The impact of the UK Hoverflies Facebook group on photographic records This is the second part of my update. It struck me that members might like to see just what an impact this group has had on the accumulation of photographic records. It is absolutely striking! I think it is a great endorsement of what is possible, but there may be issues to deal with in due course. Readers will know from the range of posts that relatively few representatives of some genera appear as posts here, and that there are some genera that really cannot be identified from photos. This means that there will be an inevitable need to look at analytical techniques to make sure that interpretations of trends are not influenced by the recording technique. Stuart has started to look at this and has concluded that there is a skew developing (as I had previously predicted). Data skews are not necessarily a problem provided they are recorgised and taken into account when undertaking analysis. The big question now is how to make sure that some forms of recording are promoted to generate comprehensive data sets. Stuart looked at the data that he, I and a couple of our other big hitters were generating and clearly there is a difference in what occurs. My own analysis (unpublished) showed that there was just over a 50% overlap between the 30 commonest represented species recorded using photography and those recorded by my own sampling - which comprehensively covers all species encountered. Data held by the HRS lies somewhere midway, which indicates that there is undoubtedly a skewing effect. BUT, does this matter? - Maybe not. My instincts are that we will have to split data for certain analytical processes and that the next target for me to pay attention to is developing a set of replacements for the people such as Stuart, me, Alan Stubbs etc. I guess we need at least 20 such recorders to form the nucleus for the next 30 years (and must hopefully encourage a few to take on the role of growing a further generation). What I think is greatly encouraging is that there is so much more interest in hoverflies and that so many of this group are making active contributions that really are useful. The scheme is about so much more than mapping and with your help we will hopefully be able to continue to keep hoverflies high on the agenda of research into the effects of landscape and climate change on Britains wonderful wildlife.
Posted on: Sat, 27 Sep 2014 08:06:52 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015