Introduction and Executive Summary 1 Polli:Nation Survey Method 2 Summary of Effort and Uptake 2016 3 How many people took part and what experience did they have? 3 Making improvements 3 Where did the surveys take place? 4 Survey Site Information 5 Which habitats were present for pollinators? 5 What was the landscape around the survey site like? 6 Which species of plant were present and were they in flower? 7 Pollinator Survey Results 9 What were the weather condition like during the surveys? 9 A summary of the pollinator surveys 10 Delving Deeper into the Data 11 Species Quest 13 Key Findings 15 Acknowledgements 16
Polli:Nation - A Heritage Lottery funded UK wide initiative supporting pupils from 260 schools to turn their school grounds and other local walk-to spaces into pollinator friendly habitats. As part of this programme, the OPAL Polli:Nation Survey was developed to: Survey their patch using the OPAL Polli:Nation survey Make improvements for pollinators on their patch See how well it has worked using the OPAL survey to see the impact the improvements have had. This cross-curricula project will give participants (aka citizen scientists) direct hands-on experiences; from creating vertical green walls and night-blooming flower beds to lobbying to change school maintenance regimes and debating pesticide use. Citizen scientists will learn about the role pollinating insects play in eco system services and be able to contextualise this in the choices and actions they take. Alongside creating a network of knowledgeable and enthused young activists, the ambition of this programme is to utilise school grounds and other outdoor spaces to form local green corridors and stepping stones, enabling species to move between core areas thereby contributing to the overall aim of the project by increasing numbers and sightings of pollinating insects in the UK. The aim of the project is to engage and enthuse children and young people to protect pollinating insect species in the UK. The outcome of the project is to see an increase in the number and diversity of pollinating insect species in school grounds and local community spaces across the UK. This report summarises the key findings of the first survey season in 2016. Polli:Nation is a partnership project with the following organisations. 1
The Polli:Nation survey is a large-scale national survey that will provide answers to important research questions about the health and status of pollinating insects across the UK. A core part of the project is to engage pupils and the community in biological recording within school grounds and other local green spaces. The Polli:Nation Partnership designed the survey method to investigate the number of pollinators using different habitats at survey sites. For those registered schools within the Polli:Nation project the survey is also tailored to track the impact of positive changes made to school grounds to encourage more pollinating insects. The survey is structured in two parts: A) Habitats: This part of the survey looks at what is on offer for pollinators in survey sites (10m x 10m areas selected by participants) within the school ground in terms of providing feeding, nesting and sheltering resources. Participants were asked to map the site onto a grid (see below) and count the number of 1m x 1m squares containing different habitat types and also record which plant species are present. B) Pollinators: The second part of the survey involves counting the number of pollinating insects visiting flowers in quadrats within the survey sites. For each pollinator survey participants recorded the weather conditions, habitat type, floweriness and most common flowers within a quadrat. The pollinators were recorded in 9 different groups: Bumblebees, Honeybees, Solitary bees, Butterflies, Moths, Hoverflies, Other Flies, Beetles, Unidentified insects. Participants could also take part in the Species Quest by identifying a suite of pollinators from a list of 12 species (see below). 2
How many people took part and what experience did they have? In total we received 621 sets of results, 474 were complete submissions and 147 were incomplete. The 474 sets of complete results were entered by 229 individual groups, 157 of these groups were registered Polli:Nation Schools and 72 were not registered. From the 72 unregistered groups, a further 16 groups were from primary or secondary schools. Therefore in total, submissions were received from 173 school groups. From the 474 results submissions, 364 (76.8%) were received from registered Polli:Nation schools. Considering the number of results submissions per group, 61% of groups submitted one set of results, 14% of groups submitted 2 sets of results and a further 25% submitted at least 3 sets of results. The highest number of submissions was 21 from The Redhill Academy in Nottinghamshire. The highest number of submissions were received from registered Polli:Nation Primary Schools (63%) and Secondary Schools (20%). The remaining 17% of submissions (78) were received from volunteer groups, family/friends groups, youth groups, colleges/universities or other. A higher percentage of groups had some previous experience in identifying insects (61%) compared to 39% who had never identified insects before. Across the different groups taking part, 55% of primary school groups and 62% of secondary school groups had some previous experience of identifying insects. Making improvements The Polli:Nation survey is designed to compare before and after any habitat changes are made at a site to investigate how pollinators have benefited. From the 229 groups, 65% were proposing to make changes to the school grounds. As this was the first year there are no complete sets of before and after improvements results submissions. 3
