This data set comprises the species richness of vascular plants, butterflies and bumblebees in linear infrastructure habitats (road verges and power lines) and the historical and present grassland cover in a 2 km buffer surrounding each habitat.

The main purpose of this data set is to investigate if older linear infrastructure habitats sustain a higher richness of vascular plants and pollinators, and to study if the surrounding grassland habitat in the landscape from the past or the present has an influence on the contemporary species richness. The data also contains the species richness of grassland specialist vascular plants and butterflies, which is a subset from the total richness of the respective groups.

The data on plants and pollinators was assessed during fieldwork in 2016. The data on grassland cover was calculated using the Swedish National Land Cover Data (NMD, Nationella marktäckedata) for the contemporary grassland, and a digitized Swedish Economic Map from the 1950s.

The dataset consists of 112 rows and 15 columns, excluding headers. Each row contains information for one studied habitat (112 in total). The columns contain information on the studied 'Landscape' and 'Habitat' within the landscape, the coordinates of the transect in each habitat ('Start_X', 'Start_Y', 'End_X', End_Y'), information on the time since habitat establishment ('FirstAppearance') and the surrouding grassland cover in the past and present ('1950s_Grassland' and '2017_Grassland', respectively), and the continuously existing grassland ('Continuous_Grassland'). Furthermore, it contains information on the species richness of all vascular plants ('PL_rich_all') and grassland specialist vascular plants ('PL_rich_spec'), all butterflies ('BF_rich_all') and grassland specialist butterflies ('BF_rich_spec'), and bumblebees ('BB_rich').

For further explanation on the information and how it was assessed, please see the README file. Show less..

Data contains personal data

Language

English

Method and outcome

Time period(s) investigated

1950 – 2017

Data format / data structure

Numeric

Text

Geospatial

Species and taxons

Tracheophyta
Apidae
Lepidoptera

Data collection

Data collection 1

Mode of collection: Field observation
Description of the mode of collection: For the plants, we placed four 1 × 1 m plots along each transect, separated by a distance of 50 m. In every plot, we recorded the presence or absence of all plant species from a pre-defined list of 169 species, all of which are frequently occurring in various types of grassland habitat in the study region. Walking slowly along the same transects, we identified and counted all butterflies and burnet moths (Zygaenidae; from here on included in ‘butterflies’) within 2.5 m to each side and 5 m to the front of the observer. We surveyed bumblebees along the same transects but within 1 m to each side and to the front. We caught and identified individuals in the field if possible or collected and identified them in the laboratory.
Time period(s) for data collection: 2016-06-01 – 2016-08-24
Instrument: Hand net

Data collection 2

Mode of collection: Non-participant field observation

Geographic coverage

Geographic spread

Geographic location: Sweden, Stockholm County, Uppsala County, Södermanland County, Västmanland County

Geographic description: The data covers study sites in the counties of Stockholm, Södermanland, Uppsala and Västmanland.

Administrative information

Responsible department/unit

Department of Ecology

Contributor(s)

Juliana Dániel-Ferreira - Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Centrum för biologisk mångfald

Alistair G. Auffret - Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Ecology

Erik Öckinger - Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Ecology

Topic and keywords

Research area

Ecology (Standard för svensk indelning av forskningsämnen 2011)

Keywords

Road verges, Electric power lines, Bumblebees, Lepidoptera, Vascular plants, Grasslands, Linear infrastructure habitats

Publications

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Horstmann, S. (2024). The impact of traffic, management and landscape on flower-visiting insects and plants in road verges. Diss. Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences.
ISBN: 9789180463829
DOI: https://doi.org/10.54612/a.2v57vn3lbg
SwePub: oai:slubar.slu.se:130486

Horstmann, S., Auffret, A., Dániel-Ferreira, J., & Öckinger, E. (2023). Species accumulation in novel grassland habitats is linked to land cover history. In Ecography, (8), ecog.06704
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/ecog.06704
SwePub: oai:slubar.slu.se:122387

If you have published anything based on these data, please notify us with a reference to your publication(s). If you are responsible for the catalogue entry, you can update the metadata/data description in DORIS.

Published: 2023-01-31

Last updated: 2024-11-20