Tab for Tetrad Totals

The new tab I've inserted above hopefully makes it it easier to keep 'tabs' on the most up to date tetrad coverage map for Glamorgan. I've also put a few of the older maps up so you can see the progression of recording. As both Charles and George have done recently, by including updated tetrad totals their square-bash results, I've been able to update the map immediately, rather than waiting for sync files. Please do keep doing this if possible.

Glamorgan tetrad map update

It seems timely for a tetrad update as I have just received a sync file from Charles, plus it includes George's data up to a month or so back. I have now highlighted in blue the 30 boundary squares considered to have received an acceptable level of coverage, which when added the those with a minimum of 60 species, totals 333 'completed' tetrads. This equates to 54% of the 615 Glamorgan tetrads, so we're now over half way!

In addition to the updated map is the last map I posted in May, plus a map from one year ago, so the additions can be viewed more clearly when flicking between maps. You may notice some of the boundary squares have disappeared altogether - this was done after carefully checking the vc41 boundary overlay on the Grab a Grid Reference website (use the 'Toggle Vice-County' option below the left hand map to check any boundaries you're uncertain of).

Glamorgan tetrad map update

It's been just over three months since the last update, but as there's been a healthy amount of recording (4996 records for 2016 so far) the latest map update should be of help in targeting efforts. Charles and Hilary have been very busy extending the NPT coverage, with additional records to many worked squares as-well-as chipping away at RCT. George has consolidated the Cardiff tetrad castle and has even built a lookout tower on the east wing - so he can keep an eye on what Sam's up to the east! I see George has also starting building an outpost around Old Castle Down - clearly deprived of Lego as a child! ;-) I'm not sure if Sam's been able to do much in Glamorgan this year, additional to his visit to the Hafod (clearly Monmouthshire is benefiting from his move), but I see Peter's been doing bits and pieces at a variety of sites and adding to the larger picture. Note, some of Sam's data from last year is included in this update. No doubt recording will ease off as spring turns into summer when flower and bugs will quite rightly grab our attention more, but I'm sure there will days when the green fuzz proves irresistible...

[as usual the new map plus the previous one so you can flick to see the updates more clearly]

Glamorgan tetrad update

I know it's been less than a month since the last one, but a little clarification is needed within NPT. Although the west is getting closer to achieving the nominal target, many squares still have lots more to offer and will benefit from revisits. As always, flick between the two to see the changes from the previous updates (PS. I'll update this map with Sam, George & Peter's additions when they come through from Dave).

West Glamorgan progress update

After all the recent scarcities, it seems appropriate that some of our commonest species should get a mention. Having now achieved the nominal tetrad coverage for Swansea, I thought a check of the coverage of our most widespread species might help identify where follow-up effort is required. There are 276 tetrads in West Glamorgan and the following table lists the most widespread species in terms of the number of tetrads recorded, along with the same figure as a percentage.

Species League Table (Tetrads)	#	%
Kindbergia praelonga	232	84
Calliergonella cuspidata	230	83
Rhytidiadelphus squarrosus	223	81
Brachythecium rutabulum	220	80
Hypnum andoi	212	77
Metzgeria furcata	209	76
Frullania dilatata	200	72
Bryum capillare	199	72
Ceratodon purpureus	192	70
Mnium hornum	189	68
Ulota bruchii	189	68
Atrichum undulatum	180	65
Dicranum scoparium	179	65
Lophocolea bidentata	178	64
Dicranella heteromalla	177	64
Hypnum jutlandicum	177	64
Polytrichastrum formosum	176	64
Pseudoscleropodium purum	175	63
Barbula unguiculata	174	63
Orthotrichum affine	172	62

The following selection of maps highlights the distribution gaps in these widespread species. It's probable most can be taken above 90% with some additional targeted effort, bearing in mind a some of the NPT squares are still to be visited. Charles and Hilary's systematic monad recording is most impressive for species in key NPT habitats, such as forestry and mires, as shown in the second batch of maps below:

A few selected species frequent in forestry and mire habitats:

2015 Glamorgan update

2015 records from the main contributors are now almost all in, so an update seemed timely. Still with Sam's data to come through the system, we only fell short of the 10,000 mark last year by just 456 records, so again well done for all the hard effort. I know it's only been a month since the last update, but I've added the previous update alongside the current map as it's always encouraging to flick between the two to see the advances more clearly. Here's hoping for some drier weather to encourage us out a little bit more!

