BBS survey of arable bryophytes
	Field	Example	Explanation	Possible difficulties
1	Site code	TL26S1	A code specifying a unique site (typically a field).  The suggestion is that sites are numbered by their tetrad and then a digit - eg. TL26S1.  The recorder assigns this.	1 Recorders may find tetrads difficult;  training may be required.  2 Duplicate numbers may be supplied by different recorders.  This will happen very rarely.  If it happens at all, then the square will be renumbered by the scheme organizers.
2	Visit No.	1	Most sites will be visited only once (code 0), but revisits are strongly encouraged.	A revisit requires the recorder to have kept notes of previous visits
3	Position	0	Card will normally list bryophytes in a general area, including edge and middle (code 0);  but sometimes edge and middle may differ markedly.  The "whole area" may be merely the area reaching from a gate to 30 m into the site.	Features may occupy more or less space than indicated. Do not take measurements too literally.  Thus if a rutted gateway goes 6 m into the field then don't worry that instructions say 5 m.
4	Feature	0	Normally there is no special feature, but damp depressions or areas of crop failure may be recorded specially	Do not record it as a special feature if you stray out into the rest of the field.
5	Comment on position and feature	bla, bla	Give indication of area searched, e.g. "to about 50 m from gate".  Comments are informal and mainly for reference if there is a revisit.	Don't try to write a large essay on the subject.
6	Grid ref (6 figure)	TL266649	Use letters and 6-digit numbers.  The letters refer to the 100-km square, the grid ref consists of easting (266) and northing (649)	Grid references are often troublesome, particularly for those with some degree of numerical dyslexia.  Training of recorders may be necessary.
7	5-km sq	SE	Gives position within 10-km square (bottom left = SW, top right = NE, etc.).  This entry is not essential, because it can be inferred from the grid reference.  It can be left blank if desired.	If this causes difficulty it should be left blank.
8	Tetrad	tetrad	Use the standard convention for tetrads.  This can be worked out from the 1-km (middle) elements of the easting and northing.  The diagram shows how.  For example the middle digits are 54 from (5)5(2)(8)4(2).  Referring to diagram, 54 is tetrad M.	Tetrads are not easy, but it is important to get them right.  Use diagram on the recording sheet.
9	Choice	2	If choice = 1, then tetrad is one of the random choice specified by the survey organizers.  If choice = 2, then the field has been selected because it appears to be in a suitable condition for bryophytes (e.g. Brassica direct-drilled into cereal stubble in early autumn) but otherwise ordinary.  If choice = 3, then field has been chosen for a special feature such as an asparagus crop, organic farming, or the past presence of good annual bryophytes.	If the random-choice tetrad lacks suitable fields, recorders are permitted to range wider in adjacent tetrads.
10	V.-c.	29	Use standard vice-county numbers.  The vice-county provides a useful check that you have got the 100-km square right.	These numbers are not obvious.  Check up with standard list;  do not try to guess if you do not know.
11	Day	13	The day of the month
12	Mnth	10	The month
13	Year	2001	The year;  use 4 digits
14	Recorder code	recorder	This will be assigned by the scheme organizers;  leave blank.  The reason for the grey shading is to discourage you from writing in that box.	If the group is a standard recording group, e.g. Cambs flora group, then a single code will be used for the group, which will allow for different combinations of people appearing on different days.
15	Locality	locality	Short name for the locality, e.g. the nearest village	Write clearly;  capitals are recommended.
16	Alt (m)	20	Read this off the map	Make sure height is in metres not feet.
17	Soil 1	3	The predominant texture, e.g. 3 for clay	Soil texture can occasionally be tricky.  Clay can be moulded when moist.  Silt is a fine-textured but not clayey soil.  Loam is well-drained normal soil with an intermediate texture.
18	Soil 2	0	A subsidiary texture, e.g. 1 for chalky if it is a chalky clay.  This box will often not be necessary and can be left blank or better entered as a zero.	Remember that sandy loam should be coded as Soil-1 = 5 (loam); Soil-2 = 2 (sand)
19	pH	6.1	Measure the pH of three soil samples with a meter to nearest decimal point.  This can be done in the field by mixing soil and distilled water to a slurry, or at home if the soil samples are collected.  If no meter is available, keep three small samples (e.g.  moderate-sized moss clods) and send them to the organizers, labelled with site code. Enter the mean value in this space on the card and note the individual sample values in the 'Comments' box.	The main difficulty is that pH meters may be slow to reach a steady value;  try to be patient.  Cheap pH meters can be temperature-sensitive and may need recalibrating in the field.
20	Habitat	3	Habitat specifies the overall condition of the field (or at least of the part of it searched).  There can be a problem distinguishing early set-aside from stubble.  Don't worry about it;  the mosses don't care, and before May, set-aside is not recognized by us as a distinct habitat, only as a distinct "Crop 2" (crop code 6).  Set-aside as a habitat (habitat code 5) refers to land recorded either in summer or in winter after being fallow for at least one summer.	Watch out for when a second crop follows a first one without the land being tilled – e.g. rape sown into cereal stubble.  In this case, the habitat is 4 Crop direct-drilled or undersown.
21	Crop 1	1	The main crop, which will be the cereal crop if you are looking at stubble.	Beware unusual crops such as awned wheat.  Early stages of set-aside do not differ from late stubble.  That does not matter;  the bryophytes really cannot tell the difference either.  Sown grassy set-aside is also difficult to distinguish from a grass ley.  Again the bryophytes cannot tell either.
