Skip to main content
Dryad

A database of Defra statutory biodiversity metric unit values for terrestrial habitat samples across England, with plant, butterfly and bird species data

Data files

May 21, 2024 version files 1.42 MB

Abstract

Policies requiring biodiversity no net loss or net gain as an outcome of environmental planning have become more prominent worldwide, catalysing interest in biodiversity offsetting as a mechanism to compensate for development impacts on nature. Offsets rely on credible and evidence-based methods to quantify biodiversity losses and gains. Following the introduction of the United Kingdom’s Environment Act in November 2021, all new developments requiring planning permission in England are expected to demonstrate a 10% biodiversity net gain from 2024, calculated using the statutory biodiversity metric framework (Defra, 2023). The metric is used to calculate both baseline and proposed post-development biodiversity units, and is set to play an increasingly prominent role in nature conservation nationwide. The metric has so far received limited scientific scrutiny.

This dataset comprises a database of statutory biodiversity metric unit values for terrestrial habitat samples across England. For each habitat sample, we present biodiversity units alongside five long-established single-attribute proxies for biodiversity (species richness, individual abundance, number of threatened species, mean species range or population, mean species range or population change). Data were compiled for species from three taxa (vascular plants, butterflies, birds), from sites across England. The dataset includes 24 sites within grassland, wetland, woodland and forest, sparsely vegetated land, cropland, heathland and shrub, i.e. all terrestrial broad habitats except urban and individual trees. Species data were reused from long-term ecological change monitoring datasets (mostly in the public domain), whilst biodiversity units were calculated following field visits. Fieldwork was carried out in April-October 2022 to calculate biodiversity units for the samples. Sites were initially assessed using metric version 3.1, which was current at the time of survey, and were subsequently updated to the statutory metric for analysis using field notes and species data. Species data were derived from 24 long-term ecological change monitoring sites across the Environmental Change Network (ECN), Long Term Monitoring Network (LTMN) and Ecological Continuity Trust (ECT), collected between 2010 and 2020.