Checklist

Ad hoc checklist of alien species in Belgium

Latest version published by Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO) on 23 February 2024 Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO)
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Publication date:
23 February 2024
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Download the latest version of this resource data as a Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A) or the resource metadata as EML or RTF:

Data as a DwC-A file download 361 records in English (85 KB) - Update frequency: as needed
Metadata as an EML file download in English (36 KB)
Metadata as an RTF file download in English (23 KB)

Description

The Ad hoc checklist of alien species in Belgium is a species checklist dataset published by the Research Institute of Nature and Forest (INBO). It was specifically created for the TrIAS project (Tracking Invasive Alien Species, http://trias-project.be) to account for gaps in the alien species coverage in other species checklists for Belgium and mainly includes taxonomic groups and newly introduced species not covered elsewhere (yet). Due to its ad hoc nature, the list might change substantially over time. Here it is published as a standardized Darwin Core Archive and includes for each species: the scientific name, higher classification and stable taxon identifier (in the taxon core), the (confidence regarding the) presence of the species in Belgium (and its regions), the date of first introduction and last assessment (in the distribution extension), coarse habitat information (in the species profile extension), the pathway(s) of introduction, native range(s) and invasion stage in Belgium (in the description extension), and an overview of the consulted literature for each taxon (in the literature references extension). Issues with the dataset can be reported at https://github.com/trias-project/ad-hoc-checklist

We 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.

This dataset was published as open data for the TrIAS project (Tracking Invasive Alien Species http://trias-project.be, Vanderhoeven et al. 2017), with technical support provided by the Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO). It is selected as one of the authoritative sources for the compilation of a unified and reproducible checklist of alien species in Belgium.

Data Records

The data in this checklist resource has been published as a Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A), which is a standardized format for sharing biodiversity data as a set of one or more data tables. The core data table contains 361 records.

4 extension data tables also exist. An extension record supplies extra information about a core record. The number of records in each extension data table is illustrated below.

Taxon (core)
361
Description 
709
Distribution 
436
Reference 
344
SpeciesProfile 
327

This IPT archives the data and thus serves as the data repository. The data and resource metadata are available for download in the downloads section. The versions table lists other versions of the resource that have been made publicly available and allows tracking changes made to the resource over time.

Versions

The table below shows only published versions of the resource that are publicly accessible.

How to cite

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

Reyserhove L, Groom Q, Adriaens T, Desmet P, Dekoninck W, Van Keer K, Lock K (2024). Ad hoc checklist of alien species in Belgium. Version 1.8. Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO). Checklist dataset. https://doi.org/10.15468/3pmlxs

Rights

Researchers should respect the following rights statement:

The publisher and rights holder of this work is Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO). 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.

GBIF Registration

This resource has been registered with GBIF, and assigned the following GBIF UUID: 1f3505cd-5d98-4e23-bd3b-ffe59d05d7c2.  Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO) publishes this resource, and is itself registered in GBIF as a data publisher endorsed by Belgian Biodiversity Platform.

Keywords

Checklist; Inventorythematic; checklist; inventory; alien species; ad hoc; Flanders; Wallonia; Brussels Capital Region; Belgium; TrIAS; Checklist

Contacts

Lien Reyserhove
  • Metadata Provider
  • Originator
  • Point Of Contact
Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO)
BE
Quentin Groom
Tim Adriaens
  • Originator
Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO)
BE
Peter Desmet
  • Metadata Provider
  • Originator
Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO)
BE
Wouter Dekoninck
  • Originator
Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS)
BE
Koen Van Keer
  • Originator
Arabel working group
BE
Koen Lock
  • Originator

Geographic Coverage

This checklist covers species that are non-native in Belgium. The aim of the checklist is to provide information on species that are not (yet) covered by other checklists, so it is not meant to be comprehensive. For some taxa, information is included on its presence in Flanders, Wallonia and the Brussels Capital Region (the three main political regions in Belgium).

Bounding Coordinates South West [49.49, 2.53], North East [51.51, 6.41]

Taxonomic Coverage

This checklist includes over 250 alien species from 4 kingdoms. Arthropods constitute the largest proportion of taxa, followed by spiders and mammals.

Kingdom Plantae, Animalia, Fungi, Chromista
Phylum Annelida, Arthropoda, Ascomycota, Basidiomycota, Bryophyta, Bryozoa, Charophyta, Chordata, Chytridiomycota, Embryophyta, Heterokontophyta, Mollusca, Nematoda, Platyhelminthes

Temporal Coverage

Start Date / End Date 1830-01-01 / 2020-12-31

Project Data

Imagine a future where dynamically, from year to year, we can track the progression of alien species (AS), identify emerging species, assess their current and future risk and timely inform policy in a seamless data-driven workflow. One that is built on open science and open data infrastructures. By using international biodiversity standards and facilities, we would ensure interoperability, repeatability and sustainability. This would make the process adaptable to future requirements in an evolving IAS policy landscape both locally and internationally. The project Tracking Invasive Alien Species (TrIAS) aims to do this for Belgium. For a full project description, see Vanderhoeven et al. (2017, https://doi.org/10.3897/rio.3.e13414).

