DOI: 10.5061/dryad.8cz8w9h5g
title: Model output data from: Solar farms as potential future refuges for bumblebees

description: Solar farms offer an opportunity for habitat creation for wildlife,
 including insect pollinators, potentially simultaneously contributing to
 both low-carbon energy and nature recovery. However, it is unknown whether
 co-benefits would persist under future land use change given that habitat
 value is context dependent. For the 1,042 operational solar farms
 in Great Britain, we predict their ability to support bumblebee
 populations (both inside and outside the solar farm) under three different
 socio-economic futures. These futures represent alternative 1 km scale
 landcover projections for the year 2050 with accompanying narratives. We
 downscale these to 10 m resolution, spatially allocating crop rotations,
 agri-environment interventions, and other habitat features consistent with
 the scenario narratives, to realistically represent fine-scale landscape
 elements of relevance to bumblebee populations. We then input these
 detailed maps into a sophisticated process-based model (poll4pop) that
 simulates bumblebee foraging and population dynamics, enabling us to
 predict bumblebee density in and around Great Britain’s solar farms,
 accounting for the effects of their changed habitat context and
 configuration in these different future scenarios. This dataset contains
 raw poll4pop model outputs, including the number of bumblebee nests,
 foraging bumblebees and new bumblebee queens inside each solar farm,
 surrounding foraging zone (0-500 m from the solar farm boundary) and wider
 landscape (10 km). 
description: # Model output data from: Solar farms as potential future refuges for
 bumblebees Dataset DOI:
 [10.5061/dryad.8cz8w9h5g](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.8cz8w9h5g) ##
 Description of the data and file structure This dataset contains raw
 poll4pop model output data, including the number of predicted bumblebee
 nests, foraging bumblebees and new bumblebee queens inside each solar farm
 in Great Britain, surrounding foraging zone (0-500 m from the solar farm
 boundary) and wider landscape (10 km) under four land use change scenarios
 (present day, SSP1, SSP2 and SSP5) and three solar farm management
 scenarios (baseline, turf grass and meadow margins). ### Files and
 variables Below, details about each column in the Excel spreadsheet are
 provided: **land_use**_**scenario** - the land use scenario under which
 the model was run, including the present day and three future land use
 scenarios for 2050 based on the UK-RCP-SSPs, where SSP1 represents
 Sustainability, SSP2 represents Middle of the Road and SSP5 represents
 Fossil-fuelled Development. **solar_farm_ID** - a unique number attributed
 to each solar farm. **solar_farm_management_scenario** - the solar farm
 management scenario under which the model was run, including baseline (no
 bumblebee resources), turf grass (vegetation across the whole site is
 equivalent to improved grassland i.e. higher productivity grassland used
 for agriculture) and meadow margins (edges of the solar farms are
 equivalent to unimproved grassland i.e. lower productivity semi-natural
 grassland which provide more bumblebee resources). **solar_farm_npix** -
 the number of pixels inside the solar farm when rasterised.
 **buffer0to500_npix** - the number of pixels inside the 500 m buffer zone
 surrounding the solar farm when rasterised. **n_nests_landscape** -
 predicted number of bumblebee nests in the 10 km solar farm landscape.
 **n_nests_solar_farm** - predicted number of bumblebee nests in the solar
 farm. **n_nests_buffer0to500** - predicted number of bumblebee nests
 inside the 500 m buffer zone surrounding the solar farm.
 **n_foragingbees_landscape** - predicted number of foraging bumblebees in
 the 10 km solar farm landscape. **n_foragingbees_solar_farm** - predicted
 number of foraging bumblebees in the solar farm.
 **n_foragingbees_buffer0to500** - predicted number of foraging bumblebees
 inside the 500 m buffer zone surrounding the solar farm.
 **n_newqueens_landscape** - predicted number of new bumblebee queens in
 the 10 km solar farm landscape. **n_newqueens_solar_farm** - predicted
 number of new bumblebee queens in the solar farm.
 **n_newqueens_buffer0to500** - predicted number of new bumblebee queens
 inside the 500 m buffer zone surrounding the solar farm.
 **n_floralresources_landscape** - predicted amount of floral resources in
 the 10 km solar farm landscape. **n_nestingresources_landscape** -
 predicted amount of nesting resources in the 10 km solar farm landscape.
 **n_floralresources_buffer0to500** - predicted amount of floral resources
 inside the 500 m buffer zone surrounding the solar farm.
 **n_nestingresources_buffer0to500** - predicted amount of nesting
 resources inside the 500 m buffer zone surrounding the solar farm. For
 more information please contact Hollie Blaydes:
 [h.blaydes@lancaster.ac.uk](mailto:h.blaydes@lancaster.a)