Ecological landscape elements: long-term monitoring in Great Britain, the Countryside Survey 1978–2007 and beyond

Abstract

Abstract. The Countryside Survey (CS) of Great Britain (GB) provides a unique and statistically robust series of datasets, consisting of an extensive set of repeated ecological measurements at a national scale, covering a time span of 29 years. CS was first undertaken in 1978 to provide a baseline for ecological and land use change monitoring in the rural environment of GB, following a stratified random design, based on 1 km squares. Originally, eight random 1 km squares were drawn from each of 32 environmental classes, thus comprising 256 sample squares in the 1978 survey. The number of these sites increased to 382 in 1984, 506 in 1990, 569 in 1998 and 591 in 2007. Detailed information regarding vegetation types and land use was mapped in all five surveys, allowing reporting by defined standard habitat classifications. Additionally, point and linear landscape features (such as trees and hedgerows) are available from all surveys after 1978. From these stratified, randomly located sample squares, information can be converted into national estimates, with associated error terms.Other data, relating to soils, freshwater and vegetation, were also sampled on analogous dates. However, the present paper describes only the surveys of landscape features and habitats. The resulting datasets provide a unique, comprehensive, quantitative ecological coverage of extent and change in these features in GB. Basic results are presented and their implications discussed. However, much opportunity for further analyses remains.Data from each of the survey years are available via the following DOIs: Landscape area data 1978: https://doi.org/10.5285/86c017ba-dc62-46f0-ad13-c862bf31740e, 1984: https://doi.org/10.5285/b656bb43-448d-4b2c-aade-7993aa243ea3, 1990: https://doi.org/10.5285/94f664e5-10f2-4655-bfe6-44d745f5dca7, 1998: https://doi.org/10.5285/1e050028-5c55-42f4-a0ea-c895d827b824, and 2007: https://doi.org/10.5285/bf189c57-61eb-4339-a7b3-d2e81fdde28d; Landscape linear feature data 1984: https://doi.org/10.5285/a3f5665c-94b2-4c46-909e-a98be97857e5, 1990: https://doi.org/10.5285/311daad4-bc8c-485a-bc8a-e0d054889219, 1998: https://doi.org/10.5285/8aaf6f8c-c245-46bb-8a2a-f0db012b2643 and 2007: https://doi.org/10.5285/e1d31245-4c0a-4dee-b36c-b23f1a697f88, Landscape point feature data 1984: https://doi.org/10.5285/124b872e-036e-4dd3-8316-476b5f42c16e, 1990: https://doi.org/10.5285/1481bc63-80d7-4d18-bcba-8804aa0a9e1b, 1998: https://doi.org/10.5285/ed10944f-40c8-4913-b3f5-13c8e844e153 and 2007: https://doi.org/10.5285/55dc5fd7-d3f7-4440-b8a7-7187f8b0550b.

Land cover and vegetation data from an ecological survey of "key habitat" landscapes in England, 1992–1993

“…Methods of classifying land cover types have since evolved (e.g. Wyatt et al, 1994). It is now possible to present estimates of habitats present in each landscape in terms of standard UK broad habitats (Jackson, 2000) and, in some cases, priority habitats.…”

The Ecology of British Upland Landscapes. I. Composition of Landscapes, Habitats, Vegetation and Species

“…Information is recorded for landscape features, habitats and land cover and for each of the 1 km survey squares ensuring complete coverage (Wood et al, 2018). Initially the data were recorded on standard forms as described in the field handbook (Bunce, 1978).…”

“…These data enable each parcel to be allocated to the Broad and Priority Habitats of the UK Action Plan (Jackson, 2000;Maddock, 2008). Definitions and methodologies of individual vegetation and landscape mapping survey components are documented in Wood et al (2017) and Wood et al (2018). Full details of the Countryside Survey are given by Norton et al (2012) and Carey et al (2008).…”

Integrated ecological monitoring in Wales: the Glastir Monitoring and Evaluation Programme field survey

“…1 km squares were a conveniently sized unit for landscape monitoring which has been adopted by previous successful monitoring programmes. First tested for this type of monitoring in a small scale survey in Cumbria (1975) (Bunce and Smith, 1978) and Shetland (1974) (Wood and Bunce, 2016), the 1 km monitoring unit was later adopted for the Countryside Survey of Great Britain from 1978 (Bunce, 1979) to present day and is used by other current monitoring schemes, such as the Breeding Bird Survey and the Wider Countryside Butterfly Survey (Brereton et al, 2011). The 300 GMEP field survey squares were split evenly into two key components: the 'Wider Wales Component' used for baseline estimation, national trends and national reporting of Glastir, and the 'Targeted Component', which focussed on priority areas and aims of the Glastir scheme (Emmett and GMEP team, 2014).…”