Inventory of the terrestrial isopods in Belgium (2011-2020)

Pepijn Boeraeve1, Pallieter De Smedt1, Stijn Segers1, Gert Arijs1, Jorg Lambrechts2, Karin Gielen2, Kristijn Swinnen2, Peter Desmet3, Dimitri Brosens4

1 Spinicornis (Terrestrial Isopod Group of Belgium), , Belgium; 2 Natuurpunt Studie, , Belgium; 3 Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO), , Belgium; 4 Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO) / Belgian Biodiversity Platform, , Belgium

Corresponding author(s): Pepijn Boeraeve (pepijn@spinicornis.be)Pallieter De Smedt (pallieter@spinicornis.be)Stijn Segers (stijn@spinicornis.be)Gert Arijs (gert@spinicornis.be)Jorg Lambrechts (jorg.lambrechts@natuurpunt.be)Karin Gielen (karin.gielen@natuurpunt.be)Kristijn Swinnen (kristijn.swinnen@natuurpunt.be)Peter DesmetDimitri Brosens, Dimitri Brosens (dimitri.brosens@inbo.be), Peter Desmet (peter.desmet@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

Boeraeve P, De Smedt P, Segers S, Arijs G, Lambrechts J, Gielen K, Swinnen K, Desmet P, Brosens D (2021): Inventory of the terrestrial isopods in Belgium (2011-2020). v1.10. Natuurpunt. Dataset/Occurrence. https://doi.org/10.15468/mw9c66 https://doi.org/10.15468/mw9c66

Abstract

Inventory of the terrestrial isopods in Belgium (2011-2020) is an occurrence dataset published by Spinicornis (Terrestrial Isopod Research Group of Belgium), the Research Institute of Nature and Forest (INBO) & Natuurpunt Studie. The dataset represents the most complete overview of terrestrial isopods in Belgium and includes occurrences of 35 species, observed between 2011 and 2020. There are 36 native terrestrial isopod species in Belgium (De Smedt et al. 2018) and only one (i.e. Miktoniscus patiencei Vandel, 1946) hasn’t been detected in Belgium between 2011 and 2020. The occurrences originate from field surveys, pitfall trap projects and casual  observations. The recorded data are registered through the citizen science portals waarnemingen.be and observations.be, managed by Natuurpunt Studie and Natagora respectively. All data were verified by experts. Here, the dataset is published as a standardized Darwin Core Archive and includes for each record an occurrenceID, reference, date, location and scientific name and if available also individual count, sex, lifestage, behavior, sampling protocol and information on the identification.
Generalized and/or withheld information: location information is generalized to 5 x 5 km² Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) grid cells. Observer name, exact XY-coordinates, toponyms, and photographs are not included in the published dataset, but are known in the source database.
To allow anyone to use this dataset, we have released the data to the public domain under a Creative Commons Zero waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/). We would appreciate however, if you read and follow these norms for data use (http://www.natuurpunt.be/normen-voor-datagebruik) and provide a link to the original dataset (https://doi.org/10.15468/mw9c66) whenever possible. If you use these data for a scientific paper, please cite the dataset following the applicable citation norms and/or consider us for co-authorship. We are always interested to provide more information and available for help with analysing the data for your project, so please contact us via the contact information provided in the metadata or via pepijn@spinicornis.be.

Keywords: Occurrence, Observation, detritivores, distribution, habitat, inventory, Isopoda, Oniscidea, woodlice, Occurrence

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

Taxonomic coverage

General taxonomic coverage description: The dataset covers data from 35 native species of terrestrial isopods (Order Isopoda, Suborder Oniscidea) found in Belgium between 2011 and 2020. Also included are records for 3 multispecies for which identification was not possible based on photographs or for samples lacking males.
Taxonomic ranks
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Crustacea
Class: Malacostraca
Order: Isopoda
Suborder: Oniscidea
Family: Ligiidae, Trichoniscidae, Styloniscidae, Oniscidae, Philosciidae, Platyarthrus, Armadillidiidae, Armadiliidae, Cylisticidae, Porcellionidae, Trachelipodidae
Species: Androniscus dentiger, Armadillidium album, Armadillidium nasatum, Armadillidium opacum, Armadillidium pictum, Armadillidium pulchellum, Armadillidium vulgare, Cylisticus convexus, Eluma caelata, Haplophthalmus danicus, Haplophthalmus mengii, Haplophthalmus montivagus, Hyloniscus riparius, Ligia oceanica, Ligidium hypnorum, Metatrichoniscoides leydigii, Oniscus asellus, Philoscia affinis, Philoscia muscorum, Platyarthrus hoffmannseggii, Porcellio dilatatus, Porcellio laevis, Porcellio monticola, Porcellio scaber, Porcellio spinicornis, Porcellionides pruinosus, Porcellium conspersum, Trachelipus rathkii, Trichoniscoides albidus, Trichoniscoides helveticus, Trichoniscoides sarsi, Trichoniscus alemannicus, Trichoniscus provisorius, Trichoniscus pusillus, Trichoniscus pygmaeus
Unranked: Haplophthalmus danicus/mengii/montivagus, Trichoniscus pusillus/provisorius/alemannicus, Trichoniscoides sarsi/helveticus
Common names: animals, isopods

Spatial coverage

General spatial coverage: Belgium is a small country (ca. 30.500 km²) in Western Europe. It has a short shoreline (approx. 65 km) along the North Sea. The country is part of two European biogeographical regions, namely the Atlantic and the Continental region. The Atlantic region is largely covered by agricultural land and urban areas. The Continental region is less covered by agricultural land and urban areas and is instead more forested.

