Fauna and flora inventories (terrestrial and limnetic) from the South of Belgium

Occurrence
Latest version published by Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) on Mar 19, 2019 Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB)
Publication date:
19 March 2019
License:
CC-BY 4.0

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 4,378 records in French (84 KB) - Update frequency: annually
Metadata as an EML file download in English (60 KB)
Metadata as an RTF file download in English (8 KB)

Description

This dataset is the result of census exercises made by students in the framework of the General Ecology Course, at the Universite Libre de Bruxelles (ULB). The data includes both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems data, taken on a yearly basis (by different batches of students), for which identifications are systematically checked by the supervisors. The field work focuses on regions of Belgium which are particularly contrasted from a geomorphological standpoint, but also from their conservation status, including Natura2000 sites.

Data Records

The data in this occurrence 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 4,378 records.

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:

Danis, B., Meerts, P., Josens, G., Host, B., Delhaye, G., Moerman, R., Poncelet, J.F., George, I.. [YEAR ACCESSED]. ULB General Ecology field inventories. Accessed trough [URL]

Rights

Researchers should respect the following rights statement:

The publisher and rights holder of this work is Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY 4.0) License.

GBIF Registration

This resource has been registered with GBIF, and assigned the following GBIF UUID: b848583a-a47b-4d09-a58b-46d3236b3d10.  Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) publishes this resource, and is itself registered in GBIF as a data publisher endorsed by Belgian Biodiversity Platform.

Keywords

Occurrence; Observation

Contacts

Bruno Danis
  • Metadata Provider
  • Editor
  • Originator
  • Point Of Contact
Associate Professor
Université Libre de Bruxelles
50, avenue FD Roosevelt
1000 Brussels
BE
+32(0)26501815

Geographic Coverage

"Entre Sambre et Meuse" and "Treignes" regions

Bounding Coordinates South West [50.032, 4.467], North East [50.433, 4.862]

Taxonomic Coverage

All plants and metazoans found in the area

Temporal Coverage

Start Date / End Date 2014-05-14 / 2015-05-08

Sampling Methods

Terrestrial inventories (ligneous, herbaceous and invertebrate species) are carried out in several locations. Tree layer : 30 trees taller than 3 m in a 20m radius are inventoried by each group of students Shrub layer: in the same radius, all other ligneous species between 1 et 3 m are inventoried . Herbaceous layer: in a 5-10 m radius, herbaceous species are identified and there abundance is estimated Moss layer: abundance and coverage by Bryophyta is inventoried Macroscopic invertebrates: a 20x20cm surface of litter is sieved (1mm), and all invertebrates are identified Freshwater inventories: prior to the inventories exercise, artificial substrates are placed in the river, under various currentology conditions. The substrates are collected by the students, and all invertebrates are identified and there abundance is recorded.

Study Extent The study includes yearly inventories carried by 3rd year Biology students. The study focuses on terrestrial station in the South of Belgium in contrasted areas.
Quality Control Identifications are carried out using identification keys by the students and systematically checked by the supervisors. The data quality undergoes a quick QC, addressing various semantic and parameter issues (taxon names, georeferencing, formatting,...).

Method step description:

  1. Each group of students produces a spreadsheet in CSV format, using the GBIF data templates. The data is aggregated in the file which is shared through this IPT instance.

Additional Metadata

Purpose The dataset is mainly aimed at offering Biology students an opportunity to work on simple, real-life datasets in order to train with various Biodiversity Informatics techniques. It can probably be used in a more general context, as we assume the dataset will be updated yearly with new data, using the same protocols.
Maintenance Description Yearly update and cleaning
Alternative Identifiers b848583a-a47b-4d09-a58b-46d3236b3d10
https://ipt.biodiversity.be/resource?r=ulb_ecologie