Long-term population trends in widespread British moths

A - Papers appearing in refereed journals

Conrad, K. F., Woiwod, I. P., Parsons, M., Fox, R. and Warren, M. S. 2004. Long-term population trends in widespread British moths. Journal of Insect Conservation. 8 (2-3), pp. 119-136. https://doi.org/10.1023/B:JICO.0000045810.36433.c6

AuthorsConrad, K. F., Woiwod, I. P., Parsons, M., Fox, R. and Warren, M. S.
Abstract

The Rothamsted Insect Survey has operated a Great Britain-wide network of light-traps since 1968. From these data we estimated the first ever national abundance indices and 35-year population trends for 338 species of common macro-moths. Although the number of trap sites which run each year is not constant, there is a representative, well-distributed core of traps that have run for ≥ 15 years. The proportion of operating sites catching a species and the annual geometric mean catch of successful traps were used to provide estimates of species range and absolute abundance. T, an index of long-term population trends, was used to compare trends among species. T was not biased by trap site turnover. The percentage of species displaying significant decreases (54%) was more than double that displaying increases (22%). Species found throughout Great Britain are decreasing most rapidly in the south and especially the southeast but species with a southerly distribution are increasing. Results of a preliminary overview suggest habitat and climate change may both play a role in changing species dynamics. The existence of estimates of abundances and trends for such a large species pool opens the way for much further research, linking trends with land-use changes, climate change and inter-specific dynamics.

KeywordsAbundance; Lepidoptera; Occupancy; Population dynamics; Population trends; Long-term experiments; RIS
Year of Publication2004
JournalJournal of Insect Conservation
Journal citation8 (2-3), pp. 119-136
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1023/B:JICO.0000045810.36433.c6
Open accessPublished as non-open access
FunderBiotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council
Funder project or code433
510
Long term populating trends in common British moths
Agricultural implications of insect population dynamics and the conservation of biodiversity
Publisher's version
Copyright license
Publisher copyright
File Access Level
Open
Output statusPublished
Publication dates
Online01 Jun 2004
Publication process dates
Accepted18 May 2004
PublisherSpringer
ISSN1366-638X

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