Title Tracking Invasive Alien Species (TrIAS)
Identifier TrIAS
Funding TrIAS is funded by the Belgian Science Policy Office (BELSPO) call for Belgian Research Action through Interdisciplinary Networks (BRAIN).
Study Area Description Belgium.
Design Description The project builds on two components: 1) The establishment of a data mobilization framework for alien species data from diverse data sources and 2) the development of data-driven procedures for risk evaluation based on risk modelling, risk mapping and risk assessment. TrIAS uses facilities from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF, http://www.gbif.org), standards from the Biodiversity Information Standards organization (TDWG, http://www.tdwg.org) and expertise from the Open science lab for biodiversity (https://oscibio.inbo.be) to create and facilitate a systematic workflow. Alien species data are gathered from a large set of regional, national and international initiatives, including citizen science data, with a wide taxonomic scope from marine, terrestrial and freshwater environments. Observation data are funnelled in repeatable ways to GBIF. In parallel, a Belgian checklist of alien species is established, benefiting from various taxonomic and project-based checklists foreseen for GBIF publication.

The personnel involved in the project:

Sampling Methods

Data for this checklist are compiled by directly contacting specialists of underrepresented taxonomic groups and scanning online databases and published but unstandardized species checklists for alien species in Belgium. The dataset also includes information previously gathered for the state of biodiversity in Flanders (incl. De Bruyn 2005, De Bruyn et al. 2007, Dumortier et al. 2007 & 2008, Adriaens et al. 2010, Demolder et al. 2017). The checklist is managed in a Google Spreadsheet (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1LeXXbry2ArK2rngsmFjz_xErwE1KwQ8ujtvHNmTVA6E/edit?usp=sharing) where we aim to collect to following information: for taxa: scientific name, higher classification, taxon rank, and nomenclatural code; for distributions: location, country (BE), occurrence status, first and last observation date, and degree of establishment; for species properties: native range, (standardized) introduction pathway and realm (terrestrial, marine, freshwater); and the source on which this information is based. Data are added and verified by different people.

Study Extent The TrIAS project (Tracking Invasive Alien Species, http://trias-project.be) creates a unified and reproducible checklist of alien species in Belgium from published authoritative species checklists. This ad hoc checklist was created to account for gaps in the alien species coverage in those checklists and mainly includes taxonomic groups and newly introduced species not covered elsewhere (yet).
Quality Control See step description.

Method step description:

  1. The source data for this standardized checklist is a Google Spreadsheet, maintained by the Research Institute of Nature and Forest (INBO) and updated regularly at https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1LeXXbry2ArK2rngsmFjz_xErwE1KwQ8ujtvHNmTVA6E/edit?usp=sharing.
  2. We developed a RMarkdown script to document and perform the transformation of the data to Darwin Core, which includes the following steps:
  3. Download the source data as a csv file that is versioned on a GitHub repository (https://github.com/trias-project/ad-hoc-checklist). See https://trias-project.github.io/ad-hoc-checklist for an introduction to this repository and the mapping of this dataset.
  4. Perform some basic data cleaning of the raw data.
  5. Generate stable and unique identifiers for each taxon (taxonID).
  6. Create a taxon core file (http://rs.gbif.org/core/dwc_taxon.xml), with information about the higher classification.
  7. Create a literature references extension file (http://rs.gbif.org/extension/gbif/1.0/references.xml), with information about the consulted literature for each taxon.
  8. Create a distribution extension file (http://rs.gbif.org/extension/gbif/1.0/distribution.xml), including the cleaning of date information.
  9. Create a species profile extension file (http://rs.gbif.org/extension/gbif/1.0/speciesprofile.xml), with coarse habitat information.
  10. Create a description extension file (http://rs.gbif.org/extension/gbif/1.0/description.xml), with standardized pathway of introduction (using the pathway vocabulary from the Convention on Biological Diversity (2014)), native range (using the WGSRPD vocabulary from Brummitt (2001) where applicable), and invasion stage (based on Blackburn et al. (2011)).
  11. The resulting Darwin Core data files are uploaded to the INBO IPT and documented with metadata.
  12. The dataset is published and registered with GBIF.

