DEMNA-DNE : Exotic plant occurrences in Wallonia

GT Flore & associated parties1, Maxime Coupremanne2, Yvan Barbier1, Louis-Marie Delescaille1, All Plant Observers from OFFH3

1 Département de l'Étude du Milieu Naturel et Agricole, Avenue Maréchal Juin, 23, 5030, Gembloux, Belgium; 2 Belgian Biodiversity Platform, Avenue Maréchal Juin, 23, 5030, Gembloux, Belgium; 3 http://observatoire.biodiversite.wallonie.be/encodage, , Belgium

Corresponding author(s): GT Flore & associated parties (louismarie.delescaille@spw.wallonie.be), Maxime Coupremanne (m.coupremanne@biodiversity.be), Yvan Barbier (yvan.barbier@spw.wallonie.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

Origin of the Information: SPW-DGARNE – DEMNA – GT Flore & collaborators

Abstract

Exotic plant occurrences in Wallonia  is a merged occurrence-only dataset, compiling records of exotic taxa from various floristic data sources covering Wallonia (Southern Belgium). Data compilation, cleaning and validation were performed by the Département de l’Étude du Milieu Naturel et Agricole (SPW – DGARNE - DEMNA), in particular the 'GT-Flore', a working group bringing together plant experts from the department and external collaborators from regional naturalist networks.
The types of primary sources compiled in this dataset are heterogeneous, including specific surveys, citizen observations, digitized collections, etc. Attention should therefore be paid to the "DC term: DataSetName" when figuring out record features. Also, Reference should be made to 'FootprintWKT' for spatial referencing, as the dataset includes both grid-derived and punctual data.
"Flore OFFH and Co" (76 300records) is the core of the DEMNA database. It covers monitoring carried out by the department officers or by partners under agreement, data from digitization calls, etc.
"BD Berce du Caucase", "Enquetes OFFH","Rinse", "Inv. Perm. des Res. For.","Natura 2000",are topical surveys, limited in time and/or taxonomically oriented.
All records have been subject to a validation procedure performed by the department experts. Validation rules were based on pictures, observer’s expertise, ecological relevance, or additional information provided by the observer.
This dataset content is under a CC-BY license. Please make sure to quote the Département de l’Étude du Milieu Naturel et Agricole (SPW – DGARNE - DEMNA) if you make any use of the data, using preferably the form 'Origin of the Information: SPW-DGARNE – DEMNA – GT Flore & collaborators'  whenever it is possible.
Additional information is accessible upon specific and motivated request addressed to: http://observatoire.biodiversite.wallonie.be/cmdd/. Please contact the department for additional information about the dataset, about the Walloon 'GT-Flore', or about our biodiversity related activities. Returns and comments are highly appreciated.

Keywords: Plants; Plantae; Wallonia; Belgium; Exotic species; Biological Invasions; TrIAS; Département de l'Étude du Milieu naturel et agricole; Merged database; Open data; neophytes; Observation ; Non-Native, Observation, Occurrence

General description

Purpose: The dataset was published within the framework of the TrIAS project (Tracking Invasive Alien Species, Vanderhoeven et al. 2017 - http://trias-project.be) .The aim of TrIAS is to establish an open data framework to follow the progression of exotic species, identify emerging species, assess the risk and inform the IAS policies.

Project details

Project title: Tracking Invasive Alien Species (TrIAS)
Personnel: Tim Adriaens, Peter Desmet, Groom Quentin, Diederik Strubbe, Sonia Vanderhoeven
Funding: TrIAS is funded by the Belgian Science Policy Office (BELSPO) call for Belgian Research Action through Interdisciplinary Networks (BRAIN).
Study area descriptions/descriptor: Belgium.
Design description: The project builds on two components: 1) The establishment of a data mobilization framework for alien species data from diverse data sources and 2) the development of data-driven procedures for risk evaluation based on risk modelling, risk mapping and risk assessment. TrIAS uses facilities from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF, http://www.gbif.org), standards from the Biodiversity Information Standards organization (TDWG, http://www.tdwg.org) and expertise from Lifewatch (http://www.lifewatch.be) to create and facilitate a systematic workflow. Alien species data are gathered from a large set of regional, national and international initiatives, including citizen science data, with a wide taxonomic scope from marine, terrestrial and freshwater environments. Observation data are funnelled in repeatable ways to GBIF. In parallel, a Belgian checklist of alien species is established, benefiting from various taxonomic and project-based checklists foreseen for GBIF publication.

