The checklist of alien seed plants of D.R. Congo, based on evidence from herbarium collections

Pierre Meerts1, Farzaneh Bordbar2, Lien Reyserhove3, Lien Reyershove4

1 Botanic Garden Meise, , Belgium; 2 University of Brussels, , Belgium; 3 Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO), ; 4 

Corresponding author(s): Pierre Meerts (pierre.meerts@plantentuinmeise.be)Farzaneh Bordbar (farzaneh.bordbar@gmail.com)Lien Reyserhove (lien.reyserhove@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

Meerts P, Bordbar F, Reyserhove L (2022): The checklist of alien seed plants of D.R. Congo, based on evidence from herbarium collections. v1.1. Meise Botanic Garden. Dataset/Checklist. https://ipt.biodiversity.be/resource?r=alien-flora-congo-checklist&v=1.1

Abstract

The “checklist of alien seed plants of D.R. Congo, based on evidence from herbarium collections” is a species checklist dataset published by the Botanic Garden Meise. It contains information on 436 alien plant species occurring in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, based on evidence from herbarium collections (Bordar & Meerts 2022). The plant species were registered between 1869 and 2017. Here it is published as a standardized Darwin Core Archive and includes for each species: the scientific name, kingdom, family and stable taxon identifier (in the taxon core), the year of first introduction and last assessment in Congo and the degree of establishment (in the distribution extension) and the native range and life form (in the description extension). Issues with the dataset can be reported at https://github.com/alien-csi/alien-flora-congo-checklist/issues.
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.

Keywords: Checklist, Inventorythematic, Checklist, alien species, Congo, casual, naturalised, invasive, herbarium, tropical forest

Data published through GBIF: https://ipt.biodiversity.be/resource?r=alien-flora-congo-checklist

Taxonomic coverage

General taxonomic coverage description: The checklist comprises 436 alien species i.e., 189 (43%) casuals, 247 (57%) naturalised of which 80 (18% of aliens) are invasive. See (Bordar & Meerts 2022) for more details.
Taxonomic ranks
Kingdom: Plantae
Common names: plants

Spatial coverage

General spatial coverage: The Democratic Republic of the Congo (D.R. Congo), see (Bordar & Meerts 2022) for more details.
Coordinates: 13°24'39.58''S and 5°10'42.54''N Latitude; 12°7'44.06''E and 31°6'47.81''E Longitude 

Temporal coverage: January 1, 1869 - December 31, 2017

Methods

Method step description: 
- . 	The source data for this standardized sampling event dataset is published as supplementary materials to Bordar & Meerts (2022) and is uploaded to the Github repository of this dataset: https://github.com/alien-csi/alien-flora-congo-checklist/tree/main/data/raw
- . 	An Rmarkdown script was developed to transform the data to a Darwin Core dataset. This mapping script was uploaded to the Github repository https://github.com/alien-csi/alien-flora-congo-checklist/tree/main/src and includes the following steps:
- . 	Perform some basic cleaning of the raw data.
- . 	Generate stable and unique identifiers for each taxon (taxonID).
- . 	Create a taxon core file (https://rs.gbif.org/core/dwc_taxon_2022-02-02.xml).
- . 	Create a distribution extension (https://rs.gbif.org/extension/gbif/1.0/distribution_2022-02-02.xml).
- . 	Create a description extension (https://rs.gbif.org/extension/gbif/1.0/description.xml).
Study extent description: Alien seed plant species occurring outside of cultivation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with at least one record in scientific collections (1869--2019).
Sampling description: A first list has been compiled from extensive literature search, and other databases. All entries in this list have been checked for presence in herbarium collections, and all identifications have been checked on herbarium specimens. Species collected only in cultivation (based on herbarium specimen labels) have been filtered out. For further details on methodology, see Bordbar & Meerts (2022).
Quality control description: The data is based on material evidence in herbarium collections.

Datasets

Dataset description
Object name: Darwin Core Archive The checklist of alien seed plants of D.R. Congo, based on evidence from herbarium collections
Character encoding: UTF-8
Format name: Darwin Core Archive format
Format version: 1.0
Distribution: https://ipt.biodiversity.be/archive.do?r=alien-flora-congo-checklist
Publication date of data: 2022-06-02
Language: English
Licences of use: Public Domain (CC0 1.0)

Metadata language: English
Date of metadata creation: 2022-06-02
Hierarchy level: Dataset

References
Bordbar F. & Meerts P. (2022) in Biological Invasions 24(4): 939-954. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-021-02691-5