Checklist of alien herpetofauna of Belgium

Loïc van Doorn1, Lien Reyserhove1, Jeroen Speybroeck1, Tim Adriaens1

1 Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO), 

Corresponding author(s): Loïc van Doorn (loic.vandoorn@inbo.be)Lien Reyserhove (lien.reyserhove@inbo.be)Jeroen Speybroeck (jeroen.speybroeck@inbo.be)Tim Adriaens (tim.adriaens@inbo.be), Lien Reyserhove

Received {date}; Revised {date}; Accepted {date}; Published {date}

Citation: Combination of authors, year of data paper publication (in parentheses), Title, Journal Name, Volume, Issue number (in parentheses), and doi of the data paper.

Resource Citation

van Doorn L, Reyserhove L, Speybroeck J, Adriaens T (2023). Checklist of alien herpetofauna of Belgium. Version 1.3. Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO). Checklist dataset. https://ipt.inbo.be/resource?r=alien-herpetofauna-belgium&v=1.3

Abstract

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.

Keywords: Checklist, Inventorythematic, checklist, inventory, alien species, herpetofauna, reptiles, amphibians, Flanders, Wallonia, Brussels Capital Region, Belgium, TrIAS

Project details

Project title: Tracking Invasive Alien Species (TrIAS)
Personnel: Tim Adriaens, Peter Desmet, Quentin Groom, Diederik Strubbe, Sonia Vanderhoeven
Funding: TrIAS is funded by the Belgian Science Policy Office (BELSPO) call for Belgian Research Action through Interdisciplinary Networks (BRAIN).
Study area descriptions/descriptor: 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.

Data published through GBIF: https://ipt.inbo.be/resource?r=alien-herpetofauna-belgium

Taxonomic coverage

General taxonomic coverage description: In total, this dataset includes over 100 alien herpetofauna species.
Taxonomic ranks
Kingdom: Animalia
Class: Amphibia, Reptilia
Order: Squamata, Testudines, Anura, Crocodilia, Urodela
Common names: Amphibians, Reptiles

Spatial coverage

General spatial 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).
Coordinates: 49°29'24''N and 51°30'36''N Latitude; 2°31'48''E and 6°24'36''E Longitude 

Temporal coverage: 1968 - 2020

Methods

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.
Study extent description: 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.
Sampling description: 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.
Quality control description: 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.

Datasets

Dataset description
Object name: Darwin Core Archive Checklist of alien herpetofauna of Belgium
Character encoding: UTF-8
Format name: Darwin Core Archive format
Format version: 1.0
Distribution: https://ipt.inbo.be/archive.do?r=alien-herpetofauna-belgium
Publication date of data: 2023-09-18
Language: English
Licences of use: Public Domain (CC0 1.0)

Metadata language: English
Date of metadata creation: 2021-03-22
Hierarchy level: Dataset

References
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