Newsletter Issue No 3 winter

Transcription

1 Norfok Biodiversity Information Service Newsetter Issue No 3 winter Emai: nbis@norfok.gov.uk Photo: Oak at Earham Park - David Bouton. Wecome to the atest edition of the NBIS newsetter In this issue we highight how the service is deivering rea gains for widife through its advanced Geographica Information System (GIS) capabiity. Our news roundup incudes features on: Recorders meeting Rare orchid variant NBIS one year on Project fund Whae stranding NBIS is partnering the Internationa Year of Biodiversity (IYB),UK. Read more on the back page under News in Brief. NBIS is a partnership of organisations incuding Natura Engand, Norfok County Counci and some oca district councis. It is one of a number of Loca Record Centres and operates a not-for-profit service, recording, managing and interpreting widife information for the conservation and enhancement of biodiversity in Norfok. NBIS one year on... It s now a year since NBIS was aunched, and the service is going from strength to strength. With some 1 miion records of Norfok s widife now upoaded and fuy accessibe to end users of the service, NBIS is the first pace to ca for comprehensive habitat and species data in the county. One of the major achievements has been the deveopment of an advanced Geographica Information System (GIS) capabiity which has aready ed to invovement with significant projects, both county-wide and on a regiona basis. One of these was the Norwich Green Infrastructure Strategy, where NBIS was asked to deveop habitat opportunity maps - pinpointing suitabe areas for habitat re-creation and enhancement - within the key areas identified for growth. These areas, to the north-east and south-west of Norwich (which incude the site for the new Rackheath Eco-town) have been targeted for 21,000 new homes between 2008 and NBIS invovement was important because it aowed the refinement of strategy ocations and corridors initiay identified, to a more detaied fied-based scae. Phi Bennett-Loyd, Environment Manager at Norfok County Counci which hosts the service and is a key end user - said NBIS payed an important roe in heping to shape the Green Infrastructure Deivery Pan. In turn, this informed the environmenta context for the Joint Core Strategy for Broadand, Norwich and South Norfok - our bueprint for supporting sustainabe growth. NBIS demonstrates how access to the many species records generated by Norfok s outstanding network of vountary Recorders, couped with skied use of mapping software to add vaue to the data by spotting the potentia for habitat enhancement, can ead to rea gains for widife in the future. Find out more in the GNDP s Draft Joint Core Strategy For Broadand, Norwich and South Norfok at: documents/content/final%20jcs%20 Proposed%20Submission%20PDF.pdf

2 Recorders meeting NBIS and the Norfok and Norwich Naturaists Society (NNNS) were deighted to wecome over 25 County Recorders to a recent joint event. The meeting, which was the second hed jointy between the two organisations, heard first from Martin Horock, NBIS Biodiversity Information Officer. Martin gave a presentation on how the vauabe raw materia generated by the County Recorders - species records is the basis for much of what the service offers, utimatey eading to the production of habitat opportunity maps, for exampe. This edition of the newsetter contains an insert which summarises much of Martin s tak. Martin Horock, Bob Eis and Stephen Livermore address the meeting Stephen Livermore, Chair of the NNNS, and Bob Eis, Chair of the NNNS Research Committee, then ed a discussion on formaising the appointment of County Recorders and their reationship with NBIS. Some draft principes were discussed, and a working group wi be formed to deveop these further. Rare variant orchid sighted Loca widife enthusiasts who care for a Norfok churchyard were rewarded with the sight of over 200 orchid booms this spring. Wymondham Nature Group (WYNG) has been caring for the meadow at Hethe Churchyard for over a decade and has seen the popuation of Pyramida Orchids grow spectacuary over this period ony a handfu were recorded in the eary 1990s. The group aso noticed a new variant with pink sepas and white petas. Simon and Anne Harrap, authors of Orchids of Britain and Ireand: A Fied and Site Guide, comment: Pyramida Orchid usuay varies rather itte in coouration. Pants with pure white fowers have been named var. abifora (aso var. nivea), but are rather rare. There are aso pae pink variants where the ip is a itte paer than the upper petas and sepas, but we have certainy never seen a pant with pae pinkish-iac sepas and contrastingy white petas (incuding a white ip), and it may be unique as we as very attractive. This is the sort of pant that get the orchid buffs going, and if it appears again in 2010, we woud ove to know! Simon and Anne Harrap Events > > The three forms of Pyramida orchid. Photo credit: Simon and Anne Harrap 13-14th March Norfok Rocks, Norwich Caste Museum. Contact: kathryn.moore@norfok.gov.uk

