Field Mycologist UK is an official NBN Atlas data partner. Eligible observations are shared with the National Biodiversity Network Atlas, the UK’s largest collection of biodiversity records.
By recording here, you’re adding to the national picture of where fungi grow, which supports conservation, research and land management across the UK.
What Is the NBN Atlas?
The NBN Atlas brings together wildlife records from hundreds of organisations and recording schemes, including the British Mycological Society, Natural England and local wildlife trusts. It makes them freely available to researchers, conservationists, planners and the public.
Which Observations Are Shared?
To be included, an observation must:
- Have an identification, at species or genus level
- Have a location
- Not be Private: Private observations are never shared
Each export is prepared by the site team, who choose which records to include. Exports are usually made up of confirmed observations, as these are the most useful to the national records.
How Your Privacy Is Respected
- Open: coordinates are shared at full precision.
- Obscured: only the approximate public point is shared, marked with an uncertainty of several kilometres. Your exact location is never shared.
- Private: never shared.
If you change an observation to Private after it has been shared, it’s left out of future exports.
What’s Shared?
Records are exported in the Darwin Core format, the international standard for biodiversity data, and include:
- The species name and authorship
- The observation date
- The location (as above) and vice county
- The habitat
- Your display name as the recorder
- Who identified or verified it, and the verification status
- Your notes
- The Creative Commons licence you chose for the observation
Your email address and account details are never shared.
Verification Status
| Field Mycologist status | NBN Atlas verification |
|---|---|
| Checked by a designated verifier | The verifier’s verdict, such as Accepted – correct |
| Confirmed, with an Identifier among the members backing the ID | Accepted – considered correct |
| Confirmed by community agreement alone, or another way such as by iNaturalist | Unconfirmed – plausible |
| Unconfirmed | Unconfirmed – not reviewed |
Accepted – correct is kept for records checked by a designated verifier. So getting involved in identification directly improves the quality of the UK’s national records.
How Often Is Data Shared?
Exports are prepared periodically by the site team and sent to the NBN. It isn’t instant, so there can be a delay before a record appears on the NBN Atlas.
Can I Opt Out?
Yes. Private observations are never shared. To keep all your observations out of NBN Atlas exports, set your default location privacy to Private.
If you have questions about how your data is used, please get in touch.