N2000-Alien plants along river banks

Arnaud Monty1, Hélène Aimont2

1 Liège University - Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech - Biodiversity and Landscape unit, Passage des Déportés,2, 5030, Gembloux, Belgium; 2 

Corresponding author(s): Arnaud Monty (Arnaud.monty@uliege.be)Hélène Aimont

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

Abstract

Protected areas and the Natura 2000 network are keystones of the EU nature and biodiversity policy. However, alien plants do not stop their spread at the border of protected areas and invasive plants are reported to threaten many ecosystems, notably in aquatic and riparian areas. 
A stratified sampling of the Natura 2000 network in Wallonia revealed that at least 41 alien plant species were present.  75 % of the sampled sites were invaded by at least one alien plant species.

Keywords: Occurrence, Alien plants; alien flora; exotic plants; Natura 2000; river banks, Observation

Project details

Project title: Etat des lieux de l’occurrence d’espèces végétales exotiques dans les habitats rivulaires d’intérêt biologique et patrimonial.
Personnel: Arnaud Monty
Funding:  Project funded by Service Public de Wallonie DGARNE-DNF.
Study area descriptions/descriptor: River banks included in the N2000 network of the Walloon Region (Southern Belgium).

Data published through GBIF: https://ipt.biodiversity.be/resource?r=amonty

Taxonomic coverage

General taxonomic coverage description: Exotic plants. The dataset includes 41 taxa identified at the species level.

Spatial coverage

General spatial coverage: Wallonia, southern Belgium.
Coordinates: 49°31'33.6''N and 50°45'46.8''N Latitude; 3°38'42''E and 6°20'27.6''E Longitude 

Temporal coverage: May 2, 2013 - September 8, 2013

Methods

Method step description: 
- . 	A map of the N2000 network was crossed with the hydrographic network map of Wallonia.   
- . 	Using this map, 10 strata were defined based on bioclimatic subregions (Ardenne, Lorraine, Famenne, Condroz and Hesbaye) and water basin size (> or < 100 km²) and the number of potential sampling units in each stratum was calculated.
- . 	A constant proportion of sampling units were randomly selected in each stratum. 
- . 	Each sampling unit was visited and vegetation relevés were realized.
Study extent description: The study took place along river banks included in the N2000 network of the Walloon Region (Southern Belgium), between May and September 2013.
Sampling description: A stratified sampling was performed across the N2000 network in the Walloon Region, using bioclimatic subregions (Ardenne, Lorraine, Famenne, Condroz and Hesbaye) and water basin size (> or < 100 km²) as strata. A sampling unit consisted in a 150 long x 10m wide strip of river bank. In a total of 187 sampling units (corresponding to ca. 0.4% of the 6800 km of rivers in the Wallon Natura 2000 network), vegetation surveys were realized between May and September 2013.

Datasets

Dataset description
Object name: Darwin Core Archive N2000-Alien plants along river banks
Character encoding: UTF-8
Format name: Darwin Core Archive format
Format version: 1.0
Distribution: https://ipt.biodiversity.be/archive.do?r=amonty
Publication date of data: 2020-04-28
Language: English
Licences of use: Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 License

Metadata language: English
Date of metadata creation: 2020-04-16
Hierarchy level: Dataset