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

Taxonomic coverage

General taxonomic coverage description: Exotic plant species from Belgium. The Manual of the Alien Plants of Belgium (Verloove et al., 2018 - DOI10.15468/wtda1m) and the Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species - Belgium (Desmet P. et al, 2020 - DOI10.15468/xoidmd) were used as references to identify neophyte taxa that should be integrated in this publication. The current version includes 826 taxa, mostly with a species-level resolution (746) and fewer with an infraspecific resolution (80 subspecies, forms and varieties). The reference used for the nomenclature of species is Digitale 3.1 (https://www.cbnbl.org/referentiel-taxonomique-digitale,Conservatoire botanique national de Bailleul - CBNBL)
Taxonomic ranks
Kingdom: Plantae
Common names: Plants

Spatial coverage

General spatial coverage: Wallonia - Southern Belgium. Some opportunistic data may be out of the area, within 
neighboring regions and countries. Many records derive from a grid-based georeferencing system (I.F.B.L) and their location should be considered with caution.
Coordinates: 49°26'24''N and 51°10'12''N Latitude; 2°44'49.2''E and 6°30'14.4''E Longitude 

Temporal coverage: May 5, 1900 - December 28, 2020

Methods

Method step description: 
- . 	Fusion of botanical data sources.
- . 	Comparison & linkage of the different taxa with the reference used for exotic species (see 'taxonomic coverage' section).
- . 	Semi-automatic validation based on observer's expertise.
- . 	Mapping to Darwin Core.
Study extent description: Wallonia, southern Belgium. Some opportunistic data may be slightly out of the described area. This dataset includes data from different projects that may have very different time distributions: going from early 20th data recovered by digitizsation projects to early 2018 inputs into the department databases.
Sampling description: Multiple sources involving different types of data collection. The dataset encompasses citizen observations, expert prospection, digitized collection, published documents, etc.
Quality control description: The validation was carried out by botanical experts from the department. Each validator is assigned to a list of taxa of his expertise and has access to corresponding records. The validation may be based on a document (picture), on rules (credibility of the occurrence, of the observer expertise, etc.) or without any document (additional informations provided by the observer). It is documented by the "DC-Term : IdentificationVerificationStatus". For the purpose of this publication, semi-automatic treatment has been applied to validate all records made by qualified observers. Records subject to this semi-automatic validation are flagged on the "DC-Term: IdentificationRemarks".

Datasets

Dataset description
Object name: Darwin Core Archive DEMNA-DNE : Exotic plant occurrences in Wallonia
Character encoding: UTF-8
Format name: Darwin Core Archive format
Format version: 1.0
Distribution: https://ipt.biodiversity.be/archive.do?r=inva
Publication date of data: 2023-07-27
Language: English
Licences of use: Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 License

Metadata language: English
Date of metadata creation: 2018-05-04
Hierarchy level: Dataset

References
Verloove F, Groom Q, Brosens D, Desmet P, Reyserhove L (2018). Manual of the Alien Plants of Belgium. Version 1.6. Botanic Garden Meise. Checklist Dataset accessed via GBIF.org on 2018-05-14. https://doi.org/10.15468/wtda1m
Groom Q, Brosens D, Adriaens T, Vanderhoeven S (2017). TrIAS Data Management Plan. Version 1.2.
Vanderhoeven S, Adriaens T, Desmet P, Strubbe D, Backeljau T, Barbier Y, Brosens D, Cigar J, Coupremanne M, De Troch R, Eggermont H, Heughebaert A, Hostens K, Huybrechts P, Jacquemart A, Lens L, Monty A, Paquet J, Prévot C, Robertson T, Termonia P, Van De Kerchove R, Van Hoey G, Van Schaeybroeck B, Vercayie D, Verleye T, Welby S, Groom Q (2017) Tracking Invasive Alien Species (TrIAS): Building a data-driven framework to inform policy. Research Ideas and outcomes 3: e13414. https://doi.org/10.3897/rio.3.e13414
Groom, Q. J., Desmet, P., Vanderhoeven, S. and Adriaens, T. The importance of open data for invasive alien species research, policy and management. Management of Biological Invasions 6, 2 (2015), 119–125. doi:  http://dx.doi.org/10.3391/mbi.2015.6.2.02
Desmet P, Reyserhove L, Oldoni D, Groom Q, Adriaens T, Vanderhoeven S, Pagad S (2020). Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species - Belgium. Version 1.8. Invasive Species Specialist Group ISSG. Checklist dataset accessed via GBIF.org on 2020-02-14.  https://doi.org/10.15468/xoidmd