Colloque - Nouvelles approches pour le suivi des plantes, des pollinisateurs et de leurs interactions dans un monde en changement : The National Plant Monitoring Scheme, a New Direction for UK Plant Recording?

Emmanuelle Porcher

Collège de France

Biodiversité et écosystèmes

Année 2023-2024

Colloque - Nouvelles approches pour le suivi des plantes, des pollinisateurs et de leurs interactions dans un monde en changement : The National Plant Monitoring Scheme, a New Direction for UK Plant Recording?

Oliver L. Pescott

Plant Ecologist, UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, Wallingford, UK

Résumé

Volunteer-based plant monitoring in the UK has focused historically on distribution mapping, with less emphasis on the collection of data on plant communities and habitats. However, abundance monitoring for other groups of organisms is well-established, e.g. for birds and butterflies, and UK conservation agencies have long desired comparable schemes for plants. We describe the first nine years of a new plant citizen science scheme for the UK, the 'National Plant Monitoring Scheme'. Scheme development emphasised volunteer flexibility through co-creation and feedback, whilst retaining a rigorous approach to sampling design. Comparisons with professional surveys have allowed for an understanding of the likely biases inherent to our approach, and model-based adjustments for these are being explored. Understanding the strengths and limitations of the NPMS will guide development, increase trust in outputs, and direct efforts for maintaining volunteer interest, as well as providing a set of ideas for other countries to experiment with.

Oliver L. Pescott

Oli is a plant ecologist who specialises in the design, management and analysis of volunteer-collected botanical datasets ("citizen science"). Within this area he has been instrumental in highlighting and addressing issues of bias, and has recently published the first ever "risk-of-bias" tool for descriptive inference in ecology ("ROBITT"). His botanical experience covers both the field- and desk-based ends of plant ecology; for example, he contributed to the recent Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland's (BSBI) Plant Atlas 2020 as a surveyor, analyst and editor. He is also the current Recording Secretary for the British Bryoloical Society, the referee for alien grasses for the BSBI, and the local bryophyte recorder for Oxfordshire. His other interests include invasive non-native species, the impacts of environmental change on biodiversity, and the communication and presentation of uncertainty in biodiversity trend analyses.