Where did the surveys take place? The Polli:Nation Survey is open to anyone to take part. The location of the participating groups and schools is shown in Figure 1. The highest proportion of groups (43%) were located in England followed by 28% in Scotland and 21% in Wales. There were 16 groups that submitted results in Northern Ireland and one group in the Republic of Ireland. Overall there was relatively good coverage of the UK and Northern Ireland although there are significant gaps in East Anglia, the south west, the north of England, southern Scotland and the borders and the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. Figure 1: Location of the 229 groups across the British Isles 4
Before the actual surveys of the pollinators took place, participants had to choose a 10x10m survey site within their school grounds or local patch. Participants were asked to map the site onto a grid and count the number of 1x1m squares containing different habitat types and also record which plant species are present. This section describes what habitats and flower species were found in the sites. Which habitats were present for pollinators? The aim was to select a survey site which contained a representative mix of habitat features and plants in flower. The most commonly recorded resource type was short grass whereby in 210 surveys, the survey site was at least 50% short grass (Table 1). This represents huge potential for improvements for pollinators. The second most common habitat type encountered was wildflowers with 66 survey sites being at least 50% covered in wildflowers and at 18 sites the whole area was wildflowers. Given that this was the first year of the survey, it is encouraging to see that there are already such a high number of schools with wildflower areas present. Another interesting result was that 168m 2 of manmade pollinator habitat was recorded across all survey sites (bee hotels and bee hives). Table 1: The area recorded of each habitat resource and the number of sites at which each resource constituted at least 50% of the area of the site. Resource type Habitat type Total (m 2 ) Number of survey sites more than 50% coverage Feeding habitat Flower beds or pots 2852 7 Wildflowers 8097 66 Trees 2918 9 Total 13867 Nesting and shelter Bare ground 2442 11 Man-made 168 0 pollinator homes Damp places 901 2 Total 3511 Other habitat Bare walls or fences 1616 2 Concrete or tarmac 4358 33 Short grass 19417 210 Total 25390 5
Figure 2: The proportional area of different habitats recorded in the survey sites What was the landscape around the survey site like? Participants were also asked to look beyond the 10 x 10m survey site and see what the landscape was like for pollinators. The most frequently observed habitat beyond the survey site was trees (88% of responses; Figure 3) and this is to be expected as trees are more conspicuous in the landscape. In second place was short grass (82% of submissions) and bare walls or fences (75%). Encouragingly it wasn t just concrete/tarmac that was commonly observed beyond the survey area and in 74% of surveys, wildflower areas were also observed in the wider area (Figure 3). Figure 3: The percentage of submissions for which different habitats were observed outside of the survey site area 6
Which species of plant were present and were they in flower? From a list of 8 woody plants, 8 garden plants and 8 wild flowers the most frequently recorded species in flower within the survey sites was the daisy (66% of submissions) followed by buttercup (55%), dandelion (40%) and clover (38%) (Table 2). For the species not in flower, clover was most frequently recorded (26% of submissions) followed by dandelion (22%). Table 2: The percentage of submissions which recorded each of the 28 pollinator-friendly plant species in flower and not in flower. Flower species In flower (% submissions where recorded) Not in flower (% submissions where recorded) Daisy 66 11 Buttercup 55 16 Dandelion 40 22 Clover 38 26 Nettle 22 19 Bramble 16 20 Umbelifers 14 9 Vetches 12 6 Lavender 11 5 Fruit tree 10 17 Dead-nettle 10 5 Thistle 9 18 Wild Rose 8 6 Willowherb 8 9 Hawthorn 7 15 Ivy 7 17 Chives 7 4 Ragwort 7 8 Buddleia 6 8 Verbena 6 4 Knapweed 6 7 Willow 5 12 Marjoram 4 5 Mint 4 8 Heather 4 4 Sedum 3 4 Blackthorn 2 7 Sea Holly 1 3 7
