Climate, collaboration and collection Informing the new conservation - - PDF document

13th National Biodiversity Network Conference: Friday 15th November 2013

Climate, collaboration and collection – Informing the new conservation agenda

Presentation Outline Summary

10.15 Professor Ian Boyd, Chief Scientist Advisor at Defra Keynote address ‘ Biodiversity, habitats and Earth Observation: futures for Big data in the UK’ 10.45 Katie Winney, National Trust Biological recording in a changing world. Collecting data through to managing for change on National Trust land The National Trust owns nearly 250,000 ha of land and 1200 km of coastline in England, Wales and NI. Much of it is held inalienably and a relatively high proportion is designated for nature features. Of the environmental drivers of species decline, climate change is the key factor impacting on UK wildlife. Major landowners such as the National Trust have the potential to track and report changes in species and habitats over big temporal and spatial scales, and to provide large spaces for people and nature. Through examples we describe the use of in house and external expert biological surveyors, including Volunteers, to track environmental changes. The increasing usefulness of Citizen Science‐based projects, together with a plethora of innovative survey techniques means we can help connect people with nature, as well as conduct effective management of non‐ native and native species. Large scale planning with partners (including our farming tenants) should make it easier for animals, plants and people to move through landscapes, and therefore cope better with environmental change. In the implementation

• f such landscape scale projects, it will be critical to design monitoring programmes that demonstrate whether or not the

expected added values of going large scale have been realised. Citizen science based species recording has the potential to do this work. 11.05 Matt Davies, Greenspace Information Greater London (GiGL) Daylighting recent GiGL projects Matt is Operations Manager at Greenspace Information for Greater London CIC (GiGL) ‐ the capital’s environmental records

• centre. GiGL collate, manage and make available detailed information on London’s wildlife, parks, nature reserves, gardens and
• ther open spaces. As members of the Association of Local Environmental Record Centres (ALERC) and the London and South

East Record Centre group (LaSER), GiGL operate what might be called a ‘local biodiversity network’. The full breadth of GiGL work is astounding and in his presentation Matt will explore a few recent projects to showcase, or daylight, some geospatial products and services created to meet the diverse needs of 50+ partner organisations. Drawing on some inspiring and novel projects, Matt will show how GiGL data is used to support decision making, whether it be targeting action to alleviate inequalities in the public’s access to green‐space or ensuring positive outcomes for nature. 11.55 TBC

12.05 Peter Doherty, Atlas of Living Australia The Atlas of Living Australia – Open Infrastructure facilitates Innovation! The Atlas of Living Australia is the result of a $46m+ investment by the Australian Government and a strong partnership between Australian Museums, Herbaria, CSIRO, other Govt agencies and biological collections. The Atlas has delivered significant free and

• pen infrastructure available over the Internet but also facilitates new and innovative products. Peter Doherty, born in Belfast and

an actual “10 pound pom” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Pound_Poms) from a very young age (so no Northern Irish accent is detectable) ‐ is the Program Manager for the Atlas and will provide an overview of the system and opportunities for innovation. He will demonstrate how the Atlas is able to support data capture, management, discovery, visualisation and analysis of biodiversity and related data – particularly for Citizen Scientists and communities. Modern and open source IT products are used to manage a huge variety of data as represented by the rich diversity provided by nature – but additional value is also achieved by exposing both data and capabilities (such as species occurrence data, maps and mapping services) for re‐use in other websites and apps. The Atlas has built specific tools that engage, educate and empower Citizens – including tools such as “Explore your area”, the Volunteer Portal and advanced data capture tools used for single species observations through to advanced vegetation

• assessments. We are also working on tools to integrate data submission with crowdsourced identification along with alerting users

to gaps in data in their local area or perhaps specific information as requested by Scientists. 12.25 Speed talks

• John Tweddle, Natural History Museum ‘Introducing 'Identification: Trainers for the Future'

The Identification Trainers for the Future project is an exciting new collaboration between the NHM, NBNT and FSC. Funded by HLF, it aims to proactively support the UK’s taxonomic skills‐base, with a focus on developing identification, biological recording and associated museum skills. Between 2015‐2018 the NHM will host fifteen, 12‐month training placements for early career UK biodiversity professionals. These will provide each trainee with the expertise to help document, monitor and understand changes in the distribution and abundance of species in the UK, and to then pass on this knowledge to others. Alongside these core placements, the project will provide face‐to‐face identification training for up to 1,000 people and create a wide range of identification training resources.

• Lori Lawson Handley, University of Hull ‘How will the molecular revolution contribute to biological recording?’

