Odonata records and environmental data from 20 ponds in the Eddleston Water catchment (Scotland, summer 2023)

This set contains data collected in 2023 in the Eddleston Water catchment for a study on the contribution of flood management ponds to dragonfly (Insecta: Odonata) diversity. Ten ponds created for Natural Flood Management as part of the Eddleston Water Project (funded by the Scottish Government and led by Tweed Forum) and ten reference ponds were surveyed. 

The following files are available (in both .csv and .txt formats):

- "Odonata_AllStages" contains all Odonata data;- "PondEnv" contains information on the surveyed ponds, including basic environmental data (e.g. surface, perimeter) and vegetation variables;- "LandUse" contains the percentage of different land use categories in buffers of 5 and 100 m around the ponds;- "Metadata" describes all variables found in the files mentioned above.

Adult Odonata surveys were conducted by following the protocol of the pond biodiversity index "IBEM" (see Indermuehle et al. 2010. https://doi.org/10.23818/limn.29.08; and http://campus.hesge.ch/ibem/odonates.asp).

Larval Odonata were sampled on a subset of 6 ponds in early June 2023. Qualitative samples were taken with a sweep net (mesh size: 500 µm, 25*18 cm frame size) close to the shore, near the land-water interface. Twenty sweeps of 1 m were conducted in each sampled pond, with the sweeps distributed among the different mesohabitats in proportion to their coverage. The content of the net was then emptied into a white tray and the aquatic macroinvertebrates were directly sorted in the field. Only Odonata larvae were picked and fixated with 70% ethanol, to be identified under the microscope. Larvae were identified to species level where possible, and to genus or family level where this was not possible.

Land use and several vegetation variables were collected following the same protocol as in the PONDERFUL project.