Description
The checklist of alien herpetofauna of Belgium is a species checklist dataset published by the Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO). It contains information on alien amphibian and reptile species recorded in the wild in Belgium since 1968. Both established species and occasional records are included, but with information on the degree of establishment of species following the unified invasion framework of Blackburn et al. (2011). The checklist is published here as a standardized Darwin Core Archive and includes for each (sub)species: the scientific name and classification (in the taxon core), the presence in Flanders, Wallonia and the Brussels-Capital Region, year of first and last observation in Belgium (given as a year range in the event date in the distribution extension), coarse habitat information (in the species profile extension), and the degree of establishment, pathway(s) of introduction and native range(s) (in the description extension). Issues with the dataset can be reported at https://github.com/trias-project/alien-herpetofauna-belgium.
We have released this dataset to the public domain under a Creative Commons Zero waiver. We would appreciate it if you follow the GBIF citation guidelines (https://www.gbif.org/citation-guidelines) 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 https://twitter.com/trias_project.
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 107 records.
3 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.
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
Please be aware, this is an old version of the dataset. Researchers should cite this work as follows:
van Doorn L, Reyserhove L, Speybroeck J, Adriaens T (2021): Checklist of alien herpetofauna of Belgium. v1.2. Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO). Dataset/Checklist. https://ipt.inbo.be/resource?r=alien-herpetofauna-belgium&v=1.2
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: a12e2bf8-13ce-4d0b-b2d4-b1cd20450a63. 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; herpetofauna; reptiles; amphibians; Flanders; Wallonia; Brussels Capital Region; Belgium; TrIAS
Contacts
- Metadata Provider ●
- Originator ●
- Point Of Contact
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3497-9168
- Metadata Provider ●
- Originator
- Metadata Provider ●
- Originator
- Metadata Provider ●
- Originator
Geographic Coverage
The dataset includes information on the presence of alien herpetofauna species 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
In total, this dataset includes over 100 alien herpetofauna species.
| Kingdom | Animalia |
|---|---|
| Class | Amphibia (Amphibians), Reptilia (Reptiles) |
| Order | Squamata, Testudines, Anura, Crocodilia, Urodela |
Temporal Coverage
| Start Date / End Date | 1968-01-01 / 2020-01-01 |
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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
The data for this checklist are curated from several sources: literature, a citizen science portal, animal shelter databases, news articles, firsthand accounts and own records. The majority of the data for all three political regions is derived from the citizen science portal https://waarnemingen.be/, available through GBIF (Vanreusel et al. 2020). For Flanders, a considerable second source of data are the various animal shelters, operating under Vogelbescherming Vlaanderen, and SOS Reptiel, a non-profit animal shelter specialized in reptiles and amphibians. For Wallonia, data is shared by Natagora, a non-profit nature conservation organisation. Literature, firsthand accounts, news articles and own records constitute a minority of the data in the checklist.
| Study Extent | The checklist incorporates all records of alien herpetofauna observed in the wild in Belgium (subdivided for each of the three main political regions). Both established species and casual records were included. |
|---|---|
| Quality Control | All records are individually validated by species experts (resource creators of this dataset) based on data sources and available information. Unreliable records lacking details were omitted from the dataset. |
Method step description:
- The source data for this standardized checklist is a Google Spreadsheet and re-uploaded regularly at https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1V_rQhyz_AjszobCMxBe-xFWI3kUNLrYzMeqyUNt3Vc4/edit#gid=0
- This raw data file was uploaded to a GitHub repository (https://github.com/trias-project/alien-herpetofauna-belgium).
- We developed a RMarkdown script to document and perform the transformation of the data to Darwin Core, which includes the following steps:
- Perform some basic data cleaning of the raw data.
- Generate stable and unique identifiers for each taxon (taxonID).
- Create a taxon core file (http://rs.gbif.org/core/dwc_taxon.xml).
- Create a distribution extension file (http://rs.gbif.org/extension/gbif/1.0/distribution.xml), including standardization of the distribution date range and event dates.
- Create a species profile extension file (http://rs.gbif.org/extension/gbif/1.0/speciesprofile.xml), with coarse habitat information.
- 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, and degree of establishment (based on Blackburn et al. (2011)).
- The resulting Darwin Core data files are uploaded to the INBO IPT and documented with metadata.
- The dataset is published and registered with GBIF.
Bibliographic Citations
- 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
- 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
- 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 Collection data
- Vanreusel W, Swinnen K, Gielen K, Vercayie D, Driessens G, Veraghtert W, Desmet P, Herremans M (2020). Waarnemingen.be - Non-native animal occurrences in Flanders and the Brussels Capital Region, Belgium. Version 1.25. Natuurpunt. Occurrence dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/k2aiak accessed via GBIF.org on 2020-09-06. https://doi.org/10.15468/k2aiak
Additional Metadata
| Alternative Identifiers | a12e2bf8-13ce-4d0b-b2d4-b1cd20450a63 |
|---|---|
| https://ipt.inbo.be/resource?r=alien-herpetofauna-belgium |