3 NBIS one year on - more! In addition to the deveopment of spatia mapping, other significant achievements for NBIS this year incude: Launch of the NBIS website in January This exceent resource provides an easy porta to services offered by NBIS as we as a host of other information incuding bioogica recording; species and designated sites in Norfok; BAP habitats; reports and pubications. Some 300 visits to the site have been recorded each month. Further deveopments are set to incude an interactive recording area and enhanced record upoad function. Contact Sam Nea if you have any comments about the website: Samue.nea@norfok.gov.uk Launch of a project fund to invest in recording in Norfok; Awareness-raising, such as attendance at many pubic events such as the Norfok Show and Wid About Norfok to raise our profie; whist Meetings with stakehoders and those who hep to gather bioogica records the County Recorders have heped to shape the service; Production of promotiona materia such as newsetters, eafets and dispays - for information and advocacy; Opportunity mapping for the Broads BAP; Habitat mapping for the Norfok coast AONB; Assisting with the coation of 500,000 species records for the Brecks Biodiversity Audit, which wi hep with the production of a Loca Biodiversity Action Pan for Breckand; Over 200 enquiries reated to deveopment contro, competed this caendar year. Looking ahead, NBIS priorities for the near future incude: Pubication of a 3 year Deveopment Pan for the service: Seeking to improve data fow into the service from sources such as environmenta consutants; Raising our profie with oca district councis. Project Fund The NBIS project fund has committed some 10,000 towards recording projects this year: Contribution towards Norfok Widife Trust's Parish Survey pubication. Support for the County Bird Recorders. Contribution towards the mammas of Norfok pubication. Hep towards production of a Red Data book for Norfok. Arabe Pant Report. Bats and Roadside Mammas survey received monies towards project expenses. Contribution towards a survey of off-shore chak guy habitat off the north Norfok Coast. Digitisation of moth records to match-fund a Defra award. If you are interested in appying for money from the fund pease contact: Martin Horock or emai: martin.horock@norfok.gov.uk. Rare moth record comes to ight Understanding of Norfok s moths has been improved through a project jointy funded by NBIS and Defra to digitise paper moth records. Jim Wheeer, County Recorder for moths, has put over 25,000 records from this decade aone onto the database, and pans to start work on the 1990s and 1980s records soon. The best discovery so far was Catoptria margaritea, recorded in Ecces in Juy 2001, the first and ony county record for this species. This rare migrant with a distinctive unbroken white ongitudina streak is found in boggy and heathand habitats. It was positivey identified by photograph. Catoptria margaritea Photo credit: Nei Bowman 24th March Norfok non-native Species Initiative (NNNSI) Stakehoders Forum. Contact: Michae.sutton-croft@norfok.gov.uk 22nd May Internationa Day of Biodiversity. NBIS and Norfok Biodiversity Partnership dispays at The Forum, Norwich. Contact: scott.perkin@norfok.gov.uk

