Pan-Species Listing How to Become a Super-Naturalist

About this book

Pan-species listing is a brilliant method to keep track of a lifetime of natural history sightings. A personal list, not just of birds but including every moth, beetle, lichen, sea-spider, liverwort, fungus, slime mould, cetacean... anything and everything, all the species you've seen. The list is maintained as part of an online community, following your progress in a fun and gently competitive way.

But pan-species listing is not just a game; it generates huge amounts of good quality biological data, while providing a framework for the next generation of naturalists to become experts themselves. This book reveals why the approach was dreamt up, as well as how to do it, what the benefits are and how you too can realise them. The 37 taxonomic classes used on the Pan-Species Listing website each have a section showing which texts, websites, equipment, online groups and information are needed to get started. Along with a detailed section on biological recording and fieldcraft, they make this a very handy guide for those that don't necessarily want to list.

Altogether, this is a crucial text for navigating the world of natural history and biological recording in the twenty-first century. The book is suitable for anyone who wishes to take part in pan-species listing but also those with an interest in biological recording, natural history, fieldwork and fieldcraft, bioblitzes, survey and monitoring, conservation ecology, record handling and analysing large lists of species.

Contents

Foreword by Chris Packham

1. A brief history of (ti)me
2. My approach to this book
3. What is pan-species listing (PSL) and what are its benefits?
4. From inception to where we are today: a PSL timeline
5. The PSL website and how to take part
6. Accessing the different taxonomic groups
7. Pan-species listing in unusual habitats and specific situations
8. How to become a super-naturalist: hints and tips
9. Can pan-species listing change your life?
10. Pan-species listing and collaborative competition
11. Pan-species approaches to surveying and monitoring
12. Pan-species listing of sites
13. Public engagement and PSL field meetings
14. Representation and demographics in pan-species listing
15. Neurodivergence, natural history and pan-species listing
16. Threats to pan-species listing
17. Pan-species listing in other countries
18. Lifetime strategies for pan-species listing
19. The future of pan-species listing

Index

Customer Reviews (1)

Biography

Graeme Lyons is a freelance entomologist and ecologist now based in Sussex, after growing up in the West Midlands. He has been a biological recorder for 35 years (amassing over quarter of a million records), is interested in all areas of UK natural history and is always keen to help others learn about the amazing wildlife on these islands. He is county recorder for spiders and bugs, and has been a founding member of the pan-species listing movement since its inception. Graeme has seen 8,988 species in the UK to date. He has recently discovered that he is both autistic and ADHD.