Author

Tom Hayek

Date

2007

Project Type

Undergraduate research project

Subject

Ecology

Datasets

Sources: Digimap and others (see below)

Dates/Editions: All available.

Scales: All available.

Related Subjects

Environmental Sciences; Zoology; GIS; Geography

Key Words

Habitat study

Publishing Institution

Centre for Environmental and Marine Studies, University of Hull, Scarborough Campus

Summary and Results

This is an investigation into whether certain anthropogenic factors influence distribution of water voles. Using a set of presence/absence survey results gathered over 3 years, data points were mapped against distance from urban areas (defined as per the 2001 UK census survey). An assessment was also made of distribution in relation to “naturalness” of the water bodies surveyed (i.e. how managed or man-made they were). With a few minor exceptions, it was found that neither of these factors significantly influenced water vole distribution, with the species if anything favouring closer proximity to urban areas. The data sets were taken from 229 surveys conducted within East Yorkshire between 2000 and 2003 by Jon Traill (Wetlands and Wildlife Officer for The Yorkshire Wildlife Trust), and volunteers under his supervision. The raw data were processed by the North and East Yorkshire Ecological Data Centre (NEYEDC) and transformed into dbf file format for use with the ArcGIS software package. The resolution of the map tiles for East Yorkshire was at 1:25000.

Further information

Tom Hayek is the Conservation Programme Manager at the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust. Recent work includes the 'Revival' project aimed at delivering improved habitats, quality of water resources, and access to the Lower Don catchment.

Images

Map showing urban areas of East Yorkshire (1,500+ residents), 1km buffers around them and survey sites (positive and negative results)

View of the Aire and Calder Navigation and Dutch River to the south-west of Goole, East Yorkshire showing positive and negative survey sites