Species-Area Relationship for British Plants Across Multiple Spatial Scales

British flora provides a well-studied testing ground for biodiversity estimation methods. This dataset calculates the species-area relationship for British plants using the New Atlas of the British and Irish Flora, assessing species richness across grid scales from 10x10 km to 270x270 km. The analysis was conducted by Chiara Polce at the University of Leeds, considering only grid cells with >75% land area.

Use Cases

• Test biodiversity upscaling approaches based on the species-area relationship described.
• Compare regional biodiversity patterns based on the five regional subsets mentioned.
• Analyze the effect of spatial scale on species richness estimates based on the multi-scale grid resolution.

Strengths

• Derived from the New Atlas of the British and Irish Flora, a recognized source for British flora.
• Analysis performed at multiple spatial scales, from 10x10 km up to 270x270 km.
• Includes calculations for Britain as a whole and for five regional subsets.

Limitations

• Row count and file format are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.

Provenance

Source

New Atlas of the British and Irish Flora (Preston et al. 2002)

Collection Method

Species richness was calculated for grid cells with >75% land area, with cell locations adjusted to maximize cell count at each scale.

Geography

Britain and five regional subsets within Britain.