Glamorgan tetrad update

I have recently received sync files from Charles & Hilary (a bit a of monster one with over 8,000 vascular & bryophyte records) and a smaller number from George (via SEWBReC), so this update is intended to show what's been achieved so far this year and is intended to help target any opportunities for future square-bashing. With 15 days left we'll probably fall short of 10,000 mark this year, although data from Sam and Peter may drag us over the line. Regardless of the final figure, it's been another remarkably consistent combined effort for the last four years, so well done to all involved in getting us this far.

As usual, I've added a previous map as it shows better where the additional records have been added, simply by flicking between the two maps. Note there's a nine-month difference between the two maps. I should add that it's a little bit of a cheat, as there are also 3766 records added from the BBS database, though it was surprising how little difference these records made to the maps overall. There are of course some very valuable records in that dataset.

Glamorgan has 614 tetrads. 257 now have totals that exceed the nominal target of 60 taxa, but clearly there's a bit of an east west split, with a large proportion of the 411 East Glamorgan tetrads still in need of recording effort. It's worth noting that 23 are shared tetrads with West Glamorgan and 66 other EG tetrads are already completed, leaving a paltry 300+ EG tetrads to look at - or to put it another way ... a paltry 300+ EG tetrads left to explore!

Forestry etc in NE Carms

I spent a couple of hours in SN73D, which includes the village of Porthyrhyd, on 17th October.  The tetrad already had 75 species recorded, mostly by Jonathan Graham, but I am trying to visit all Carms tetrads myself and this one looked pretty diverse.  My visit revealed 129 species, most of them in the Banc-y-garreg Forestry, and took the tetrad total to 147 (Jon had several additional species including Bazzania trilobata from the inaccessible private rocks on Banc Bwlchdrebannau).

The forestry tracks were notably species-rich, with highlights including Archidium, Fossombronia wondraczekii, Riccia glauca, 1 fruiting rosette of Phaeoceros laevis, Campylopus subulatus, Bryoerythrophyllum ferruginascens, Pohlia drummondii and female Jungermannia hyalina.  In contrast, epiphytes were rather limited and I failed to find any Colura (!) although most of the other willow regulars were present.  As I continued deeper into the forestry I found a clearfell area with 3 or 4 very small rock outcrops (each <5x2m in extent), and to my surprise these held Barbilophozia attenuata, Plagiochila punctata, P. spinulosa and Sphagnum quinquefarium.  Riccardia palmata on damp conifer logs was new for the hectad.

The trackside habitat of Jungermannia hyalina and the Plagiochila punctata outcrop (iPod photos) 

This productive first hour was followed by a fairly fruitless session along the lanes approaching Olchfa Mill, with Ctenidium, Pellia endiviifolia and a few species by a rocky stream being the only additions.  The tracks along Banc Bwlchdrebannau were even worse, as all the good rocky habitat is set well back on private land.  Luckily, things ended on a good note with a visit to Porthyrhyd Chapel, which held a good range of typical churchyard mosses including Encalypta streptocarpa, Pseudocrossidium revolutum, Gyroweisia tenuis, Schistidium apocarpum and Ephemerum minutissimum.

 

There are still >80 tetrads I haven't visited, most of which are light blue on this coverage map

Glamorgan tetrad map update

At last I've finally been through all of the BBS data set, which together with the SEWBReC upload, means the only outstanding records missing from this tetrad update should be any records made over this summer. Cross-referencing the BBS data set enabled me to find those records of Sam's that are missing from the SEWBReC data and I was pleased to find a reasonable number of Roy's records at a suitable resolution for tetrad mapping. There were however, lots of hectad records that I did not re-enter (other than a few rares), so the main discrepancy between the MapMate dataset and that of the BBS should now only be these. For ref, I have archived all the records from the BBS data set so they do not end up as duplicates, but I'll make sure that Charles and George get these when they next sync, so they have the full data set on MapMate.

Glamorgan update

Dave Slade sent through what was hopefully the bulk of Sam's missing records this morning, which together with George's summer offerings, now gives us a pretty comprehensive dataset for modern (i.e. post 1999) recording effort in the county. I'm guessing like many of us Charles and Hilary have eased off bryophyte recording over the summer, but probably have some records to add from NPT. The updated tetrad map below does include a reasonable amount of older data which is now on my system, but I know there is still a more to be added. At least now anyone fancying a bit of square-bashing will know where to find 'sub-60' squares. We now have 205 squares with 60+ spp recorded, i.e. 33% of Glamorgan's 624 tetrads, so still plenty opportunities for exploration of virgin territory to be had.

