Annual estimates of occupancy for bryophytes, lichens and invertebrates in the UK (1970-2015)

This dataset provides annual estimates of species occupancy and species trend estimates in the form of growth rates for 5,293 UK invertebrate, bryophyte and lichen species for the period 1970 to 2015. Estimates are provided at the country level for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland as well as for the UK and Great Britain (GB) where possible. These data were generated using observations of species collated by UK recording schemes and societies as the input data for a Bayesian occupancy model. The outputs resulting from this modelling framework are presented in three forms:
• 1000 samples from the modelled posterior distribution of the proportion of occupied sites for each species for each year and for each region analysed.
• Summary tables from the model outputs detailing mean occupancy and associated statistics including credible intervals and rhat measure of convergence.
• Derived species trend estimates in the form of annual percentage growth rates.

Annual estimates derived from fine-grained data (1x1km squares) have not been determined for this set of species before, making this a unique dataset that broadens knowledge on UK biodiversity change.

This work was supported by the Natural Environment Research Council award number NE/R016429/1 as part of the UK-SCAPE programme delivering National Capability.