Occurrences of the invasive plant species Heracleum sosnowskyi Manden. in the Komi Republic territory (European North-East Russia)

Study Extent

The occurrence data of H. sosnowskyi were collected from an area of approximately 19, 000 km2 (Figure 1). Most of the data were collected from the capital area of Komi, Syktyvkar (61° 39.95’N , 50° 49.53’E) as well as along the roads at a distance of 300 km from Syktyvkar, the directions of which coincide with the flow direction of the major rivers Vychegda and Sysola belonging to the Northern Dvina basin. A separate cluster of the data was collected from a 664 km (orthodromic) distance in the territory and suburb of Inta city, located near the Arctic Circle (66° 1.87’N , 60° 8.72’E). A pronounced sampling bias should be considered before using the data for the species distribution modelling. Data were collected close to the settlements or the roads connecting them, which is a travel time bias [Fourcade et al., 2014]. In the case of H. sosnowskyi, such a sampling bias may coincide with the actual factors determining the dispersal of the plants of this species. In most cases, roadsides are the optimal habitats for this species as they are open and well-lighted with adequate moisture due to the roadside drainage systems. Moreover, the air flow creates favourable conditions for the spread of the plants.

Sampling

The occurrence data consist of the presence data only. Two methods were used for the creation of occurrence records, which include the data collection along transects (7130 points) and mapping of H. sosnowskyi boundaries that were later converted to regular points sample (3764 points). The regular points sample coordinates were generated using the QGIS Desktop software (v 2.16.3). The points were created with a 25 m point spacing within polygon layers that indicated the H. sosnowskyi population boundaries. The occurrences were labelled with a tag “Generated Regular Sample” written in the “occurrence remarks” field. The “associated media” field contained the URL of the locality map showing the generated point pattern with the scale bar and the north end on top of the map. Data along transects were collected by recording a video of H. sosnowskyi plants growing along the roadsides and by taking photographs in the direction perpendicular to the road at a distance of up to 5 km. Data along transects were collected during driving in a car along public roads by means of video recording of H. sosnowskyi plants growing along roadsides, and with photography while hiking in the direction perpendicular to the road at a distance up to 5 kilometers. Data along transects were collected during driving in a car along public roads by means of video recording of H. sosnowskyi plants growing along roadsides, and with photography while hiking in the direction perpendicular to the road at a distance up to 5 kilometers.

Quality Control

The published data collected by professional scientists with sustainable skills for the identification of H. sosnowskyi and its differences from other similar species in its habitats were published in GBIF whereas that collected by volunteers were accumulated in the RIVR system. Before publication, data were checked for gross errors in georeferencing by visual inspection of the overlay points on the map with the borders of Russian regions in OpenStreet in the QGIS Desktop. The presence of duplicate records was checked by running a special SQL script. The records were counted as duplicated if three fields were the same: the coordinates, the date of the event, and the file name of the photograph. For many data points (1080 of 10894 points, 10%), the same dates and coordinates were detected; however, they presented a series of photographs (2 to 13). These data were saved in the system as they could be of interest for the assessment of the landscape and the evaluation of plants in the H. sosnowskyi habitat.

Method steps

1. Photographs of the plants were taken using consumer cameras. Videos were recorded with a Car DVR Camera (video 1280 × 960 pixels at 30 frames/second), mounted on the car windshield (height from the road surface was 170 cm). The survey was conducted at speeds of 60–90 km/h. The GPS track was simultaneously recorded with GPS navigators. The time on the cameras and video recorders were synchronised with the time displayed on the GPS navigation device. All the images were geotagged by a GPS track log with “GPS Correlate” software (v 1.6.1, https://github.com/freefoote/gpscorrelate) according to the methods described in the OpenStreetMap Project documentation [Geotagging Source Photos..., 2016]. The video files were broken into frames (one frame per second) and the frames were saved as "jpeg" files with the program FFmpeg (v 3.1.4 http://www.ffmpeg.org/) followed by geotagging of these files similar to that of the photographs. The array of images was hand sorted into two groups: images that contained H. sosnowskyi plants and images without these plants. The coordinates of the photographs obtained from a Car DVR Camera were corrected in the Quantum GIS Geographic Information System (QGIS) program (v 2.16.3 http://www.qgis.org) by shifting the group of points on the side of the road. All geotagged H. sosnowskyi images were uploaded to the online database “Occurrence of invasive plant species Heracleum sosnowskyi Manden.” [RIVR..., 2016].

The resource contains occurrence data only for one species – H. sosnowskyi Manden.

1. Heracleum sosnowskyi
   common name: Sosnowsky's hogweed rank: species
2. Plantae
   common name: Plants rank: kingdom
3. Tracheophyta
   common name: Vascular plants rank: phylum
4. Magnoliopsida
   common name: Flowering plants rank: class
5. Apiales
   rank: order
6. Apiaceae
   common name: Carrot family rank: family
7. Heracleum
   common name: Hogweed rank: genus

The Komi Republic territory is located in the north-east of the Russian Plain and the western slopes of the northern Ural Mountains. It is a large and an important biogeographic boundary that separates the flora and fauna of two continents – Europe and Asia. On the plain territory of the Komi Republic, a pronounced latitudinal-nature zonation occurs. In the extreme north-east is a subzone of the southern tundra. The forest-tundra is a transition zone between the tundra and taiga zones. In the Pechora Province, it has a width of 100–120 km forming the southern periphery of the territory that has the Bolshezemelskaya tundra. The main type of vegetation in the Republic of Komi is the boreal (taiga) forest. The taiga zone is divided into subzones, namely the extreme northern, northern, middle, and southern taiga zones. On the eastern edge of the Republic in the Ural Mountains, altitudinal zonation occurs with distinct zones: the mountain forest, alpine tundra, and cold deserts zones (Gorchakovskii 1975). A large part of the Republic has a climate similar to that of the Atlantic-Arctic region with a cold temperate (boreal) climate (Atlas… 1997). The Kazakhstan territory is a zone of excessive moisture, widespread marshes, and wetlands. The annual precipitation exceeds the evaporation and decreases from south to north, from 700 to 550 mm. A significant difference in the climate is observed across the length of the Republic from south to north and from west to east. The duration of the previous winter in the south of the Republic was 170–180 days and that in the north was 230–250 days. The average temperature in January (the coldest month) in the south is 15 °C whereas that in the north-east is –22 °C. Summers are short and warm; the average temperature in July (the warmest month) is approximately 10 °C in the north-east and 17 °C in the south of the Republic. The prevailing wind directions in winter are south and south-west, and north in summer. The monthly average wind speed in the taiga zone is 3–4 m/s and that in the tundra area is 6.5 m/s. Many species exist in the Komi Republic region, which include 929 fungi, 1217 vascular plant, 653 moss, 1020 lichen, 2,000 algae, more than 3,500 arachnid, more than 6,000 insect, 50 fish, six amphibian, five reptile, 265 bird, and 57 mammal species. The Komi Republic territory includes 237 forest, floristic, meadow, marsh, ichthyological, ornithological, and geological reserves and natural monuments. The Pechora-Ilych State Reserve and the "Yugyd Va" National Park occupy 13.5% of the total territory of the Republic (The Biological Diversity of the Republic of Komi 2012).