Map below from the end of 2014 shows progress in 2015

Apologies for the lack of labels, but the plot below shows the number of records made annually (or rather those that are now on the MapMate system) since 1980, with pre-1980 records lumped:

Glamorgan Tetrad update

Dave Slade sent me another sync so thought I'd bring you all up to date, although he's still trying to figure out why Sam's 2013 records haven't been sent my way yet ... all in good time. There are 624 tetrads in Glamorgan and we now have 192 squares with 60+ species (31%), so almost a third of the way towards the nominal target! For ref  we have 144 squares with 70+ species (23%) and 51 squares with a 100 or more species (8%).

If you open up an image and use the left & right arrow keys, you can flick between the images and see progress since the last update much more effectively. Please ignore the dates on the maps and you may see some reductions in tetrad totals, these are mostly due to tidying up of boundary records.

Glamorgan Tetrad update

I received George's records today, so thought an updated tetrad map might be of interest/help. Note that Sam's 2013 and 2014 data have still yet to be added; Dave Slade informs me that he is hoping to do this next week, so I'm sure there will be nice a selection of high scoring additions to come.

The winter has seen slow but steady progress since the last update in October, but there's still bags of virgin territory to explore and enjoy, especially so in the east. I can see the darker shades have spread in and around Cardiff as George has cast his net further afield and the NPT block solidifies and darkens further with the continuance of Charles and Hilary's monumental efforts. It's also worth mentioning the addition of Peter's (Sturgess) records, which have erased many of the 0 squares in the south-east of the county and welcome him to the blog. I'm still trying to plug away at SN60, which is now half done and I've filled in some of the gaps around Swansea's urban fringe and on the peninsula. Finally you may notice that a lot of squares have lost one or two taxa; this is mainly the a result of a database tidy up which has removed many of the duplicate bi/trinomial discrepancies.

Just to the west of Glamorgan...

Ten years on (!) from The Mosses and Liverworts of Carmarthenshire and tetrad coverage is now much more complete in VC44.  I have visited all but 103 of the county's 680 tetrads.  The areas of poor coverage are still the far west and mid-northeast: basically any light blue or light green dots are very under-recorded; dark green, brown or yellow are OK.

So lots still to do, but little opportunity.  It's interesting to compare Barry's SN60 with 'my' SN50: 60 to 80 is probably a realistic target for each tetrad, with 100 for the richer squares.

SN60G (Felindre) Note, I must check the records first!

Yesterday I only had a little spare time so decided to give SN60G (which was on 55 species) a boost to help take it over the 70 mark. Stupidly I never checked what species had been recorded other than I knew I’d looked at some coal spoil in the nw of the square, so I headed to Felindre and ended up spending 15 minutes by the river and 30 minutes in the church (again in the rain). I couldn’t believe it when I got back and found that Sam had already done the church! Of the 400ha to choose from in SN60G, I had to choose the same 0.2 ha! However, it did give the opportunity to compare results. Needless to say Sam recorded more, 15 more in fact, although I was pleased to find that I managed to add a further 7, the best of these probably being Sciuro-hypnum populeum.

The tetrad total now stands at a respectable 83, the church total of 50 accounting for a large part of this, 5m of river bank and 0.2 ha of coal spoil the rest. As the squares get ticked off, it’s sobering to think that three casual visits to less than 0.1% of a tetrad (yellow patches below) can constitute a ‘completed’ square (i.e. a nominal 60 spp exceeded).

Well as suggested I'm now venturing into SN60 when I get the odd opportunity and my target is to complete this hectad over the winter. Here are the tetrad totals as it stands...

Tetrad totals update

Having recently received Charles and Hilary's 2014 records (all 1892 of them, including 46 records of Colura) thought I'd post an updated map.

Fairwood Lake

Yesterday I found Tetraphis pellucida to be locally frequent on Carex paniculata 'trunks' along with a selection of more mundane things. I'm sure there are more interesting species to be found in this bryo-friendly niche.

tussock-sedges along dam edge of Fairwood Lake

Anyway SS59V was the last non-estuarine square in SS59 to be bashed, so all now have exceeded my nominal target of 60 species. The average tetrad count is a rather satisfying 79.8 and whilst I can claim the bulk of the records are mine, several squares received a significant boost from Sam's occasional visits to my home hectad. No doubt there will still be plenty interesting things to find in SN59, but for now it's on to the next hectad ...