Ireland’s BioBlitz 2012 is over and Glengarriff Nature Reserve won this year’s competition with a massive 1020 species recorded over the 24 hour period. This is just short of the number of species recorded by last year’s winner, Killarney National Park, which was a much larger and more varied site. Both Crawfordsburn Country Park and Lough Boora, with 984 and 940 species recorded respectively, were also hugely impressive tallies.  Phoenix Park was some distance behind having recorded 528 species. The survey at the Phoenix Park was significant, however, as there were significant findings of new mosses and some plants that haven’t been recorded for over 100 years at the site.

Despite the cold temperature and wet conditions the overall event was a remarkable achievement both in terms of mobilising a huge voluntary effort and achieving a massive recording tally. Thanks to everyone who contributed to make Ireland’s BioBlitz 2012 a success.

THE RESULTS

Overall winners: The site with the most species recorded

Glengarriff Nature Reserve is the overall winner with a final tally of 1020. This is a remarkable figure even for such as relative restricted site and averages out at 1.4 species recorded for every minute of the competition.

SITE	No of Species
1st – Glengarriff Nature Reserve	1020
2nd – Crawfordsburn Country Park	984
3rd – Lough Boora	940
4th – Phoenix Park	528

Site with the most species recorded per area

The site with the most species recorded per area is Crawfordsburn Country Park. At 98 ha it was by far the smallest of the four sites, and the final species tally averaged out at10.04 species per ha. This was far greater than the other three sites, but was lower than the 10.6 species per ha achieved at Liffey Valley Park, Waterstown in last year’s BioBlitz. In this category,  Phoenix Park outscored  Lough Boora.

SITE	No of species per ha
1st – Crawfordsburn Country Park	10.04
2nd – Glengarriff Nature Reserve	3.4
3rd – Phoenix Park	0.75
4th – Lough Boora	0.47

The site that recorded the most species of vascular plant

This year a special trophy was awarded to the site that recorded the most species of vascular plant to celebrate International Fascination of Plants Day http://www.plantday12.eu/home.htm. This award goes to Lough Boora for recording 334 species of vascular plants. A very close second was Glengarriff Nature Reserve with 330 plants.

SITE	No. of vascular plants
1st – Lough Boora	334
2nd – Glengarriff Nature Reserve	330
3rd – Crawfordsburn Country Park	317
4th – Phoenix Park	240

The site with the most species recorded by recorder

Crawfordsburn Country Park won this category as on average a massive 39.4 species were recorded based on the number of registered recorders participating at the site. What a productive bunch they were in the north as this is almost double the productivity of second placed Glengarriff Nature Reserve with 20 species!

SITE	No. of species per recorder
1st – Crawfordsburn Country Park	39.4
2nd – Glengarriff Nature Reserve	20.0
3rd – Lough Boora	16.8
4th – Phoenix Park	13.8

Congratulations to Glengarriff Nature Reserve who won Ireland’s BioBlitz 2012 – recording a total of 1,020 species over the 24-hour period.  Crawfordsburn Country Park, Co. Down just pipped Lough Boora, Co. Offaly into second place, recording 984 and 940 species respectively. Phoenix Park was a long way back in fourth, having recorded 528 species.

Lough Boora were awarded the trophy for the site that recorded the most species of vascular plants with 334 species – this was a special award to celebrate International Fascination of Plants Day which fell on 18th May 2012.

Crawfordsburn Country Park recorded the most species per unit area.

Thank you to our partners: Northern Ireland Environment Agency / National Museums of N. Ireland, CEDaR, N. Ireland, Bord na Mona, National Parks and Wildlife Service and Office of Public Works who facilitated the hosting of sites.

This event would not have been possible to run without the huge voluntary effort of all the recorders who gave of their time and expertise freely to assist with the recording. To all of you, a very special word of thanks.

We were honoured that President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins launched Ireland’s BioBlitz 2012 in the Phoenix Park. The President also provided us with the first record for the 2012 event, telling us of the Hairy St. John’s-wort Hypericum hirsutum a protected species that grows within the grounds of Aras an Uachtarain.

The Centre is delighted to announce that President Michael D. Higgins will launch BioBlitz 2012 in the Phoenix Park at 16.45 pm on 18th  May. All are welcome!

For a full programme of events at each of the 4 sites visit http://bioblitz.biodiversityireland.ie/