4 Whae stranding A Sowerby's beaked whae was stranded at Bakeney Point on the north Norfok Coast this summer. This marine mamma which normay inhabits the deep waters between Norway and the UK, has a ong, prominent beak which it raises high as it surfaces. Litte is known about Sowerby's, but they are thought to ive in sma groups and feed on squid and fish. It is thought that the shaow waters at the coastine of the North Sea act as a trap, confusing the creatures and eading them to beach. This individua was successfuy returned to the sea foowing strenuous efforts by a group of Contact: Norfok Biodiversity Information Service (NBIS), Panning and Transportation Department, County Ha, Martineau Lane, Norwich NR1 2SG Te: Emai: nbis@norfok.gov.uk If you need this document in arge print, audio, Braie, aternative format or in a different anguage, pease contact us on and we wi do our best to hep. six by-standers, with hep from Nationa Trust staff from Bakeney Point Nationa Nature Reserve. This stranding is the second record for Norfok of a Sowerby's whae - the first was from Happisburgh in Heping to return the Sowerby s whae to the sea. Photo credit: Richard Porter CAN YOU HELP? Can you hep us record marine cetaceans (porpoises, dophins and whaes)? The Norfok Biodiversity Partnership has heped to fund a SeaWatch survey card, which wi enabe you to do just that (the card incudes information on how to record from and and sea). We need more records of marine ife on our NBIS database to hep get a better picture of what s happening to widife in this habitat. Downoad the card at: news/images/cetacean%20 Lft%20(DY)%20-%20 compressed.pdf News in Brief... ISpot is a new website aowing users to post records, observations or descriptions of widife. It uses socia networking techniques such as Facebook to provide a forum for peope of a ages to share information and hep with identifying unusua records. Rob Coeman is Biodiversity Mentor for ispot in the East of Engand. Register with the website and et him know how you get on! Internationa Year of Biodiversity (IYB) UK NBIS is partnering the IYB-UK, an informa network of organisations working to conserve biodiversity in the UK. Together with the Norfok Biodiversity Partnership, NBIS wi be attending an event at the Norwich Forum on Internationa Biodiversity Day 22nd May 2010 to highight species oss and a that is underway ocay to conserve biodiversity. Read more about IYB UK at Norfok Widife Survey NBIS and NWT are inviting you to take part in a simpe survey to record barn ow, grey partridge, brown hare and harvest mouse sightings. A of these animas were once commonpace, but popuations are dwinding. To conserve them, we need to know more about their distribution and stronghods. Can you hep? If you have seen any of these species, pease visit to add your sighting onine. Or you can downoad a survey card and send it in. Further detais avaiabe by phoning Norfok Non-Native Species Initiative (NNNSI) A new report has been pubished by the NNNSI, which incudes distribution maps prepared by NBIS of 6 invasive pant species, identified as high priority for action. Status%20Report%20(Draft1.2)%20(Reduced).pdf. Further records are aways wecome: you can hep by sending in your sightings of: Giant Hogweed, Japanese knotweed, foating pennywort, Himayan basam, Austraian swamp stonecrop and parrot s feather. For further information contact: michae.sutton-croft@norfok.gov.uk our funding partners Printed on Recyced paper G23705/DG

