This point dataset contains target notes recorded during grassland field surveys in the Cairngorms National Park undertaken between 2020 and 2022, as part of a joint project delivered by NatureScot and the Cairngorms National Park Authority. The aim was to establish the location and extent of species-rich grassland (SRG) within enclosed (and formerly enclosed) farm land, up to a maximum altitudinal limit of 500 m, using a combination of remote sensing and targeted field survey. This dataset covers the Livet, Avon and Dee catchments.
Patches of unimproved/semi-improved grassland, down to 0.04 ha in size, were identified and delineated by analysing high-resolution aerial photography (involving image segmentation and subsequent classification of the output). This provided a search map of polygons to visit in the field, targeting survey effort towards the areas where species-rich grassland was most likely to occur.
The field survey was undertaken by contractors during July to September in 2020 and 2021, and July to October 2022. For each polygon, grassland communities and their relative proportion cover were described using the National Vegetation Classification (NVC), and species-richness was assessed. Locations of any missed species-rich grassland, occurring outside the search map polygons, were captured in the field and added to the dataset. This information is stored in the associated CNPGrasslandMapping_2020to2022_Polygons dataset.
When species-rich grassland was encountered, additional detailed attributes describing the quality and condition of these stands were collected in the CNPGrasslandMapping_2020to2022_SRGAttributes dataset.
This dataset provides point locations, descriptions and photo attachments for other notable habitats and plant species recorded during the field survey, and contains the following fields:
CATEGORY – category of point record collected (habitat record, species record, photo point, target note);
HAB_SPEC – habitat or species recorded;
COMMENT – detailed description/notes;
GRIDREF – grid reference of point;
SURV_YEAR – year of field survey;
SURV_DATE – date of field survey;
SURVEYOR – field surveyor;
CATCHMENT – river catchment area;
POINT_ID – unique identifier.
Complete project metadata on spatialdata.gov.scot