Recording

Introduction

There is a long record of interest in natural history in the British Isles and succeeding generations of amateur naturalists have played a significant part in accumulating knowledge, and keeping records, of the distributions of the British flora and fauna at local, regional and national levels. In the early days, for the most part, these records were kept for their intrinsic value but with time the data have become more and more comprehensive (encompassing aspects such as abundance, seasonality, habitat and microhabitat information) and at the present time their value in informing biodiversity and conservation studies is immense. Biological recording today is more important than at any other time: the information obtained is needed by an ever-increasing body of people and organisations for numerous purposes. Nature is not static; populations of our flora and fauna are dynamic, shifting as environmental factors controlling their ecology change, or the activities of man, or the acceleration of climate change take effect. Molluscs in particular are excellent environmental indicators and their declines, spreads or invasive behaviours can act as early warning signals that the ecosystem is under pressure.

Non-marine Recording Scheme

Early History

The Conchological Society of Great Britain and Ireland was founded in 1876, and it has a 130-year history of mollusc recording, for it was in that first year that the Honorary Secretary, W. Denison Roebuck, started compiling a systematic record of the distribution of British land and freshwater species. A few years later Roebuck proposed that the Society should start a system of recording the localities of British non-marine Mollusca, and that H. C. Watson’s arrangement of county areas should be used. So was born the “Census of Distribution” (which was to later become the Vice-county Recording Scheme) much in imitation of the methods of the Botanical Exchange Club. Every record was to be supported by a voucher specimen and the ‘best conchologists of the day’ were to act as referees. In the early years the project was practically confined to Yorkshire, but by 1891 a total of 31,405 vice-county records had been reported. Contributors came from a very wide variety of backgrounds: the same holds true today. Recorders are a disparate group of individuals united in their enthusiasm and curiosity and a desire to channel their interests into a pursuit with a purpose. Their recording activities took them on rambles: excursions that, today, we call field meetings.

Recent History

In 1961, following the example of the botanists, the Society decided to adopt the method of grid mapping, and by 1976 about 115,000 new 10-kilometre squares had been filed. All earlier usable records contained in the Vice-county Recording Scheme were also incorporated, along with – for rarer species – records from publications and museum collections. This work resulted in a provisional publication “ Atlas of the Non-marine Mollusca of the British Isles” edited by Dr. M. P. Kerney, 1976, followed in 1999 by the “Atlas of the Land and Freshwater Molluscs of Britain and Ireland”- a more detailed hardback version with short species accounts and a line drawing to illustrate every species.

Marine recording

It was to be a good many years before marine molluscs would receive the same attention. This is ironic because in the 19th century there was considerabe interest in the British marine fauna, and distributional and ecological knowledge was more extensive than for our non-marine fauna. In 1919 Ronald Winckworth was appointed as the Society's first Marine Recorder. He launched a scheme for the division of the British coastal waters into Sea Areas and offered to referee material and laid down strict rules for the submission of records. Successive Marine Recorders pursued Winckworth's initiative but there was little progress on recording at national level. It would be nearly 40 years before the Society started working towards publishing a Census of the distribution of the British marine Molluscasimilar to that carried out for the non-marine species. The Marine Census itself was never published but the results eventually appeared in 1982 as a distributional Atlas based on 43 Sea Areas around the British Isles by Dennis Seaward. Publication of this work stimulated further survey and prompted revisions and corrections. This culminated in a second publication based on 53 Sea Areas by the same author in 1990: The Marine Molluscs of Northwest Europe with a considerably extended geographical area to include adjacent continental waters from Bergen to Brest.

Role of computer software, Recorder

There is no doubt that the most efficient method of storing and manipulating large numbers of records is in digital format using a computer. Entering records is simple, fast and accurate especially if you use a program specially designed for the purpose, where the computer program prompts you to provide the requisite information and corrections can be made easily. Some software provides pop-up checklists which ensure that the species name entered is current and spelt correctly, avoiding confusion later on.

Some systems like Recorder 6 (used by the Conchological Society) are capable of holding data on almost any aspect of a record and are very versatile, whereas others are designed simply to hold the basic information and have limited flexibility.

Checking your records for errors or duplicates is easier with a computer – an aberrant entry shows up very clearly if you sort your species names alphabetically. The enforced selection of options from set lists ensures that the information is entered in a standard format thus facilitating comparison with other records. Searching can be rapid and thorough: in a matter of seconds you can obtain all records for a particular species or all records for a given site or for many other selected criteria.

The Society will be pleased to accept records in any format but it will certainly help the Marine and Non-marine Recorders if the data have been keyed into a computer system. Which system you use depends on whether you wish to produce your own maps and reports or whether you are happy with just lists of species in the format of a spreadsheet. If in doubt you are welcome to consult the Society Recorders for advice.