Annual data from 2014 for two measures of butterfly population abundance in the UK, tracking habitat specialists and wider countryside species. The dataset is part of a suite of 24 UK biodiversity indicators published by the Joint Nature Conservation Committee on behalf of Defra. Butterflies are used as indicators because they respond rapidly to environmental changes and represent other insects.
Use Cases
- Analyzing long-term population trends for specialist butterfly species based on the described annual abundance measures.
- Studying the impact of weather conditions on insect populations based on the described marked annual fluctuations.
- Comparing biodiversity indicators across different taxonomic groups (e.g., birds, bats) based on the described complementary role of butterflies.
- Assessing habitat management effectiveness for semi-natural grasslands based on the described association of specialist species with these habitats.
Strengths
- Data is part of a formal, published suite of 24 UK biodiversity indicators managed by a government body (JNCC/Defra).
- Includes two distinct, described measures of annual abundance for different ecological groups (specialist and wider countryside butterflies).
- Butterflies are described as responsive indicators, suitable for tracking environmental changes.
Limitations
- The latest data point is for 2014, which may limit analysis of recent trends.
- Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
- Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for large-scale modeling.
Provenance
- Source
- Joint Nature Conservation Committee
- Collection Method
- The supporting technical document details the methodology used to create the indicator.
- Time Range
- Annual data up to 2014.
- Freshness
- Last updated 2026-07-08 13:32:49.393124; freshness should be verified.
- Geography
- United Kingdom