Hi, I’ve just entered an observation for a plant growing on a pavement in a town centre, and struggled a bit over the ‘habitat’ type. I’ve gone for ‘coastal’ but that’s not really accurate and nothing else fitted. Any suggestions? Or who do I approach to discuss the creation of new habitat options?
There’s been some discussion on this. I have had the same problem. The consensus seems to be to put the nearest habitat as your choice but to give more details in the description or with a tag - although Derek doesn’t like a proliferation of tags!
That’s useful to know, although in this case putting the nearest habitat - grassland - would have been misleading. I suppose if the location is right it should be obvious that it’s urban/industrial. But we do have a lot of that habitat round here, so an additional category would have been handy. Never mind!
The discussion arose because a ‘habitat’ entry was made mandatory. It’s pretty essential for any records that end up in ‘formal’ wildlife record collections.
I suspect that the original habitat list was ‘imported’ when iSpot was created - I have seen the same list elsewhere. Updating it would probably cause problems, due to the thousands of older observations made using the current choices.
Part of the problem is/was that quite a few users put up observations with little or no descriptive text. With little other evidence to work with, habitat (however loosely defined) is sometimes an important clue to the ID.
More use of tags has indeed been suggested, but that - as we’ve seen lately with the Insect Week collection - tends to lead to various ‘competing’ versions: this makes collating data very hard.
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Not grumpy me specially but there may be 42 Thousand to choose from already, so it seems unnecessary to create more.
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@EmmaHP There is no Classified Habitat for Urban, which is an oversight.
As for pavement then it is a sub-habitat (two recent iFocuses), Choose the nearest Classified Habitat (Parks and Gardens?) and write in Description that it was in the Town and then add the sub-habitat tag Pavement as it is already in the tag list. Some silly user added Paverment not long ago, please don’t use that
you can check any suitable Tag by opening the Explore Community (Filter)* and typing in pav…
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*https://www.ispotnature.org/communities/uk-and-ireland/view/project/844368/
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I’ll do that, thanks
Totally agree. Urban / Suburban ‘Habitats’ are poorly defined. In Brighton far too many end up in the ‘Rough Grassland’ (= miscellaneous) Box. I did raise this as an issue with JNCC in BC times. If people are interested there are several ways of classifying urban habitats. Eco21st.com
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Not really on quite the same topic, but I often forget to fill in the habitat box - and then have to come back to it in order to upload the observation. I have come to the conclusion that this is because the box already has some writing in it (‘add habitat’ or some such), so my eye passes over it and assumes that there is no need to add anything! I’m quite prepared to admit that I have an odd mind but I thought I’d mention it in case anyone wants to do anything about it!
[quote=“dejayM, post:5, topic:1954”]
Some silly user added Paverment
[/quote].
People with Dyslexia or users of English as a second language or those just not good at Spelling, are not silly.
That’s true and I REALLY apologise to any dyslexic or sensitive user who sees my comment.
That particular user did not use the tag, just created it. No-one has used it but it’s now permanently in the list of choices
Tags should be selected from the list - there are 42 THOUSAND to choose from and 5 are there for pavements
Honestly I AM sorry about my loose tongue/pen
ðerek
For a start on urban habitats
- pavements
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- roadside gutters
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- gaps between kerbstones and paving slabs and other cracks
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- exterior base of garden walls
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- exterior base of garden hedges
- mown grass
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- estate verges
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- parks
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- playing fields
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- cemeteries
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- garden lawns
- bare ground
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- base of street trees
- walls and roofs
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- building walls
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- mortared boundary walls
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- unmortared boundary walls
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- mortared retaining walls
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- unmortared retaining walls
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- roof gutters
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- tile and slate roofs
- flower borders
- shrub borders and block plantings
Some (a lot?) of those are already catered for in Gardens and Parks. I think it best not to clutter too much detail in each description
Marine, for example, is seen below the Mean High Water line. A small island may or may not be Marine
Coastal might be above the high water line (where tidal) and less that 1 mile inland (say)
Plenty of ‘parks’ are not Urban (I suspect)
Mown grass is far from urban here!
I’d like to see Habitat descriptions slightly unrestrictive and probably overlapping, so that users sometimes have to choose subjectively the most appropriate
Urban - streets and large or small housing settlements - a group of buildings, say with pathways and public lighting. But not solitary dwellings
Sub Habitat tagging should be encouraged
I’d also like to see Mine and Quarry Habitat which includes waste, spill and reclaimed (or abandoned) (say)
Mapping Phase 1 habitats: Which category is best for urban/suburban…
Ed Mountford (UK Conservation Adviser, JNCC) added comments:
https://forums.nbn.org.uk/viewtopic.php?id=6053
Will dig out a more complete list from 2015.
Phase 1 Habitats in (sub)urban areas
Phase 1 C3.1 / J1.3: using target notes to identify dominant/common species and give brief details. For ‘edges of recreation grounds / greens area / parks with mixed ‘opportunist’ vegetation (visually it looks ‘scrappy’)’
Phase 1 A2: Woodland & Scrub Unmanaged areas along Rail/Road embankments (ie: larger than just verges)
Phase 1 J1.4: Introduced Shrub Unmanaged areas along Rail/Road embankments with introduced shrub / scrub vegetation
Phase 1 G1: Garden Ponds mesotrophic (G1.2) or eutrophic (G1.1) nutrient status.
If you are uncertain as to their nutrient stats, you could just use G1 or possibly G1.1/G1.2 and add a target note to say these are ‘Garden Ponds that are probably either mesotrophic (G1.2) or eutrophic (G1.1) nutrient status.
More importantly, you might wish to separate those that are more ‘natural’ from those that are ‘highly artificial’, using target notes.
Just added some more Phase 1 types which are suitable. “Mine and Quarry Habitat” has a Phase 1 habitat assigned to it already: Quarry (I2.1) / Mine (I2.3)
Oh, valuable, thanks
Whilst the whole Habitat Classification in iSpot needs a review and overhaul, with the possible addition of a couple more, I think it should be easy-going and not too prescriptive.
I feel we (iSpot) should have a classified list of Sub-habitat TAGS that can be added, say like Pavement when in Park and Gardens (say) or Sand or Pond when in Woodland (say).
I feel that nothing should be lengthily defined and that some overlapping flexibility be allowed when choosing the main Habitat; and that we are encouraged to use the best-fit, as opposed to reading lengthy prescriptions to find nothing fits precisely.
Every few years the habitat classification systems change (cf: upgrades).
New kid on the block is UK Habitat Classification (UKHAB Documentation – ukhab)
Phase 1 has the advantage of excellent agreed documentation (NCC/EN/JNCC) and has survived nearly fifty years in the field!