Butterfly Consersvation – Statistical developments for assessing the status of insect populations.

Speaker: Dr Emily Dennis (Butterfly Conservation)

Joint Statistics/CREEM seminar.

Abstract

Insects are reported to be in decline across the globe, but caution must be taken given the sparsity of data for many taxa and geographical regions, as well as the challenge of drawing robust inferences. Butterflies are the most comprehensively monitored invertebrate taxa, and large volumes of monitoring and opportunistic data exist for butterflies as well as moths in the UK. They respond sensitively and rapidly to changes in habitat and climate; hence their population statuses provide useful indicators for biodiversity change. This talk will focus on the methods used and challenges associated with modelling such data, for both the UK and beyond, from the raw counts/observations to the production of multi-species indicators, which play a vital role in assessments of biodiversity change. Species’ data are increasingly collected through various sources, particular with the rise of citizen science, and new integrated approaches are needed. This talk will finish by presenting a recently developed integrated model for describing the population dynamics of an endangered species of beetle.