A Question of Ecology – Answers from Biological Recording

Note: There is a call for quickfire talks, posters and demonstrations of software and tools

Biodiversity information is crucial to understanding ecological relationships and supporting conservation effort in a changing climate. Use of volunteer-collected biological records by the professional scientific community is widely encouraged and celebrated, but much interpretation of biological records is carried out by amateur naturalists, who are uncovering new ecological knowledge from their own records and sharing that knowledge with others.

Biological recording is not just about producing checklists, dot maps or providing ‘big data’ for others to analyse; it is a way of engaging with the natural world which both raises questions and provides answers to them.

A Question of Ecology will celebrate achievements, highlight opportunities and seek to overcome obstacles regarding the use of biological records to answer ecological questions.

Objectives

The conference aims to:

• Raise awareness of how biological records can be interpreted to answer ecological questions and lead to conservation action at a site-specific, local, national and international scale.
• Empower volunteer recorders and their organisations to get more out of their biological records by highlighting effective approaches to data collection and analysis.
• Foster collaboration between the professional research community and volunteer recording community through examples of good practice.
• Discuss barriers to the use of biological records for research and start a dialogue between the biological recording and research communities about how to overcome those barriers

This NFBR conference is a joint event in collaboration with the British Ecological Society’s Macroecology Special Interest Group.