Israeli Butterfly Monitoring Scheme (BMS-IL) - DEMO

Israel Peer1, Dubi Benyamini2, Guy Pe'er3, Kyle Braak4

1 GlueCAD, Hantke 39, 3460814, Haifa, Israel; 2 The Israeli Lepidopterists Society, 91 Levona Str., 71947, Bet Arye, Israel; 3 Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ, Permoserstr. 15, 04318, Leipzig, Germany; 4 GBIF, , Denmark

Corresponding author(s): Israel Peer (israel@gluecad.com)

Received {date}; Revised {date}; Accepted {date}; Published {date}

Citation: Combination of authors, year of data paper publication (in parentheses), Title, Journal Name, Volume, Issue number (in parentheses), and doi of the data paper.

Resource Citation

Peer I (2014): Israeli Butterfly Monitoring Scheme (BMS-IL). v6.16. ILS - Israeli Lepidopterists’ society. Dataset/Samplingevent. http://cloud.gbif.org/eubon/resource?r=butterflies-monitoring-scheme-il&v=6.16

Abstract

The Israeli Butterfly Monitoring Scheme (BMS-IL). This dataset is for demonstration purpose only. The up-to-date maintained version of this dataset can be found here: http://cloud.gbif.org/eubon/resource?r=butterflies-monitoring-scheme-il
The phenology and abundance estimates derived from the systematic observations performed by BMS-IL observers, serve as excellent indicators for trends in biodiversity, impacts of land-use change, and climate change. Particularly, due to Israel's geographic location, the migration of desert species serves as a valuable indicator of the impacts of extreme weather events on biodiversity.
We share our data openly with the philosophy that transparency and sharing are routes for rapid knowledge generation, cooperation, and capacity building.
New collaborations are extremely valuable to make the most of the data. Researchers are more thus encouraged to contact the dataset owners to collaborate on joint analyses and meta-analyses.
Note the dataset can also be explored here: http://www.gluecad.com/buttdb/hompage.asp?lng=eng

Keywords: samplingevent, Other, Occurrence, butterflies, Lepidoptera, Israel, Systematic monitoring

General description

Purpose: The main objective of the scheme is to provide reliable data for assessing the status and trends in the abundance and phenology of Israel's butterﬂies, for both conservation and research purposes.
Additional information: All sampling events in this dataset are recorded at the section level. Users who wish to derive butterfly density, please sum up all butterflies observed in all sections within a given transect, and calculate the area as "total-transect-length x 5m". The total number of sections within a given transect can be found in the measurements or facts data.

Project details

Project title: Israel Butterflies Systematic Monitoring Scheme
Personnel: Israel Peer, Racheli Schwartz-Tzachor Schwartz-Tzachor, Guy Pe'er
Funding: Private
Study area descriptions/descriptor: Established in April 2009, the Israeli Butterfly Monitoring Scheme (BMS-IL) covers Israeli's geographic borders and runs starting 20 transects to about 40 transects in 2015.
Design description: Transect lengths range between 300 and 600 m in length, and divide into 50 m sections. Transect usually cover a single habitat type. In each visit, transect-walkers count all butterfly species that can be seen within a range of 5 m range. Special behaviours (egg laying or nectaring), as well as butterfly larvae or eggs, can be registered as well. Transect walks in Europe are performed weekly, but here in Israel, we conduct them once in two weeks from the beginning of October to the end of June - to account for the longer activity period of butterflies in Israel, and the impacts of climate change.

Data published through GBIF: http://eubon-ipt.gbif.org/resource?r=bms-il-example

Taxonomic coverage

General taxonomic coverage description: Butterflies
Taxonomic ranks
Order: Lepidoptera

Spatial coverage

General spatial coverage: Israel Borders
Coordinates: 27°41'60''N and 33°26'24''N Latitude; 33°46'12''E and 36°0'0''E Longitude 

