Meetnetten.be - Site counts for butterflies in Flanders, Belgium

Sampling event
Latest version published by Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO) on Sep 10, 2024 Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO)

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 316 records in English (54 KB) - Update frequency: annually
Metadata as an EML file download in English (24 KB)
Metadata as an RTF file download in English (17 KB)

Description

Meetnetten.be - Site counts for butterflies in Flanders, Belgium is a sampling event dataset published by the Research Institute of Nature and Forest (INBO). It is part of the Meetnetten.be suite of monitoring networks for priority species in Flanders, in which data are collected at fixed locations using a standardized protocol (https://meetnetten.be). This dataset contains site counts for 2 priority butterfly species, as well as other butterflies observed during sampling. Here it is published as a standardized Darwin Core Archive and includes for each sampling event an eventID, date, location and sampling protocol (in the event core), the cloudiness, temperature, and wind force at the time of the event (in the measurement or fact extension) and for each occurrence an occurrenceID, the number of recorded individuals, status (present/absent) and scientific name (in the occurrence extension). Issues with the dataset can be reported at https://github.com/inbo/meetnetten-occurrences/issues

Generalized and/or withheld information: as these are sensitive priority species, location information is generalized to 1, 5 or 10 km Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) grid cells. Original locations are available upon request.

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.

For all published Meetnetten.be datasets, see https://www.gbif.org/dataset/search?project_id=meetnetten.be

Data Records

The data in this sampling event 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 316 records.

2 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.

Event (core)
316
MeasurementOrFacts 
8886
Occurrence 
3602

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:

Piesschaert F, Maes D, Brosens D, Westra T, Desmet P, Ledegen H, Veraghtert W, Van de Poel S, Pollet M (2024). Meetnetten.be - Site counts for butterflies in Flanders, Belgium. Version 1.21. Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO). Samplingevent dataset. https://doi.org/10.15468/hvgkh4

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: 3dfbaea0-f5df-4978-b3a1-fb22edcde0de.  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

Samplingevent; butterflies; Lepidoptera; monitoring; priority species; Samplingevent

Contacts

Frederik Piesschaert
  • Originator
  • Point Of Contact
Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO)
BE
Dirk Maes
  • Originator
Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO)
BE
Dimitri Brosens
  • Metadata Provider
Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO)/ Belgian Biodiversity Platform
BE
Toon Westra
  • Originator
Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO)
BE
Peter Desmet
  • Metadata Provider
  • Originator
Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO)
BE
Hannes Ledegen
Wim Veraghtert
Sam Van de Poel
Marc Pollet
  • Originator
Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO)
BE
Dimitri Brosens
  • Metadata Provider
Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO) / Belgian Biodiversity Platform
BE

Geographic Coverage

Flanders, Belgium

Bounding Coordinates South West [50.67, 2.53], North East [51.51, 5.94]

Taxonomic Coverage

The target butterfly species for Meetnetten.be are listed at https://meetnetten.be/#group-4. Other butterflies observed during the sampling are also included. This dataset covers the site count protocol, for which the target species are Apature iris (purple emperor / grote weerschijnvlinder) and Satyrium ilicis (ilex hairstreak / bruine eikenpage).

Kingdom Animalia (animals)
Phylum Arthropoda
Class Insecta (insects)
Order Lepidoptera (butterflies)
Species Apature iris (purple emperor / grote weerschijnvlinder), Satyrium ilicis (ilex hairstreak / bruine eikenpage)

Temporal Coverage

Start Date / End Date 2016-01-01 / 2023-12-31

Project Data

Meetnetten.be is a suite of monitoring networks through which the Flemish Government is collecting high-quality information on 65 priority plant and animal species. These are species on which Flanders has to report to Europe in the framework of the Habitats and Birds Directives, but also other species that are important for the Flemish nature policy.

Title Meetnetten.be
Identifier meetnetten.be
Funding Flemish Government
Study Area Description Flanders, Belgium
Design Description Each monitoring network consists of fixed sample locations in which target species are counted based on a standardized protocol. Data collection relies mainly on specialized volunteers, coordinated by the NGO Natuurpunt Studie. Fieldwork is planned and monitored with the web tool https://meetnetten.be, which is also used for entering the collected data.

The personnel involved in the project:

Frederic Piesschaert

Sampling Methods

Sampling was done using the protocol described in Maes et al. (2019) and explained to volunteers in Ledegen et al. (2018). A site count is similar to a transect in that is it visited multiple times, but unlike a transect it is not divided into different sections. A route is mapped out in such a way that observers pass potentially interesting locations and that it can be walked in about an hour. 1. Apature iris (purple emperor / grote weerschijnvlinder): observation locations are recorded and per route the maximum number of butterflies seen at the same time is noted. Also, for each count, the duration of the search is noted. Three censuses are performed between 10 June and 20 July. 2. Satyrium ilicis (ilex hairstreak / bruine eikenpage): counted along a fixed route, but not divided into sections: butterflies that fly further than 5 m are also counted. Each observed butterfly is recorded. The count takes place three times between the beginning of June and mid-July, at 13 counting areas.

Study Extent For two butterfly species in Meetnetten.be (Apatura iris and Satyrium ilicis) the choice was made to count these by site rather than transect. This is because these species are mainly found in lower quantities and it would be too likely to be missed in a transect count. 1. Apature iris (purple emperor / grote weerschijnvlinder) is undoubtedly one of the most spectacular butterflies in Flanders. It is a forest species that lives in tree canopies and is not always easy to find. This summer butterfly is followed up at about ten locations each year. Because the butterflies often fly high, they are counted along a fixed route (but not per section or within an imaginary cage). 2. Satyrium ilicis (ilex hairstreak / bruine eikenpage) is in sharp decline in Flanders. Mapping this decline is not evident: in its habitat (forest edges and heathland with scattered small oaks) the species often hides well. We count this species by means of an area census instead of a classical transect census.
Quality Control Data are collected using a predefined sampling protocol.

Method step description:

  1. Researchers from INBO and Natuurpunt Studie define and document the appropriate sampling protocol for the target species.
  2. Fieldwork is planned and coordinated by Natuurpunt Studie, using https://meetnetten.be.
  3. Data are collected in the field by specialized volunteers, using the predefined sampling protocol.
  4. Volunteers enter the collected data in https://meetnetten.be.
  5. A custom SQL view is created in the meetnetten.be database to map the original data to Darwin Core as an event core, occurrence extension and measurement or fact extension.
  6. The Darwin Core views are connected to the INBO IPT and documented with metadata.
  7. The dataset is published and registered with GBIF.

Bibliographic Citations

  1. Maes D, Ledegen H, Van de Poel S & Westra T (2019) Monitoringsprotocol Dagvlinders: Versie 2.0. Rapporten van het Instituut voor Natuur- en Bosonderzoek 2019 (56). Instituut voor Natuur- en Bosonderzoek, Brussel. https://doi.org/10.21436/inbor.16744530
  2. Ledegen H, Veraghtert W & Van de Poel S (2018) Veldwerkhandleiding dagvlinders. Natuurpunt Studie, Mechelen.

Additional Metadata

Alternative Identifiers 3dfbaea0-f5df-4978-b3a1-fb22edcde0de
https://ipt.inbo.be/resource?r=meetnetten-butterflies-area-occurrences