Despite its small size, Belgium has a rich geology going from a flat Atlantic region in the west consisting of Holocene and Pleistocene deposits to a Continental hilly landscape with Mesozoic and Pleistocene deposits in the east and the south. The Atlantic region has clay loam and heavy clay soils in the northwest, and loam and sandy loam soils in the middle with a relatively high terrestrial isopod diversity. On the sandy soils in the northeast of the Atlantic region, terrestrial isopod diversity is rather low.

The Continental region contains two bands of soils with calcareous outcrops, with a high species richness of terrestrial isopods. In between these chalky soil bands and in the east of the country, the land is covered by slate and sandstone soils, some with large areas of peatlands, which are more species poor.
Coordinates: 49°29'24''N and 51°30'36''N Latitude; 2°31'48''E and 6°25'12''E Longitude 

Temporal coverage: January 1, 2011 - December 31, 2020

Methods

Method step description: 
- . 	Spinicornis members sampled different habitats in all squares of the UTM 10 x 10 km² grid in Belgium and entered the observations in waarnemingen.be / observations.be. These portals are managed by Natuurpunt Studie and Natagora respectively, but use the same underlying database system.
- . 	Spinicornis members identified specimens observed and collected. The data records were subsequently imported in the waarnemingen.be database.
- . 	Spinicornis also validated observations entered by volunteers in waarnemingen.be and observations.be between 2011 and 2020.
- . 	A custom SQL view is created in the database to map the original data to Darwin Core as an occurrence core.
- . 	A delimited file was created and exported from the waarnemingen database.
- . 	The generated Darwin Core file was imported in the INBO IPT and documented with metadata.
- . 	The dataset is published and registered with GBIF.
Study extent description: Inventory of the terrestrial isopods in Belgium (2011-2020) is an initiative of Spinicornis (Terrestrial Isopod Research Group of Belgium) with cooperation of  the Research Institute of Nature and Forest (INBO) & Natuurpunt Studie. The project started in 2014 and stated as goal to survey every 10km X 10km square of the UTM (Universal Transverse Mercator Projection) grid in Belgium.

The observations made within this project are complemented with citizen science data (point data) from the nature observation websites http://www.waarnemingen.be and https://www.observations.be from 2011 until 2020. All observations were validated based on pictures by the members of Spinicornis. Additional data was collected by identifying specimens from multiple surveys between 2011 and 2020 where pitfall traps or other trap types had been used.
Sampling description: In every Belgian UTM 10km square, three different habitats (if present) were checked for terrestrial isopods: a deciduous forest, a river or stream side and an anthropogenic habitat (garden, park, graveyard, etc.). Disused stone quarries or coastal habitats were also visited if present.

The vast majority of the observations originate from field observations where terrestrial isopods were collected by hand or photographed. A minority comes from pitfall traps or other trap types (e.g. sugar bait traps).

The project of Spinicornis was finished at the beginning of 2020 and resulted in an ecological atlas of the terrestrial isopods of Belgium (De Smedt et al. 2020).

The majority of the data are presence-only data (absence data are not included in this dataset).
Quality control description: Records were collected by both terrestrial isopod experts and volunteers. Observations by volunteers were only included in the database after being validated by experts of Spinicornis based on photographs of their observations.

Datasets

Dataset description
Object name: Darwin Core Archive Inventory of the terrestrial isopods in Belgium (2011-2020)
Character encoding: UTF-8
Format name: Darwin Core Archive format
Format version: 1.0
Distribution: https://ipt.inbo.be/archive.do?r=spinicornis-occurrences
Publication date of data: 2021-04-20
Language: English
Licences of use: Public Domain (CC0 1.0)

Metadata language: English
Date of metadata creation: 2021-01-14
Hierarchy level: Dataset

References
Boeraeve P., Arijs G., Segers S., De Smedt P. (2021) Habitat and seasonal activity patterns of the terrestrial isopods of Belgium (Isopoda: Oniscidea). Belgian Journal of Entomology (in press)
De Smedt P., Arijs G., Segers S., Boeraeve P. (2017) Woodlice of the green houses at Ghent Botanical Garden and Botanic Garden Meise with two new exotic species for Belgium (Isopoda: Oniscidae). Bulletin de la Société royale belge d’Entomologie/Bulletin van de Koninklijke Belgische Vereniging voor Entomologie 153: 109-112
De Smedt P, Boeraeve P, Arijs G, Segers S (2018) Woodlice of Belgium: an annotated checklist and bibliography (Isopoda, Oniscidea). In: Hornung E, Taiti S, Szlavecz K (Eds) Isopods in a Changing World. ZooKeys 801: 265–304 https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.801.21894
De Smedt P., Boeraeve P., Arijs G., Segers S. (2020) De landpissebedden van België (Isopoda: Oniscidea). Spinicornis, Bonheiden, Belgium, 148pp.