Winter bird censuses in pine processionary moth (Thaumetopoea pityocampa) monitoring plots

José Antonio Hódar Correa1

1 University of Granada, Avenida de la Fuente Nueva S/N, 18071, Granada, Spain

Corresponding author(s): José Antonio Hódar Correa (jhodar@ugr.es)

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

Hódar Correa J A (2023). Winter bird censuses in pine processionary moth (Thaumetopoea pityocampa) monitoring plots. Version 1.0. Sierra Nevada Global Change Observatory. Andalusian Environmental Center, University of Granada, Regional Government of Andalusia. Occurrence dataset. https://doi.org/10.15470/yinvps https://doi.org/10.15470/yinvps

Abstract

This dataset contains censuses of winter birds performed in a series of pine forest plots distributed throughout the Granada province (SE Spain). The plots are part of a monitoring network to study the phenology and intensity of defoliation by pine processionary moth (Thaumetopoea pityocampa), a lepidopteran that occasionally causes severe defoliation in Mediterranean pine forests. Although the initial objective is to seek for a relationship between the presence and abundance of pine processionary moth and birds that can potentially feed on it, the data can be useful for other purposes.

Keywords: Occurrence, winter birds, pine processionary moth, monitoring

Project details

Project title: Several projects: 1-Sierra Nevada Global-Change Observatory | 2-Smart EcoMountains: Thematic Center on Mountain Ecosystem & Remote sensing, Deep learning-AI e-Services University of Granada-Sierra Nevada | 3-Biotic interactions and adaptation to climate of the Pine Processionary along an elevation gradient: how do they adjust their phenology to contrasting climatic environments? | 4-Windows of opportunity: predation, climate, or both, as determinants of the population dynamics of the Pine Processionary Moth along an altitudinal gradient
Personnel: Regino Zamora Rodríguez, José Antonio Hódar Correa
Funding: This work was conducted under the agreement “Convenio de colaboración entre la Consejería de Sostenibilidad, Medio Ambiente y Economía Azul de la Junta de Andalucía y la Universidad de Granada para el desarrollo de actividades vinculadas al Observatorio de Cambio Global de Sierra Nevada, en el marco de la Red de Observatorios de Cambio Global de Andalucía” and the project Smart EcoMountains “Thematic Center on Mountain Ecosystem & Remote sensing, Deep learning-AI e-Services University of Granada-Sierra Nevada” (LIFEWATCH-2019-10-UGR-4), which has been co-funded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation through the FEDER funds from the Spanish Pluriregional Operational Program 2014-2020 (POPE), LifeWatch-ERIC action line. The project has also been co-financed by the Provincial Council of Granada".

Data published through GBIF: https://ipt.gbif.es/resource?r=sn_aves_invernantes

Taxonomic coverage

General taxonomic coverage description: This dataset includes a total of 5,886 occurrence records (exceeding 8,900 individuals) of the Accipitriformes, Passeriformes, Galliformes, Cuculiformes, Columbiformes, Piciformes, Falconiformes and Falconiformes orders. There are 27 families, 53 genera and 69 species represented in this dataset.
Taxonomic ranks
Order: Accipitriformes, Passeriformes, Galliformes, Cuculiformes, Columbiformes, Piciformes, Falconiformes, Bucerotiformes

Spatial coverage

General spatial coverage: All the plots are located in the southeast of the Iberian Peninsula, mostly in the Granada province. There are some preselected plots in the province of Almería, but no censuses carried out so far. The plots were chosen trying to cover as much as possible the diversity of pine woodlands in which the pine processionary moth is present. The altitudinal range covers from sea level to 2500 m altitude, from coastal areas to high mountains and inland depressions, and pine forests can be natural, spontaneous regeneration, or the result of plantations.
Coordinates: 36°43'54.48''N and 37°32'45.96''N Latitude; 3°46'24.6''W and 2°37'12.72''W Longitude 

