Modelling butterfly abundance to inform conservation delivery (James Clarke)

16:00, March 13, Kennedy Seminar Room 2

Abstract: Over the past half-century there has been declines in abundance in the majority of UK butterfly species. The declines are not only indicative of the species themselves through the changes in their habitat and climate, but potentially of other insect species and to the health of the wider environment. To enhance our understanding of what is occurring with these organisms it is important to have accurate and reliable measures of abundance, which could subsequently be used to target species for conservation measures. In this talk I will give an outline of work I am currently carrying out on this through the use of the UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme dataset, as well as future directions that the project could take over the course of my PhD.