Temporal coverage: October 2, 2009 - October 31, 2015

Methods

Method step description: 
- . 	Selection of location and route of transect is verified by a scientific/principal investigator.
- . 	On the first visit to a new transect, the observer is guided by an expert along the transect. Note each section is numbered and marked.
- . 	Start time and weather conditions are recorded first.
- . 	During transect walk, the observer walks the entire transect and for each section records the count of every butterfly species that can be seen within a 5x5x5m imaginary cube (i.e., within a range of 2.5 m to the sides and 5 m front and above).
- . 	To avoid errors in abundance calculations, individuals that cannot be identified to the species level are registered either by family or as a predefined complex of two or three similar species.
- . 	Butterflies seen outside of the 5m range can be recorded by the observer as ‘Extra’ alongside the code of the nearest section (e.g. 5-extra). However, these extra observations are regarded as sporadic data and are never included in the total number of butterflies observed within the controlled transect area.
- . 	Time ends is recorded.
- . 	If no butterflies are seen for the entire transect, the observer types "non seen" to ensure that the absence event is still registered. Note this is important later on when modelling butterfly flight curves and abundances taking into consideration all observations events.
- . 	Observer logs in to the server and types in the data. Absence events are recorded using “-s00” – standard notation.
- . 	Data is ready for verification by the expert.
Study extent description: Transect walks for Butterfly Monitoring Schemes (BMS) in Europe are usually performed weekly, but here in Israel, we conduct them once every two weeks from the beginning of October to the end of June - to account for the longer activity period of butterflies in Israel, and the impacts of climate change.
Sampling description: Transects are divided into 50m sections and range between 300m and 600m in total length. A transect usually covers a single habitat type. The observer counts the number of every butterfly species that can be seen within a 5m range for each section within the transect. As in all other systematic Butterfly Monitoring Schemes (BMS), the entire transect must always be walked (partial transect walks are not recorded). Furthermore, when no butterfly species are seen for the entire transect, the absence event is still recorded using “-s00” standard notation. Special behaviours such as egg laying or drinking nectar as well as butterfly larvae or eggs can be recorded as well.
Quality control description: Every reported record is flagged "forApproval". Record status is changed to "Approved" upon and by expert only. Species out of season or distribution area are flagged for additional verification.

Datasets

Dataset description
Object name: Darwin Core Archive Israeli Butterfly Monitoring Scheme (BMS-IL) - DEMO
Character encoding: UTF-8
Format name: Darwin Core Archive format
Format version: 1.0
Distribution: http://eubon-ipt.gbif.org/archive.do?r=bms-il-example
Publication date of data: 2016-12-23
Language: English
Licences of use: Public Domain (CC0 1.0)

Metadata language: English
Date of metadata creation: 2014-08-28
Hierarchy level: Dataset

References
For more information on Israel's butterflies, see
Benyamini, D. (2002) A Field Guide to the Butterflies of Israel, Including of Mt. Hermon, Sinai and Jordan (Revised edition). Keter Publishing House, Jerusalem (in Hebrew. Maps and activity periods are illustrated visually).
For effective data analysis, see:
Dennis, E. B., Freeman, S. N., Brereton, T., Roy, D. B. (2013), Indexing butterfly abundance whilst accounting for missing counts and variability in seasonal pattern. Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 4: 637–645. doi: 10.1111/2041-210X.12053 https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/2041-210X.12053
Schmucki, R., G. Pe'er, D. B. Roy, C. Stefanescu, C. Van Swaay, T. H. Oliver, M. Kuusaari, A. Van Strien, L. Ries, J. Settele, M. Musche, J. Carnicer, O. Schweiger, T. Brereton, A. Harpke, J. Heliölä, E. Kühn, and R. Julliard (2015) Regionally informed abundance index for supporting integrative analyses across butterfly monitoring schemes. Journal of Applied Ecology, online first. doi: 10.1111/1365-2664.12561 https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.12561
For guidelines on systematic butterfly monitoring see
Van Swaay, C., Regan, E., Ling, M., Bozhinovska, E., Fernandez, M.,  
Marini-Filho, O.J., Huertas, B., Phon, C.-K., K”orösi, A., Meerman, J., Pe’er, G., Uehara-Prado, M., Sáfián, S., Sam, L., Shuey, J., Taron, D., Terblanche, R., and Underhill, L. (2015). Guidelines for Standardised Global Butterfly Monitoring. Group on Earth Observations Biodiversity Observation Network, Leipzig, Germany. GEO BON Technical Series 1, 32pp. http://www.geobon.org/Downloads/reports/GEOBON/2015/Global%20Butterfly%20Monitoring_Web.pdf