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dc.contributor.authorCroft, Simon
dc.contributor.authorChauvenet, Alienor LM
dc.contributor.authorSmith, Graham C
dc.date.accessioned2018-08-22T02:13:53Z
dc.date.available2018-08-22T02:13:53Z
dc.date.issued2017
dc.identifier.issn1932-6203
dc.identifier.doi10.1371/journal.pone.0176339
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10072/380053
dc.description.abstractRobust policy decisions regarding the protection and management of terrestrial mammals require knowledge of where species are and in what numbers. The last comprehensive review, presenting absolute estimates at a national scale, was published nearly 20 years ago and was largely based on expert opinion. We investigated and propose a systematic data driven approach combing publically available occurrence data with published density estimates to predict species distribution maps and derive total abundance figures for all terrestrial mammals inhabiting Britain. Our findings suggest that the methodology has potential; generally producing plausible predictions consistent with existing information. However, inconsistencies in the availability and recording of data impact the certainty of this output limiting its current application for policy. Restrictions on access and use of occurrence data at a local level produces “data deserts” for which models cannot compensate. This leads to gaps in spatial distribution of species and consequently underestimates abundance. For many species the limited number of geo-referenced densities hampered the extrapolation from habitat suitability to absolute abundance. Even for well-studied species, further density estimates are required. Many density estimates used were pre-1995 and therefore the derived abundance should not be considered a current estimate. To maximise a systematic approach in the future we make the following recommendations: To mitigate the attitudes of a minority of local data providers occurrence records must be submitted to national surveys such as the Mammal Society’s Mammal Tracker. Studies are required to estimate density for common species and in areas of low or no abundance. To ensure such studies can be collated and used efficiently we propose a standardised approach reporting density estimates based on the 1km resolution British National Grid, or habitat representative of the 1km square, with digital maps to accompany publications.
dc.description.peerreviewedYes
dc.languageEnglish
dc.language.isoeng
dc.publisherPublic Library of Sciences
dc.relation.ispartofpagefrome0176339-1
dc.relation.ispartofpagetoe0176339-21
dc.relation.ispartofissue6
dc.relation.ispartofjournalPLoS One
dc.relation.ispartofvolume12
dc.subject.fieldofresearchEcology not elsewhere classified
dc.subject.fieldofresearchConservation and biodiversity
dc.subject.fieldofresearchModelling and simulation
dc.subject.fieldofresearchcode310399
dc.subject.fieldofresearchcode410401
dc.subject.fieldofresearchcode460207
dc.titleA systematic approach to estimate the distribution and total abundance of British mammals
dc.typeJournal article
dc.type.descriptionC1 - Articles
dc.type.codeC - Journal Articles
dcterms.licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.description.versionVersion of Record (VoR)
gro.rights.copyright© 2017 Croft et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
gro.hasfulltextFull Text
gro.griffith.authorChauvenet, Ali


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