Insect monitoring for ecological consultancies
More sampling points, fewer field rounds and data that goes straight into your report.
As an ecologist you want to give your client a well-founded account of what a measure does to insect life. With the DIOPSIS insect camera you measure at several places at once, standardised and day and night, without your field team having to visit traps every week.
From snapshot to time series
A manual survey gives a picture of one day, in one kind of weather. Insect numbers, however, fluctuate strongly per hour, per day and per season. The DIOPSIS insect camera photographs what lands on an illuminated screen every few seconds and keeps doing so for weeks, also at night. That gives you a time series instead of a sample, and lets you substantiate differences between sites or years.
Baseline, impact and multi-year monitoring
Place cameras before an intervention and keep measuring afterwards, or compare a treatment plot with a reference plot. Because every camera measures the same way, the comparison is clean. The image recognition model of Naturalis identifies and counts the insects; you get numbers, biomass estimates and taxonomic groups per site and per period through the DIOPSIS web portal.
Fewer hours in the field, more hours for analysis
A camera is placed by one person in a few minutes and then runs independently on solar power. You follow its status remotely. Your field team does not have to empty and identify traps every week, so you can offer more sampling points within the same budget. That makes a proposal with insect monitoring feasible, also for smaller projects.
Usable in your reporting
The method is standardised and described in scientific publications, so you can refer to it in your report. Photos and readings can be shared with your client, and we help with interpretation if you wish.
Lease per project
For a defined assignment you lease cameras for a year; for recurring monitoring we agree a longer lease period. That keeps the cost per project transparent and leaves you with no equipment of your own to manage. Read more about leasing or contact us to discuss your project.
Related
Frequently asked questions
Does the camera replace a manual survey?
Not entirely. The camera provides a continuous, standardised time series of flying insects that land on the screen. For groups that do not come to the screen, or for identification to species, classic methods remain necessary. Many consultancies combine both.
Can I use the data in my own report?
Yes. Photos, counts and readings are available per site and period through the web portal and can be exported. The method is described in scientific publications you can refer to.
How many cameras do I need for an impact assessment?
That depends on the number of sites to compare and the variation in the terrain. A common set-up is one camera per treatment plot plus a reference plot. We are happy to think along about a design that fits your client's question.
A monitoring assignment that needs to include insects?
Send us your client's question. We think along about the number of cameras, the sites and the period, and what the data will and will not be able to say.