In terms of the number of species recorded (diversity), around 30% of submissions recorded none of the species on the list not in flower but only 7% recorded no species in flower. This is good news as it means that 93% of quadrats had some flowers in them! For those species in flower the most common level of species diversity was 3 species (20% of submissions) followed by 4 species (18%) (Figure 4). For species recorded not in flower, over 50% of submissions recorded between 1-5 species (Figure 5). Figure 4: The number of submissions recording different numbers of species flower Figure 5: The number of submissions recording different numbers of species that were not in flower 8
The pollinator survey involves counting the number of pollinating insects visiting flowers within a 1m x 1m quadrat over a 2 minute period. In this section, the results are investigated at the quadrat level with respect to factors such as weather conditions during the survey, habitat type, floweriness and most common flower. What were the weather conditions like during the surveys? The chances of seeing pollinators actively pollinating flowers is largely affected by the weather and therefore for each 2 minute survey, participants recorded the weather (sunny, partially sunny or cloudy) the temperature and the wind (leaves on trees still, leaves moving gently all the time, leaves moving strongly). The surveys were carried out in good weather conditions. Indeed 83% of the surveys took place in sunny or partly sunny conditions and only 8% of the surveys took place when the wind was strong enough to make leaves move strongly. A high proportion (86%) of surveys took place when the air temp was above 15 C which is a good temperature for pollinating insects to be active (Figure 6). Figure 6: Number of surveys undertaken at different temperatures 9
A summary of the pollinator surveys In total, 1238 pollinator surveys (2 minutes each) took place representing nearly 42 hours of survey time. From the 474 completed surveys, 85% included at least 2 quadrats and 76% submitted 3 quadrat surveys. The most popular habitat for the pollinator surveys wildflower habitats (33% of surveys) followed by short grass (32%) and flower beds or pots (18%) (Figure 7). Figure 7: The proportion of different habitat types surveyed in the 1238 pollinator surveys Within each quadrat, participants recorded the level of floweriness in 3 categories: less than half, half and more than half. The most flowery quadrats were found within flower beds or pots and wildflower habitats (Figure 8). Similarly the least flowery quadrats were surveyed on concrete/tarmac and bare ground. The most common flower recorded was a daisy (23% of quadrats) followed by buttercup (11%) and clover (10%). Figure 8: Percentage of plots within different habitats and the level of floweriness 10
The total number of individual pollinators recorded was 5513. From this huge number of pollinating insects, 14% were recorded as unidentified and the remaining 86% were categorised into the 8 pollinator groups. The most frequently recorded pollinator type was other flies (39%) followed by unidentified (14%) and beetles (13%) (Figure 9). Bumblebees, honeybees, solitary bees, butterflies, moths and hoverflies made up 35% of the pollinators counted in the quadrats. Most pollinators were recorded in wildflower habitats (41%) followed by short grass (20%) and flower beds or pots (20%) (Figure 10). Figure 9: Proportion of different pollinator groups recorded in the pollinator surveys Figure 10: Number of pollinators in different habitats recorded as the main habitat in a quadrat 11
Delving deeper into the data The survey design allows many questions to be asked of the data to find out which factors are affecting the number of pollinators seen in the 2 minute quadrat surveys. In this section we pose questions of the data and answer them through statistical analyses where possible. A significantly higher proportion of unidentified pollinators were recorded by groups with no previous experience of identifying insects (χ 2 = 18.16, 1df, P<0.001). Specifically, 21% of records submitted by groups with no prior experience were unidentified compared to 15% of records submitted by groups with some previous experience of identifying insects (Table 3). Table 3: The proportion of identified (to families) versus unidentified pollinators recorded by groups dependent on whether or not they had previous experience of identifying insects. Previous experience Total unidentified Total identified Total pollinators (all) identifying insects pollinators pollinators No 285 (21%) 1387 (79%) 1672 Yes 478 (15%) 3287 (85%) 3765 Total 763 4674 5437 To look at the reasons that might explain the number of pollinators seen, an analysis was carried out on 4 of the key factors: weather, habitat and floweriness. Combining these 3 factors, the most significant positive impact on the total number of pollinators seen was, unsurprisingly, the floweriness. Specifically, quadrats with the most flowers yielded the most flower visiting pollinators. The sunnier the survey was, the more pollinators were seen and also more pollinators were spotted in areas that were classed as damp places in the habitat category. Trees also generated a near significant positive impact on the number of pollinators counted in the 2 minute searches. A separate statistical analysis was carried out to show that the number of pollinators seen was significantly influenced by the most common species of flower recorded in each quadrat. The flowers which resulted in the greatest number of pollinators were bramble, buddleia and umbelifers (cow parsley etc.) although daisies yielded the greatest total number of pollinators as they were the most common flower seen (Figure 11). 12
