical methods used to analyse UKBMS data - the team are delighted that James has secured a new job and wish him good luck in his new role.
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Nigel Bourn, Chief Scientist
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