Members are encouraged to keep a record of the lichens they see, and to send those records in. We need records of common species just as much as those of rarities, and from under-recorded areas and habitats as well as the known lichen hotspots. All these contribute to our understanding of lichens and their ecology and conservation. Repeat records from the same locations also enable us to monitor change.
Unlike some other national recording schemes we have to rely on voluntary effort to manage our database, so it is a big help to us if records can be sent in by email to records@britishlichensociety.org.uk using the standard BLS excel spreadsheet. Guidelines on how to fill it out are given below, and there is a more detailed Recording Guidelines document on the downloads page if you need it. Please try to follow these guidelines as they save us a lot of time and effort when the records are imported (a spreadsheet of 1000 records takes just 4 minutes to import if everything has been done correctly, but 1-2 hours if we have to go through it line by line to reformat and code it for you).
We do our best to take records supplied in other formats as well but that makes a lot of work for us and there will inevitably be a delay in getting them into the database. At present we do not have the resources to take records submitted through iRecord, iNaturalist or any other apps - but if someone would like to volunteer to take this on we would love to hear from you!
How to fill in the BLS spreadsheet
The minimum information required on a record is just:
- the location name
- grid reference
- date
- recorders
- species list
Location and visit details
Although there is a row in the spreadsheet for each species, the location and visit details need only be input once unless that information is different for particular records (e.g. a more precise grid reference). It saves us time on impot if you have already copied them down to all the species rows.
Location names should be based on those on the OS map, and you should prefix the name with the town, village or general area to ensure that nearby sites are grouped together in any list. Please be as precise as you can, we can always remove detail if you supply too much. Churchyard names should include the dedication, and hills, crags and woodlands usually have a local name shown on the large scale map.
Grid references should be input in alphanumeric form, e.g. NY672856 and given to at least 1km accuracy (e.g. NY6785).
- Comments such as "frequent between this grid reference and that" cannot be translated into dots on a map, so for a rarities and other records of particular interest please record each location on a separate row with its own precise grid reference (8 or 10 figure gives it to 10m or 1m precision, enabling it to be refound).
- Site centroid grid refs are often used, but beware of giving a false impression of accuracy if the site covers a large area. As a guide, woodlands and cemeteries are normally given a 1km (4 digit) grid ref, while churchyards, being smaller, are given a 100m (6 digit) grid ref.
For the date, give the day, month and year of the record. If you visit a site several times a combined list for a year may be useful, but start a new list each year rather than combining lists from different years.
Include the names of everyone who was actively recording, and the name of the group if it was a group visit.
- The first name in the list should always be the main recorder, as that name will also go in as determiner for the records.
Species found
The species list can then be typed in, and there is a drop-down list to help with this (but be careful to pick the right entry, we get a lot of records for Cladonia rangiferina that should be C. rangiformis!). It can also be entered by using BLS numbers, or by copying in a typed list from a report. The spreadsheet handles many old species names and the green columns automatically display back the BLS number, current name, conservation status and group.
Substrate and position codes
If possible every species record should have a substrate code:
- Bry - bryicolous (on mosses or liverworts)
- Cort - corticolous (on bark)
- Fol - foliicolous (on leaves)
- Lic - lichenicolous (on another lichen)
- Lig - lignicolous (on wood)
- Met - metalliferous (on metal)
- Sax - saxicolous (on stone)
- Terr - terricolous (on soil)
There is a dropdown list with combinations of these, such as Cort+Bry.
For any interesting records further details on substrate and position should also be supplied as small scale habitat codes. A list of these is included in the spreadsheet, but examples are:
- CBt - on Betula
- CFx - on Fraxinus
- SSd - on sandstone
- XX - on the church building
- XHd - on a churchyard headstone
- XBw - on a churchyard boundary wall
Validation and verification
We put a lot of effort into ensuring the accuracy of records in the BLS database, and use some automated checks as well as expert review. The NBN Record Cleaner checks that for each record the grid reference is on land and within the correct vice county, and that it is within the expected distribution of that species. Records that need expert verification and perhaps a voucher specimen are highlighted, and the list of Identification Difficulties used for this check is available on the BLS website, it provides useful guidance on the checks required to confirm each species.
Records of absence
Repeat surveys of a site often involve some time spent searching for species of interest that had been recorded there before, and it is useful to have a note in the database to say if these were not found. These are held as “zero abundance” records. To ensure that they are imported correctly they should be highlighted in the spreadsheet with a comment to explain in Record Notes.
Legal matters
Please note that in supplying records to the BLS you confirm that you are giving the society permission to use and share them for purposes of research, conservation, education and planning and to make them publicly available on the NBN Atlas, and that you have the necessary permissions from landowners, commissioning bodies and other named recorders to do so. We share our data freely with national and regional organisations such as the RSPB, Plantlife, Natural England, NatureScot, National Resources Wales, and local record centres, and once on the NBN Atlas records may also be picked up by GBIF.
Further details are given in the BLS Data Policy.