5 The use of a Geographica Information System (GIS) underpins much of the new service offered by NBIS. It is a powerfu too, faciitating the presentation and anaysis of information. In this section we show how high quaity data processed by a GIS can inform conservation work, deveopment contro and strategic panning work. Records - the raw materia Bioogica records form the basis of the work of NBIS. These in their simpest form comprise 4 pieces of information the 4 Ws. What species, where and when it was seen and who saw it, athough a record may aso have other information such as counts, sex and stage. Records come from a variety of sources such as the pubic, conservation bodies and ecoogica consutants, but the majority are provided to NBIS by the County Recorder network. These oca experts record species themseves, but aso vaidate a the data gathered by others before passing it to NBIS. This ensures the quaity of the data hed by NBIS is of a high standard. Recorder 6 Once received the data is transferred to a database hed on Recorder 6 software. This is speciaist recording software deveoped for the Joint Nature Conservancy Counci, who ensure that aspects such as taxonomy are up to date. Recorder not ony aows storage of the data, but enabes it to be queried in many ways. At this stage NBIS staff perform yet more checks of the data to ensure there are no probems such as wrongy ocated records. Geographica Information System (GIS) mapping Records are transferred to the GIS from Recorder 6. NBIS use both ArcGIS and MapInfo software for mapping work. A GIS is a piece of software that aows data to be represented spatiay. For instance aeria photographs or points representing species sightings can be hed in ayers which can be superimposed to buid up representations of the environment. In this way maps can be produced showing the ink between soi type, aspect and particuar pant species. Perhaps more importanty, the software can be used to cacuate inks between information hed in the different ayers. d upon Ordnance Survey materia with the permission of ey on behaf of the Controer of Her Majesty's Stationery n copyright. Unauthorised reproduction infringes Crown and may ead to prosecution or civi proceedings. ty Counci. Licence No: , 09 February 2010 CWS 2018 CWS 1463 Map showing sites of conservation interest within a 2km radius. This couped with a ist of species of conservation concern is suppied in response to deveopment contro enquiries from ecoogica consutants and panning officers. CWS 2138 CWS 1455 Caistor St Edmund Chak Pit Veteran Tree Geodiversity site Roadside Nature Reserve County Widife Site Site of Specia Scientific Interest Ancient Woodand Loca Veteran Tree Nature Reserve Geodiversity site Roadside Nature Reserve County Widife Site Site of Specia Scientific Inte Ancient Woodand Loca Nature Reserve Nationa Nature Reserve Specia Area of Conservation Specia Protection Area Ramsar Nationa Nature Reserve Specia Area of Conservation Specia Protection Area Ramsar Species mapping The records hed by NBIS are used in the GIS for a number of purposes, from simpe distribution maps to compex cacuations used for identifying potentia habitat creation sites. The distribution maps are used in documents such as Biodiversity Action Pans (BAP) to give a picture of the status of a particuar species in Norfok. They can aso be used in combination to assist in the deveopment contro process. For exampe, NBIS uses a ist of species of conservation concern, extracted from the county dataset using Recorder, to answer enquiries from ecoogica consutants and panning officers. This can produce a ist of species in conjunction with a map of any sites of conservation interest within a specified distance of a deveopment.

6 Habitat mapping Suites of species records can aso be used in habitat mapping, another important aspect of the work of NBIS. By combining indicative species potentia sites can be identified for a particuar habitat. Aeria photography, Ordnance Survey mapping and other data sources can then be used to produce habitat maps. NBIS uses the criteria deveoped by Natura Engand for their habitat inventories when mapping BAP habitats. This ensures that the data is of a good standard and aows the mapping to feed into nationa datasets. Opportunity mapping Once the habitats and anduse of an area have been mapped they can be used in a number of ways. For exampe, they can be used in the BAP process to show the amount of a particuar habitat in the county and, when repeated on a reguar basis, to monitor change. These maps can aso form the basis of ecoogica network mapping or to identify opportunities for habitat creation. Case study Recent work by NBIS on the Norwich Green Infrastructure (GI) Deveopment Pan sought opportunities for habitat creation. The Greater Norwich area has been identified as a growth point with over new homes panned. Government poicy determines that new deveopment shoud be supported by the creation of high quaity green infrastructure. In practice this shoud comprise a network of green spaces and inter-connecting green corridors in urban areas and their surrounds, which stretch out into the wider countryside. Mapping undertaken by NBIS produced a map that outined BAP and other habitats and anduse within the Greater Norwich area. A series of criteria such as distance from designated sites and existing habitats and proximity to deveopment areas were then used in the GIS to identify potentia sites for creation of new green space. Those areas of highest potentia were then used to deveop priority areas inking Norwich to other areas of deveopment to the south, and the Broads to the North. 04 Spatia vision 29 Key Diagram Joint Core Strategy for Broadand, Norwich and South Norfok: Proposed Submission Document Documents such as the GI Deveopment Pan in turn form the evidence base for strategic pans. The priority areas identified were used to inform the Greater Norwich Joint Core Strategy appearing both as maps in the supporting evidence, and in the key diagram. This diagram forms the heart of the document and is the basis for the strategy governing deveopment in the Greater Norwich area over the coming years. It is important that documents such as this are buit on robust evidence and the methods and processes used by NBIS are designed to ensure this.