Long-term monitoring of the distribution and abundance of diurnal butterflies (Papilionoidea) in Doñana 2007-2022

Data Records

The data in this sampling event resource has been published as a Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A), which is a standardized format for sharing biodiversity data as a set of one or more data tables. The core data table contains 3,625 records.

2 extension data tables also exist. An extension record supplies extra information about a core record. The number of records in each extension data table is illustrated below.

This IPT archives the data and thus serves as the data repository. The data and resource metadata are available for download in the downloads section. The versions table lists other versions of the resource that have been made publicly available and allows tracking changes made to the resource over time.

Versions

The table below shows only published versions of the resource that are publicly accessible.

How to cite

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

Fernández-Zamudio R, Paz D, Laffite Alaminos R, Román I, López D, Pérez de Ayala A, Hidalgo A, Andreu A C, Gallego N, Torrijo-Salesa M, Díaz-Delgado R, Bustamante J (2023). Long-term monitoring of the distribution and abundance of diurnal butterflies (Papilionoidea) in Doñana 2007-2022. Version 1.4. Estación Biológica de Doñana (CSIC). Samplingevent dataset. https://doi.org/10.15470/yzv0ad

Rights

Researchers should respect the following rights statement:

The publisher and rights holder of this work is Estación Biológica de Doñana (CSIC). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY 4.0) License.

GBIF Registration

This resource has been registered with GBIF, and assigned the following GBIF UUID: e627a482-1cde-44f7-8cab-9c7020282d3d.  Estación Biológica de Doñana (CSIC) publishes this resource, and is itself registered in GBIF as a data publisher endorsed by GBIF Spain.

Keywords

Samplingevent; Occurrence; Butterflies; Transect; Long-term monitoring

Contacts

Geographic Coverage

The study area is Doñana National Park, south-west of Spain, which is one of the two areas of distribution of this species in the south of Spain. Doñana Protected Area includes seven ecosystems types (coastal waters, beach, dunes, forest, shrubland, sandy lakes and marshes) and 21 habitat types, 11 of them of high conservation importance – such as the Bulrush and Glasswort marsh, floodplain lakes, sandy lakes, grassland ecotones, Cork-Oak forest, shrubland, coastal Juniper forest and dunes. Tortoises are usually present along the border of temporal marshes and between dunes with vegetation composed by mediterranean scrub, scattered oaks and pine trees of medium and low cover.

Taxonomic Coverage

N/A

Temporal Coverage

Project Data

The aim of this project is to provide information about the evolution of the conservation status of Doñana. To do that, it has been designed a monitoring program of the dynamic of natural processes and the distribution and abundance of species and communities. This monitoring is generating time series of data which is being used to analyzed long-term trends.

The personnel involved in the project:

Sampling Methods

The long-term monitoring of diurnal butterflies (Papilionoidea) in Doñana, south-western Spain, was initiated in 2005, but until 2007 the protocol is not well stablished, that is why the temporal range of this dataset start in December of 2007 with one transect. From this first transect, in 2008 the Monitoring Program of Natural Resources and Processes applied the BMS methodology to new zones and transects. The principals aims of this protocol were: to invent all species of diurnal butterflies that inhabits in Doñana, in order to detect the appearance of new species or local extinction of some populations; and know the dynamics and variations of butterflies populations between years and between months, in order to detect declines in these animal populations. The monitoring was based on the survey of different transects: During the first period of the monitoring, between 2007 and 2013, seven transects had been sampled. But in the second period, 2014-2018, the survey had been increased with seven new transects and also five of the “old” transects of the previous sampling period, this is a total of 12 transects surveyed between 2014 and 2018; and 14 transects in all of the long-term monitoring. The transects are divided into sections with a different or equal length, that usually correspond to different habitat areas. These sections are related to the EUNIS habitat classification (version 2012) and to SACRE habitat classification. Along the 46 different transect sections there are a total of 11 different habitats, that covers nearly all habitats of the Doñana’s natural space (END). The distance covered by transects was between 460 and 1175 metres. Along the distance of each transect, according the sections and its habitat all butterflies that appear in an imaginary cube of five metres side had been counted and identified.

Method step description:

1. Following the Butterfly Monitoring Scheme (BMS) and Pollard's transects, the data collection is based in walking transect of a determinate distance where the observer must note, count and identify (and also sex the individuals when it is possible) all butterflies that fly in an imaginary cube of 5 meters of side. In the period 2007-2013, the data was collected with the software CyberTracker and all the individuals have a coordinate associated; but since 2014 the data collection was changed to BMS that is why individuals recorded in this period (2014-2022) did not have a coordinate, and the registers are associated to different sections of the transect. The transect was adapted to optimal period of butterflies' day activity, that is three or four hours before and after noon, always with suitable climatic conditions: no rain and/or fog, minimum temperature between 13 on sunny days and 17ºC on cloudly days, maximum temperature below 30 ºC and wind conditions under 5 in Beaufort's scale. In order to know environmental and meteorological variables, temperature, wind conditions (Beaufort's scale) and cloud coverage (eighths of cloud coverage) were measured at the beginning and at the end of each transect. The distance of transect varies between 460 and 1170 metres. The time to complete the transects varies depending on the number of individuals observed in each one, but time values are usually between 10 and 75 minutes.

Bibliographic Citations

1. Paz, D., Román, J y Janss, G. (2014) Protocolo de muestreo 3: Censo de mariposas diurnas (Ropalóceros) mediante transectos fijos en el Espacio Natural de Doñana. Documentos Técnicos del Equipo de Seguimiento de Recursos y Procesos Naturales. ICTS-Reserva Biológica de Doñana. Estación Biológica de Doñana (CSIC).
2. Sevilleja, C.G., van Swaay, C.A.M., Bourn, N., Collins, S., Settele, J., Warren, M.S., Wynhoff, I. and Roy, D.B. (2019). Butterfly Transect Counts: Manual to monitor butterflies. Report VS2019.016, Butterfly Conservation Europe & De Vlinderstichting/Dutch Butterfly Conservation, Wageningen.

Additional Metadata