Temporal coverage: November 15, 2019 - March 14, 2023

Methods

Method step description: 1.	Field sampling (see Sampling Description section).
2.	Data is stored in Linaria (https://linaria.obsnev.es/), the institutional data repository of the Sierra Nevada Global-Change Observatory.
3.	The dataset was standardised to the Darwin Core structure (De Pooter et al., 2017) as occurrence data. It contains, specifically: 5,886 occurrences, and 5,518 records of associated measurements of the variable: “Distance of the contact (bird) to transect line”. The Darwin Core elements included in the Occurrence Core are: occurrenceID, eventID, catalogNumber, datasetName, collectionCode, institutionCode, ownerInstitutionCode, modified, language, license, eventDate, year, month, day, basisOfRecord, recordedBy, recordedByID, individualCount, scientificName, taxonRank, kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, specificEpithet, scientificNameAuthorship, occurrenceStatus, locality, continent, country, countryCode, minimumElevationInMeters, maximumElevationInMeters, samplingProtocol, decimalLatitude, decimalLongitude, geodeticDatum, coordinateUncertaintyInMeters, habitat. For the Measurement or Fact Extension file, the Darwin Core elements included are: measurementID, occurrenceID, measurementType, measurementValue, measurementUnit, measurementMethod.
4.	The resulting dataset was published through the Integrated Publishing Toolkit of the Spanish node of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) (http://ipt.gbif.es).
Study extent description: The plots are selected in all types of pine woodlands in the southeast of the Iberian Peninsula. A 500 m long itinerary is established on each plot. Each plot is geolocated with the coordinates and altitude of the midpoint of the itinerary, unless the itinerary is curved, in which case the approximate midpoint of the sampling area is indicated. The censuses are carried out from November 1 to February 28, although in some high mountain plots the census can be carried out until March 15. Whenever possible, six censuses are carried out per plot per winter, uniformly distributed throughout the season.
Sampling description: The censuses began in 2019, and the aim is to maintain the census scheme for at least six consecutive winters (till 2025). The census method used is the variable-distance line transect (Gibbons et al. 1996). A 500 m itinerary is walked at a speed of about 2 km/h (about 15 minutes per transect), in the first 4 hours of the day, avoiding rain, snow and wind greater than 4 m/s. All contact with birds is recorded (visual or hearing), noting the bird species, the number of birds per contact, and the perpendicular distance (estimated by eye) between the contact and the census track. All censuses are carried out by the same observer (José Antonio Hódar Correa).
Quality control description: 1.	The observer periodically trains its skills in bird recognition, whenever possible some helpers take part during censuses in order to test the skill capacity of the observer.
2.	Records are stored in an Excel datasheet which is daily updated during the censusing period.
3.	Once per year, data are updated to the main database.
4.	Storage: data is stored in Linaria (https://linaria.obsnev.es/), the institutional data repository of the Sierra Nevada Global-Change Observatory. Linaria is a normalised database focused on ecology and biodiversity related-data and it is developed in a PostgreSQL/PostGIS relational database management system (RDBMS).
5.	Taxonomic validation: scientific names were reviewed by experts and were checked with the GBIF backbone taxonomy using the species matching tool (https://www.gbif.org/tools/species-lookup).
6.	Standardisation: the standardisation to Darwin Core was done according to the practices recommended by the TDWG guidelines (https://dwc.tdwg.org/terms/).

Datasets

Dataset description
Object name: Darwin Core Archive Winter bird censuses in pine processionary moth (Thaumetopoea pityocampa) monitoring plots
Character encoding: UTF-8
Format name: Darwin Core Archive format
Format version: 1.0
Distribution: https://ipt.gbif.es/archive.do?r=sn_aves_invernantes
Publication date of data: 2023-11-28
Language: English
Licences of use: Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY 4.0) License

Metadata language: English
Date of metadata creation: 2023-11-22
Hierarchy level: Dataset

References
De Pooter, D., Appeltans, W., Bailly, N., Bristol, S., Deneudt, K., Eliezer, M., Fujioka, E., Giorgetti, A., Goldstein, P., Lewis, M., Lipizer, M., Mackay, K., Marin, M., Moncoiffé, G., Nikolopoulou, S., Provoost, P., Rauch, S., Roubicek, A., Torres, C., van de Putte, A., … Hernandez, F. (2017). Toward a new data standard for combined marine biological and environmental datasets - expanding OBIS beyond species occurrences. Biodiversity data journal, (5), e10989. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.5.e10989 
Gibbons DW, Hill D and Sutherland WJ 1996. Birds. Pp. 227-259 in Sutherland WJ (ed.), Ecological census techniques, Cambridge U.P.