Pollinator and pollination service data from the National Pollinator and Pollination Monitoring Framework pilot study from 13 UK crop field sites 2015

This dataset contains data on insects observed visiting flowers of three crops (apples, field beans and oilseed rape) and responses by recorders to a questionnaire asking about their experience carrying out pollinator surveys. Data from thirteen flowering crop fields was collected by teams based at the University of Reading and the James Hutton Institute in Scotland. Data was collected by different recorders, some of whom were novice data collectors, experienced researchers or farmers and agronomists. Recorders were asked to implement three methods: pan trapping, transect walking and/or hand pollination and plant bagging. Transects involved walking a 50m transect recording floral visitors to crop flowers within a 1m squared moving observation widow next to the recorder. Pan trapping involved placing out three coloured water trap arrays along a 50m transect and then recording what flying insects were caught in the water traps at the end of the survey. Hand pollination and plant bagging involved putting mesh bags over flowers to exclude visitation by insects, hand pollinating crop flowers and counting and marking flowers with cable ties. Data were collected between April and July 2015 from sites across the UK.