22	Crop 2	0	This box is blank, or preferably zero, unless either a 2nd crop has been direct-drilled into the 1st crop, or the field has been newly set aside but is still stubble or plough.  After the end of April, set-aside is deemed to be a habitat (see field 20 above).	Recorders may doubt whether a poorly-grown second crop is actually a crop.  Crops are generally far too uniform to be credible as spontaneous growth.  Do not worry if you are unsure whether the field (pre 30 April) has been set aside.  Just treat it as an ordinary stubblefield if in doubt.
23	Planting season	1	This refers to the planting season of the current crop.  For example, wheat into which rape has been planted in September will be treated as an autumn crop.  We accept that the season of planting will often not be known.	After harvest the season of planting may not be obvious.  Enter 3 unless you have reliable information, e.g. from the farmer.
24	Cover vasc	40	Give cover % (ie. proportional occupancy of ground when viewed vertically) of vascular plants in the area searched.  If the field is wheat stubble direct-drilled with rape, then give the cover of rape+weeds+volunteer wheat.  Do not attempt accuracy greater than 10%.  If there is very little vascular plant cover, write 0.	It can be hard to estimate cover when site heterogeneous.  Don't worry, this is meant to be a general and quite crude indication.  But we do want to distinguish the case of a set-aside with 100% vascular plant cover from a stubblefield with 20% cover.
25	Cover trash	10	This is the proportion of ground covered by straw and other vegetable remains (including sprayed-on sludge) in the area searched, and which is therefore unavailable for bryophyte colonization.	It is not always obvious whether trash is thick enough to cover the ground.  Again, this is only intended as a crude indication.
26	Cover soil+bryo	50	The sum of this and the two previous values will often be 100%, but may occasionally be higher if there is room for bryophytes beneath the vascular plants (e.g. at base of grass).  This value is the important one, indicating the proportion of the area that ought to be available for bryophyte colonization if propagules were available and germination conditions suitable.	In case of well-established set-aside, the amount of bare soil and bryophytes may be very small.  Do not agonize.  If it is less than 2.5%, write 0.  Write 5% if it is 2.5-7.5%, round to nearest 10% otherwise.
27	Bryo/(Soil+bryo)	10	Give the proportion of suitable ground that is actually covered with bryophytes.  This value will very often be 0, even in cases where there there are quite numerous small mosses.  In the example, 50% of the ground was suitable for bryophytes and 10% of that was covered with mosses, so that in total, about 5% of the field had bryophyte cover.	This value may vary wildly within the area searched.  Again, do not agonize.  It is intended as a very crude measure, to distinguish very mossy fields (with more than 50% of suitable ground having a moss carpet) from ones in which bryophtyes are few or absent.  In set-aside, most available ground may be mossy even though there is almost no available ground;  ie. it is possible for Bryo/(Soil+bryo) to be 80% when Soil+bryo=0
28	Comment (general)	bla, bla	Give an overall impression of the condition of the field.  If it is stubble with volunteer wheat and much apparently suitable ground but no moss, then say so.  Equally, if the field has moss but this is being rapidly overtopped by vascular plants, say this.	There is not very much space.  Do not try to give a complete description of the field.  These should be comments that will be useful when the data are reviewed when project is complete.
S29	No.	62	This is the "BRC number" of the taxon, a standard code that is given on the BBS website.  You do not need to enter these codes yourself.	Some BRC codes for species include a decimal point.  For example 151.2 is Ceratodon purpureus because 151.1 is C. conicus, formerly treated as a variety of  C. purpureus but now regarded as a species.
S30	Species	Barb ungui	The names are shortened versions of those given in the current BBS checklist (Blockeel & Long, 1998).  Sometimes you may know only the genus;  this will apply particularly if the species can only be identified with sporophytes.  If you know the genus but not the species, enter it, e.g. Fissidens sp.	Synonyms for names differing from standard moss flora (Smith, 1978) are given at bottom of sheet.  Aggregates are listed:  Enthosthodon/Physcomitrium agg., Ephemerum serratum s.l. (including both vars), Microbryum davallianum/starckeanum agg., Anthoceros sp., Fossombronia sp. (purple rhizoids), Sphaerocarpos sp.
S31	Abun	A	Abundance on DAFOR scale - Dominant, Abundant, Frequent, Occasional, Rare.  We accept that bryophytes are very rarely dominant, so D may hardly be used.	Sometimes hard to know how abundant some species are in the field.  Try to guess what you have got in the field and check it when you get back.
S32	MESTB	S	Information on sex organs and other regenerative structures: Male, fEmale, Sporophyte, Tubers, Bulbils. Record young sporophytes as S.  Tubers of some species, e.g. Dicranella varia, are unlikely ever to be observed in the field.  Only write T if the tubers have actually been observed.  Do not bother to write M and E if the species has sporophytes.  But do write M and E if only non-fruiting plants are present.	Note that E is used for female plants because F is confusing (may be frequent, female or fruiting).
S33	Chk	C	Enter a C here if the identity of the species has been checked microscopically.  If the species has been checked by an expert, write the name of the expert in the comment column.	The main difficulty is that you may not know how abundant a species was in the field if you recognized it only after checking.  There is no complete solution to this problem, but experience helps a lot!
S34	Comment	bla, bla	Informal information, e.g. determiner or associates of species that were rare in the field.	Keep it short - see filled-in sheet