Guidance on contents and use of the Conservation Designations Spreadsheet

The downloadable spreadsheet contains several worksheets as briefly described below. Please follow the links for more detail about the contents and use of each worksheet.

Master list

The 'Master list' is perhaps the most important of the worksheets and is in effect a collation of different lists combined into the same data structure, with each row being distinguished by a unique combination of "taxa" and designation. The term 'designation' refers to any 'badge' given to a species whether or not it has a legal standing.  A taxon with ten designations will be represented by ten rows on the Master list. Note that the generic term "taxa" is in this context a more strictly accurate term than "species" because some of the listed entities are ranked as being either above or below the "species" level. Find out more about the 'Master list'.

Summary for each taxon

This is a more compact presentation of the key information in the master list. Each taxon is shown on a single row, with different columns for the reporting categories. Thus a taxon with ten designations will be represented by just one row on this worksheet. Please note that taxa assessed as being "least concern" are not shown in this collation whereas they are shown in the master list. This list is most helpful if you want to quickly find all the designations associated with a particular taxon. Find out more about the 'Summary for each taxon' worksheet.

Lists by taxon group

You can use this sheet to get simple lists of all taxa in a particular taxon group that have a certain designation(s), for example all mosses that are nationally rare or nationally scare. Find out more about 'Lists by taxon group'.

Complex synonyms

This sheet shows cases where more than one designated taxa have been amalgamated either by taxonomic revision or by a systematic naming process into one single recommended current name on the NBN dictionary.  This list could prove useful for answering questions such as "why is species X no longer on the master list?" Find out more about 'Complex synonyms'.

Updates to spreadsheet

This sheet includes details of updates and amendments made to spreadsheet of Conservation Designations for species.