25dfc4c1-9499-4e84-b89e-d97991ad3f70 https://ipt.inbo.be/resource?r=fsfn-carabidae-occurrence Luc De Bruyn Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO) / University of Antwerp

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luc.debruyn@inbo.be 0000-0002-8968-8862 Bruno De Vos Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO)

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bruno.devos@inbo.be 0000-0001-9523-3453 Dimitri Brosens Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO)

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0000-0002-0846-9116 Dimitri Brosens Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO)

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dimitri.brosens@inbo.be 0000-0002-0846-9116 Stijn Cooleman Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO) / Belgian Biodiversity Platform

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stijn.cooleman@inbo.be 0000-0003-3029-0451 2025-12-11 eng In the period 1997-1998, the Flemish Forest Service funded a study (B&G/29/98) that initiated a region-wide soil fauna survey by a consortium of three Universities (RuG, KuL and UA; now University of Ghent, KU Leuven and University of Antwerp) and two Research Institutes (IBW and RBINS; now INBO and RBINS). The survey was conducted on 56 well selected forest plots representative for all forest- and soil types in Flanders Region.The goals of the study were (1) to assess the diversity of soil dwelling organisms (soil fauna) across Flanders’ forests; (2) to look for bioindicators for forest soil quality and (3) to explore if a biological forest soil classification system based on soil fauna composition could be designed. Recognizing the critical role of soil organisms in ecosystem functioning (e.g. nutrient cycling), the study sought to establish a link between soil biodiversity and soil condition. Here we publish the Carabidae data sampled in this initial project, as a T0. Over time, other organism groups and soil bioindicators were assessed on the same FSFN plots by various studies. However, 25 years later, all plots are getting resurveyed by the studies ‘FOURCAST’ and ‘Biota4C’ following the same sampling schemes and methodologies as in the initial project. Therefore we wish to publish all initial datasets in order to compare them with the recent findings. All published data can be retrieved using collectionCode ‘FSFN’.Issues with the dataset can be reported at https://github.com/inbo/data-publication-fsfn/issuesWe have released this dataset to the public domain under a Creative Commons Zero waiver. We would appreciate it if you follow the INBO norms for data use (https://www.inbo.be/en/norms-data-use) when using the data. If you have any questions regarding this dataset, don't hesitate to contact us via the contact information provided in the metadata or via opendata@inbo.be.For all published datasets regarding this Forest Soil Fauna Network (FSFN), see https://www.gbif.org/dataset/search?project_id=BNG/15/96 or https://www.gbif.org/occurrence/search?collection_code=FSFN Samplingevent GBIF Dataset Type Vocabulary: http://rs.gbif.org/vocabulary/gbif/dataset_type_2015-07-10.xml soil; fauna; indicator n/a To the extent possible under law, the publisher has waived all rights to these data and has dedicated them to the Public Domain (CC0 1.0). Users may copy, modify, distribute and use the work, including for commercial purposes, without restriction. Creative Commons Zero v1.0 Universal https://spdx.org/licenses/CC0-1.0.html CC0-1.0 Flanders, Belgium 2.54 5.92 51.51 50.68 1997-05-01 1997-05-30 A total of 30776 individuals were identified. They belonged to 117 species Carabidae (Ground beetles). kingdom Animalia order Coleoptera family Carabidae notPlanned Luc De Bruyn Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO) / University of Antwerp

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luc.debruyn@inbo.be 0000-0002-8968-8862 Researchers defined the appropriate sampling protocol for the target species. Fieldwork was planned and coordinated by the University of Antwerp (previously named RUCA), using the designed sampling protocol. Researchers entered the collected data in a digital way (old spreadsheets). A custom R script is created to transform the plot data and map the original data to Darwin Core as an event core and occurrence extension. The Darwin Core views are connected to the INBO IPT and documented with metadata. The dataset is published and registered with GBIF. Data were collected using a predefined sampling protocol. Bruno De Vos 0000-0001-9523-3453 pointOfContact The project aimed to develop bioindicators and a biological classification system for forest soils based on soil fauna composition in Flanders region. Recognizing the critical role of soil organisms in ecosystem functioning, the study sought to establish a link between soil biodiversity and soil condition. Flemish Government (project Aminal B&G/15/96 in Flemish forests) Flanders, Belgium 2024-06-04T15:45:29.489+02:00 dataset De Bruyn L, De Vos B, Brosens D, Cooleman S (2025). FSFN: Forest Soil Fauna Network: Carabidae, Flanders Belgium. Version 1.8. Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO). Samplingevent dataset. https://ipt.inbo.be/resource?r=fsfn-carabidae-occurrence&v=1.8 De Bruyn et al. (1997) Bosbodemclassificatie door middel van bodemfauna 25dfc4c1-9499-4e84-b89e-d97991ad3f70/v1.8.xml