Figure 11: The number of pollinators recorded and the most common species in flower for those species with at least 100 pollinators recorded. Species quest Species Quest species were recorded on 33% of the surveys. Of the 33%, most groups (20%) recorded only one species and the maximum number of species quest species recorded was 7 out of 12. The most frequently recorded species was the Honeybee (seen on 73 surveys, 56 locations) followed by the Common Carder Bee (46 surveys) and the Marmalade Hoverfly (42 surveys) (Figure 12). Figure 12: The number of survey sites where each species quest species was recorded. 13
The distribution of the 56 sites where the Honeybee was recorded on at least one survey is shown in Figure 13. The locations where the Honeybee was recorded were distributed roughly evenly across the country which is unsurprising given that the species is found across the whole of the British Isles. Whether or not a species was recorded will be dependent on the experience of the group and the amount of time and enthusiasm for carrying out the species quest part of the survey (which was optional). Figure 13: Polli:Nation survey locations where the honeybee was recorded (and was not recorded- open circles) as part of the species quest. 14
The first year of the Polli:Nation Survey has been a great success with 474 surveys received from 229 individual groups. Although more than 8000m 2 of wildflower habitat was recorded as part of the survey, the most common habitat was short grass. This means that there is a lot of potential for increasing feeding and sheltering habitats for pollinators as part of the project. From the 229 groups, 65% are proposing to make their local patch better for pollinators which will give us lots of data to look at the positive impacts of these changes next year. Within the survey plots, the most common species of flower were daisy, buttercup, dandelion and clover. This means that there is a lot of scope for diversifying the flowers for pollinators to feed from. The pollinator surveys took 2 minutes each and combining all the 1,238 pollinator counts, nearly 42 hours were spent looking at pollinators. If the whole survey, including the habitat survey took 1 hour, that means that nearly 20 days were spent discovering the habitats and species of the schools and community areas that were surveyed. This truly demonstrates the power of citizen science. In total, 5,513 individual pollinators were recorded visiting flowers in the pollinator surveys. Most of the pollinators were recorded in wildflower habitats proving that our pollinators need more of this resource. Other flies were the most common group recorded. Bumblebees, Honeybees, Solitary Bees, Butterflies, Moths and Hoverflies made up 35% of all pollinators seen. Looking at insects really helps to develop an interest and ability in identification. In this first year of the survey, we found that previous experience of looking at insects really helped to increase the number of pollinators that were identified to a group rather than recorded as unidentified. Floweriness and sunshine were important factors in determining the number of pollinators seen. As the years of data grow, we will be able to start investigating whether the improvements made at the Polli:Nation Schools start to increase the number of pollinators. The results show a keen interest in counting pollinators and their habitats but we need to keep the momentum up and fill some of the geographical gaps highlighted in the report. We would also like to see an increase on the 33% of groups taking part in the species quest. 15
Acknowledgements Vanessa Barber 1, Catherine Bertrand 2, Caroline Bulman 2, Claire Carvell 3, Helene Colman 1, Richard Comont 4, Katie Cruickshanks 2, Laurence Evans 1, Roger Fradera 1, Dominic Greves 1, Mary Jackson 5, Vicky Kindemba 6, Poppy Lakeman Fraser 1, Simon Norman 7, Ruth Staples- Rolfe 5, David Slawson 1, Sue Townsend 7. Illustrations by: Richard Burkmar 7, Chris Shields, Steven Falk, Simon Norman 7, Dreamstime. Editing by: Vanessa Barber 1, Poppy Lakeman Fraser 1, Simon Norman 7. 1 Imperial College London. 2 Butterfly Conservation. 3 Centre for Ecology and Hydrology 4 Bumblebee Conservation Trust. 5 Learning through Landscapes. 6 Buglife. 7 Field Studies Council. OPAL 2016. All rights reserved 16