ABV - Common breeding birds in Flanders, Belgium (post 2016)

Frederic Piesschaert1, Glenn Vermeersch1, Dimitri Brosens2, Toon Westra1, Peter Desmet1, Simon Feys3, Sam Van de Poel3, Marc Pollet1

1 Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO), , Belgium; 2 Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO)/ Belgian Biodiversity Platform, , Belgium; 3 Natuurpunt, , Belgium

Corresponding author(s): Frederic Piesschaert (frederik.piesschaert@inbo.be)Glenn Vermeersch (glenn.vermeersch@inbo.be)Dimitri Brosens (dimitri.brosens@inbo.be)Toon Westra (toon.westra@inbo.be)Peter Desmet (peter.desmet@inbo.be)Simon Feys (simon.feys@natuurpunt.be)Sam Van de Poel (sam.vandepoel@natuurpunt.be)Marc Pollet (marc.pollet@inbo.be)

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

Piesschaert F, Vermeersch G, Brosens D, Westra T, Desmet P, Feys S, Van de Poel S, Pollet M (2023). ABV - Common breeding birds in Flanders, Belgium (post 2016). Version 1.10. Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO). Samplingevent dataset. https://ipt.inbo.be/resource?r=meetnetten-abv2-occurrences&v=1.10

Abstract

Meetnetten.be - ABV Common breeding birds in Flanders, Belgium (post 2016) 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 counts for bird species breeding in Flanders . Here it is published as a standardized Darwin Core Archive and includes for each sampling event an eventID, date, location, samplingEffort and sampling protocol (in the event core) and for each occurrence an occurrenceID, the number of recorded individuals, status (present/absent), life stage and scientific name (in the occurrence extension). Issues with the dataset can be reported at https://github.com/inbo/meetnetten-occurrences/issues
The breeding birds project is a joint initiative of the Institute for Nature and Forest Research (INBO) and the Vlaamse Vogelwerkgroep of Natuurpunt, in collaboration with Natuurpunt Study.
The data is collected to discover trends in long and short term breeding bird occurrences in Flanders and is used for the EU reporting on trends, distribution and future prospects of the species listed in the Annex 2 and 4 of the Habitats Directive.
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
For all published ABV (Common breeding birds) datasets see https://www.gbif.org/occurrence/search?collection_code=ABV&publishing_org=1cd669d0-80ea-11de-a9d0-f1765f95f18b

Keywords: Samplingevent, breeding birds, monitoring

Project details

Project title: Meetnetten.be
Personnel: Frederic Piesschaert
Funding: Flemish Government
Study area descriptions/descriptor: Flanders, Belgium
Design description: Each monitoring network consists of fixed sample locations in which the target species is 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.

Data published through GBIF: https://ipt.inbo.be/resource?r=meetnetten-abv2-occurrences

Taxonomic coverage

General taxonomic coverage description: Aves
Taxonomic ranks
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves

Spatial coverage

General spatial coverage: Flanders, Belgium
Coordinates: 50°40'12''N and 51°30'36''N Latitude; 2°31'48''E and 5°56'24''E Longitude 

Temporal coverage: January 8, 2016 - December 31, 2022

Methods

Method step description: 
- . 	Researchers from INBO and Natuurpunt Studie define and document the appropriate sampling protocol for the target species.
- . 	Fieldwork is planned and coordinated by Natuurpunt Studie, using https://meetnetten.be.
- . 	Data are collected in the field by specialized volunteers, using the predefined sampling protocol.
- . 	Volunteers enter the collected data in https://meetnetten.be.
- . 	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.
- . 	The Darwin Core views are connected to the INBO IPT and documented with metadata.
- . 	The dataset is published and registered with GBIF.
Study extent description: To describe the long-term abundance from a set of general breeding birds in Flanders, to describe the distribution of the selected species and the changes over time and to describe (relative) densities of a number of species. The first published dataset on the common breeding birds monitoring can be consulted here: https://doi.org/10.15468/sccg5a
This dataset includes all the counts after July 2016.
Sampling description: The atlas of breeding birds in Flanders (https://www.gbif.org/dataset/81c5a091-6e94-40db-a2a4-48f4de42d410) was based on territory mapping in 5×5 km  UTM-squares with additional information collected in a subset of 8 1×1 km squares (Vermeersch et al., 2004). Information in over 5,000 1×1 UTM-squares was already available,so we chose that grid as a basis for the new census. The grid was then randomly stratified over 6 habitat types (farmland, woodland, urban, suburban, heathland and marshland) and finally, 6 points were randomly assigned to each grid cell. 
There are 1200 randomly selected UTM 1km squares that will be counted. Each point (6 points in every UTM 1km grids quare) has to be counted three times in a year in predefined periods (DD/MM): 01/03-15/04, 16/04-31/05 and 01/06-15/07. All six points in a square have to be counted on the same day and subsequent counts of the same points in different periods should lie apart for at least two weeks. Each point has to be counted for 5 minutes (This is a 90 minutes per square in a year effort).
The voluntary network
Starting from the existing network in the BBV-project (special breeding birds), approximately 40 regional coordinators were found throughout Flanders. The volunteer network is maintained by Natuurpunt.
Quality control description: All records are validated

Datasets

Dataset description
Object name: Darwin Core Archive ABV - Common breeding birds in Flanders, Belgium (post 2016)
Character encoding: UTF-8
Format name: Darwin Core Archive format
Format version: 1.0
Distribution: https://ipt.inbo.be/archive.do?r=meetnetten-abv2-occurrences
Publication date of data: 2023-12-04
Language: English
Licences of use: Public Domain (CC0 1.0)

Metadata language: English
Date of metadata creation: 2021-10-01
Hierarchy level: Dataset

References
Glenn Vermeersch, Hannes Ledegen, Simon Feys, (2017) Methodehandleiding bij het project ‘Algemene Broedvogelmonitoring Vlaanderen (ABV)’
Devos, K., Vermeersch, G., Onkelinx, T., T'Jollyn, F., & Lewylle, I. (2016). Het project Algemene Broedvogels Vlaanderen (ABV): een nieuwe update van populatietrends (2007-2016). Vogelnieuws : ornithologische nieuwsbrief van het Instituut voor Natuur- en Bosonderzoek, 27, 28-31.