Recent advances in molecular technology including DNA barcoding, metabarcoding and environmental DNA (“eDNA”) are revolutionising the fields of taxonomy, evolutionary biology and ecology. Since species shed DNA into their surrounding environment, eDNA is a particularly attractive tool for non invasive biological recording. eDNA is proving more sensitive and cost effective than traditional detection methods, and has already proven to be very effective in detecting rare, endangered and invasive species. I will discuss the promise and potential pitfalls with eDNA, and suggest ways this technique could contribute to biological recording.

• Chris Raper, Natural History Museum ‘ What’s next for the UK Species Inventory?’

Chris will describe his vision for how the UK Species Inventory will be developed in the next 10 years, both in terms of the administration tools and the scope of the database itself.

• Charles Roper, Sussex Biodiversity Record Centre ‘Open Data: The Future of Data Sharing’

Open Data: The Future of Data Sharing. The World Wide Web has permeated our society and changed the way we think about finding, accessing and sharing information. Open Data promises the same for the way we think about data. A global movement, spearheaded by Sir Tim Berners‐Lee and Sir Nigel Shadbolt at the Open Data Institute and championed by governments,

• rganisations and citizens around the world, Open Data has arrived. This talk offers a short introduction to the concept, a look at:

why it's important, why you should pay attention and where to find further information. 14.05 The Sir John Burnett Memorial Lecture, 2014 – Professor Chris Thomas ‘Biodiversity Change and Conservation in the Anthropocene’ We are living in a period of rapid environmental change, including loss of megafauna, habitat change, nitrogen deposition and climate change. These environmental agents of change are, in combination, generating major changes to the distributions of species, a phenomenon that is particularly well documented in Britain where we benefit from NBN‐linked recording schemes. This dynamism in the distributions of species challenges us. Scientifically, we need to understand how present‐day patterns of biodiversity and the distributions of individual species have emerged from past environmental changes; and how they might change in future. In the context of conservation and pest control strategies, dynamic distributions and rapid recent evolution challenge our attitudes to non‐native species and novel hybrid species, and lead us to consider whether we should adopt conservation strategies that actively promote the conservation of species outside their historical ranges.

14.35 Dave Goulson, University of Sussex ‘Pollinator monitoring (or lack of it) and climate change’ There is much interest in pollinator declines and the causes of those declines, but few or no actual data on trends in populations of most pollinators. At present we are not able to detect impacts of climate change, or any other environmental change. I will discuss what effects we might expect climate change to have on pollinators, and the obstacles that need to be overcome to set up an effective pollinator monitoring program in the UK. The NBN Gateway can be used to share and access data on pollinators to help make this information available to those who need to use it. 14.55 Savita Custead, Bristol Natural History Consortium Can BioBlitz be a pathway to future recording? BioBlitz events have become increasingly popular over the last 6 years. Those involved regularly discuss and debate their potential in contributing to both public engagement and data recording aims. In 2014, the National BioBlitz network undertook a special project, with 10 BioBlitzes testing how the format could be a pathway to future recording. This session will briefly outline the

• bjectives of the format, and present initial results from this national project.

15.45 Richard Pywell, Centre for Ecology and Hydrology The use of biological records to answer pressing environmental challenges The UK is very fortunate in its long history of biological recording. The 96million observations available on the NBN gateway provide research scientists with a uniquely valuable data resource with which to detect and understand environmental change. This capability is rapidly being enhanced by technological advances in data collection and improved analytical tools. In this talk I give an

• verview of how researchers are using biological records to: i) develop indicators for conservation policy, ii) detect species

responses to drivers such as climate change, pollution and habitat loss; iii) measure the impacts of alien species invasions; and iv) predict threats to ecosystem services important for human wellbeing. 16.05 John Sawyer, NBN Trust Refreshing the NBN strategy ‐ delivering a data driven partnership for nature The NBN is an ever‐growing network of individuals and organisations, recording and caring for the UK’s wildlife data and making it universally accessible in a variety of ways to achieve a wide variety of outcomes. Recent changes in NBN Trust staff, technological advances for biological recording and data curation and the ever changing landscape of biodiversity activity in the UK have led to a need to refresh the Network’s current strategy (published in June 2010). This talk will outline the National Biodiversity Network’s strategic direction for the next 10 years including its new mission, aims and objectives. It will provide an overview of what the NBN Trust has heard from people and organisations throughout the UK including challenges and proposed solutions. A number of projects and programmes will be highlighted to illustrate how the NBN will work collaboratively to deliver positive outcomes in decision‐making for wildlife and the environment. This includes everything from capturing, diversifying, enhancing and using wildlife data to captivating and engaging people about wildlife. Finally, this talk will highlight the critical importance of the NBN working towards more, bigger, better and joined up biological data and information.