BSBI Maps Scheme: Atlas Updating Project for Hampshire

Background

©Martin Rand 2007

The BSBI Atlas of the British and Irish Flora is a major publication project that has so far appeared at 40-year intervals. It is one of the most important sources of information on the distribution of British plants, and is widely used by researchers and conservationists. With computer technology it is possible to keep the maps updated on an 'ad hoc' basis, and so the decision has been made to age-band records every 10 years, starting in 2000 (just after the work for Atlas 2000 completed). This means that there are just two seasons left before the end of the next age band. There has been no comprehensive systematic recording project in Hampshire since 1999, so recent coverage is getting quite patchy. Also many of the commoner species have not been fully computerised. We would like to take this opportunity to get the record more up to date. The BSBI Maps Scheme also offers an opportunity to map the distribution of the British flora at a tetrad (2km x 2km) resolution, giving a much better impression of how frequent our more localised and declining species really are. Inevitably coverage will be patchy for many years to come, but the pieces of the jigsaw will gradually drop into place.

If you would like to see examples of the national maps, click here.

How you can participate

You can help bring the record up to date by recording plants, including the most common ones, in any areas of Hampshire you visit. You can submit thousands of records if you like, but even one will be useful!

If you want to see what areas are recently under-recorded in South Hampshire, browse through the South Hampshire distribution maps. These maps cover common and widespread species. We have excluded many introductions and casuals, most hybrids, and almost all critical groups from the maps; but if you meet any of these and can confidently identify them, records for those are welcome too.

Priority for the next two seasons will be getting at least one species record for each 10km x 10km square where it has not been recorded since 2000. After that will come updates and new records for as many tetrads as possible.

Please record to at least 1 kilometre precision (eg 'SU5205'). For species that are uncommon in the area where you are recording, you may want to provide a more precise grid reference. If you are recording many species at a locality, and you are comfortable with scientific names, you may like to use the downloadable field recording sheet also used for the Rare Plant Register project.

Please submit your records electronically. Sorry, we don't have resources to deal with paper records at present. If you are a Mapmate user then sending a Mapmate 'sync file' to the vice-county recorder is the ideal method. Otherwise, you can use the downloadable electronic recording spreadsheet. The notes on that page will explain how to fill in each column.

Good hunting, and thank you for your help!

Click here to browse the South Hampshire maps

Click here to browse the North Hampshire maps

Recently under-recorded areas

The map below shows the 10km grid squares in South Hampshire that have lowest numbers of records of common species since 2000. High priority squares are shown in darker yellow.

Maps produced from Mapmate®, with acknowledgements to Teknica Ltd

SU10 Ringwood area
SZ29 New Milton area
SU21 Fritham area
SU22 Sherfield English area
SZ39 Lymington area
SU30 Denny Lodge area
SU31 Totton area
SU32 Romsey area
SU33 Kings Somborne area
SZ49 Beaulieu Estuary area
SU51 Bishops Waltham area
SU52 Beauworth area
SU61 Hambledon area
SU62 Upper Meon valley
SZ79 Hayling South
SU70 Havant area
SU71 Chalton area
SU72 Petersfield area

The map below shows the 10km grid squares in North Hampshire that have lowest numbers of records of common species since 2000. High priority squares are shown in darker yellow.

Maps produced from Mapmate®, with acknowledgements to Teknica Ltd

SU23 Over Wallop area
SU24 Thruxton area
SU33 Leckford area
SU34 Harewood Forest W
SU43 South Wonston area
SU44 Harewood Forest E
SU45 Litchfield area
SU46 Highclere area
SU54 North Waltham area
SU55 Hannington area
SU62 West Tisted area
SU63 Four Marks area
SU64 Herriard area
SU65 Basingstoke area
SU72 Petersfield area
SU73 Selborne area
SU74 Bentley area
SU75 Hartley Wintney area
SU84 Farnham area
SU85 Farnborough area