Semi-natural grasslands: Butterflies and bumblebees

The monitoring programme started in 2006 and includes 700 semi-natural grasslands across the country. Each year, approximately one-fifth of these sites are visited. Within each site, several transects are surveyed, where the surveyor records the species and abundance of butterflies and bumblebees present. To characterise the ecological conditions of the sites, the height of the vegetation and the number of flowers along each transect are assessed, along with land use.

In addition to records of butterflies and bumblebees, large old trees and lichens on these trees were inventoried from 2006 to 2011 and from 2013 to 2015.

The results of these inventories are used to analyse the condition and quality changes of semi-natural grasslands within the Swedish agricultural landscape, contributing to the environmental objective A varied agricultural landscape.

The butterfly and bumblebee inventory is part of the environmental monitoring programme Uppföljning av kvalitetsförändringar i ängs- och betesmarker (Monitoring of quality changes in semi-natural grasslands). Until 2020, plant and vegetation inventories were also conducted within the same programme and at the same sites.

Data is available at Datavärdskap Naturdata: LandskapsAnalys.