Rapid Assessment Biodiversity Grid Data for ‘Lueneburger Heide’ (Lueneburg Heathland), Schneverdingen, Germany, August 2015

Abstract

This data set consists of a citizen-science type rapid biodiversity assessment at landscape of ‘Lueneburger Heide’ (Lueneburg Heathland) near Schneverdingen, Germany.The data include 25 plots regularly spaced 100m apart from each other, and 5 additional random points. The geo-referencing was done with a GPS, a geographic datum of WGS84 was used with decimal degrees (5 decimals) of latitude and longitude. The bounding box of this data set is: 53.03996 til 53.10003 Northern latitude, and 9.80769 til 9.81478 Western longitude. The grid was visited three times between August 8th til 12th in 2015 allowing for occupancy and distance sampling abundance estimates for instance. Point transects were carried out for bird sightings. Also, mammalian evidence, the vegetation (flowers and trees) and some insects (primarily ants) were briefly assessed. Three photos were taken for each grid plot, including one sky shot to capture the atmospheric light conditions, e.g. for Remote Sensing work. Noteworthy are the high occurrences of human impacts (biofuel mais and tree plantations, sheep farming “Heidschnucken’, tourism, local train), as well as songbirds. Despite its esthetic and highly managed heath landscape appeal, the grid area is essentially a highly frequented surban nature recreation reserve but avian raptors, common cranes, rare amphibians (moor frog, roe deer, boar and re-introduced wolf can be found! Incidence of hunting occurs (e.g. high stands). This dataset consists of an MS Excel sheet and is less than 1MB in size.