Springtail Phenology

Phenology is the study of the periodic (seasonal) cycles of living organisms. I used the NatureSpot dataset to 31.12.18) to look at the phenology of springtails in VC55:


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The criterion for inclusion was a minimum of at least 10 verified records. I don't think there are too many surprises here, but I am pleased to see that Orchesella cincta seems to hold up as a good benchmark species, pretty accurately reflecting the overall variation, although Entomobrya intermedia is the only species with records for all 12 months.

What this clearly needs is a much larger dataset, which will undoubtedly provide both a wider range of species and more significant numbers. A task to revisit in a year's time. The other issue to consider is normalising recording effort. I'm unsure of the best way to do this but perhaps considering the number of recording sessions per month, defined as unique site-date combinations, is a possible proxy.