Bibliographic Citations

  1. Adriaens T, Stuyck J, Casaer J (2010) Niet-inheemse, invasieve soorten. Natuur.focus 9(3): 98. https://pureportal.inbo.be/portal/en/publications/nietinheemse-invasieve-soorten(71c78f74-0243-4325-8ca2-2226e1b9c96a)/export.html
  2. Blackburn TM, Pysek P, Bacher S, Carlton JT, Duncan RP, Jarosik V, Wilson JRU & Richardson DM (2011) A proposed unified framework for biological invasions. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 26: 333-339. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2011.03.023
  3. Brummitt RK (2001) World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (Ed. 2). Published for the International Working Group on Taxonomic Databases for Plant Sciences (TDWG) by the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh. http://grassworld.myspecies.info/sites/grassworld.myspecies.info/files/tdwg_geo2.pdf
  4. Convention on Biological Diversity (2014) Pathways of introduction of invasive species, their prioritization and management. UNEP/CBD/SBSTTA/18/9/Add.1. Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, Montreal. https://www.cbd.int/doc/meetings/sbstta/sbstta-18/official/sbstta-18-09-add1-en.pdf
  5. De Bruyn L (2005) Exoten in Dumortier et al. (ed) Natuurrapport 2005: toestand van de natuur in Vlaanderen: cijfers voor het beleid. Mededelingen van het Instituut voor Natuur- en Bosonderzoek 24: 74-80. Instituut voor Natuur- en Bosonderzoek. https://pureportal.inbo.be/portal/nl/publications/natuurrapport-2005(1da4b865-e116-4cca-b363-3c3579d0c6e5).html
  6. De Bruyn L, Anselin A, Casaer J, Spanoghe G, Van Thuyne G, Verloove F, Vermeersch G, Verreycken H (2007) Uitheemse soorten in Dumortier et al. (ed) Natuurrapport 2007: toestand van de natuur in Vlaanderen: cijfers voor het beleid. Mededelingen van het Instituut voor Natuur- en Bosonderzoek INBO.M.2007.4: 109-123. Instituut voor Natuur- en Bosonderzoek. https://pureportal.inbo.be/portal/nl/publications/natuurrapport-2007(b65e7fe8-6916-4b05-a980-02a08d4dad87).html
  7. Demolder H, Peymen J, Adriaens T, Anselin A, Belpaire C, Boone N, De Beck L, De Keersmaeker L, De Knijf G, De Smet L, Devos K, Everaert J, Geeraerts C, Jansen I, Lommaert L, Maes D, Neirynck J, Onkelinx T, Sioen G, Stevens M, Thomaes A, Thoonen M, Van Den Berge K, Van der Aa B, Van Gossum P, Van Landuyt W, Van Reeth W, Van Uytvanck J, Vermeersch G, Verreycken H, Verschelde P (2017) Natuurindicatoren 2017: Toestand van de natuur in Vlaanderen: cijfers voor het beleid. Mededelingen van het Instituut voor Natuur- en Bosonderzoek 2. Instituut voor Natuur- en Bosonderzoek. https://doi.org/10.21436/inbom.13664744
  8. Dumortier M, De Bruyn L, Hens M, Peymen J, Schneiders A, Van Daele T, Van Reeth W (2007) Natuurindicatoren 2007: toestand van de natuur in Vlaanderen: cijfers voor het beleid. Mededelingen van het Instituut voor Natuur- en Bosonderzoek INBO.M.2007.5. Instituut voor Natuur- en Bosonderzoek. https://pureportal.inbo.be/portal/en/publications/natuurindicatoren-2007(c83a87b1-84bb-4fca-aa35-c51c5c5750ef).html
  9. Dumortier M, De Bruyn L, Peymen J, Schneiders A, Turkelboom F, Van Daele T, Hens M, Van Reeth W (2008) Natuurindicatoren 2008: toestand van de natuur in Vlaanderen: cijfers voor het beleid. Mededelingen van het Instituut voor Natuur- en Bosonderzoek INBO.M.2008.5. Instituut voor Natuur- en Bosonderzoek. https://pureportal.inbo.be/portal/nl/publications/natuurindicatoren-2008(59a07e82-9092-42b6-8d3a-43c44e631612).html
  10. Vanderhoeven S, Adriaens T, Desmet P, Strubbe D, Backeljau T, Barbier Y, Brosens D, Cigar J, Coupremanne M, De Troch R, Eggermont H, Heughebaert A, Hostens K, Huybrechts P, Jacquemart A, Lens L, Monty A, Paquet J, Prévot C, Robertson T, Termonia P, Van De Kerchove R, Van Hoey G, Van Schaeybroeck B, Vercayie D, Verleye T, Welby S, Groom Q (2017) Tracking Invasive Alien Species (TrIAS): Building a data-driven framework to inform policy. Research Ideas and Outcomes 3: e13414. https://doi.org/10.3897/rio.3.e13414

Additional Metadata

Alternative Identifiers 1f3505cd-5d98-4e23-bd3b-ffe59d05d7c2
https://ipt.inbo.be/resource?r=ad-hoc-checklist