Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species - United States (Contiguous)

Study Extent

Temporal: data collection began in 2012 and is ongoing. Publication has been annual since 2018.

Sampling

Methods used to create the integrated dataset have varied somewhat over time. Additional fields have been added from those that were used at the start of the project. Initially, each region (AK, HI, L48) had a lead data searcher and the lists were combined afterwards within one Excel spreadsheet. The interpretation of the content of the citation fields follow the rules established by ITIS and described here: http://www.itis.gov/submit_guidlines.html. Each lead data searcher was trained in the methods to discern an authoritative source; how to extract scientific names from the source; how to generate from the source and other reference databases such as ITIS all of the information in the spreadsheet columns. There are two spreadsheets to populate, plus a data dictionary sheet. The United States (Contiguous) Checklist dataset shared with GBIF contains these fields: locality - Required; from Darwin Core; value = "Conterminous 48 United States". scientificName - Required; modified from Darwin Core; an accepted species, subspecies, variety, form, or hybrid name, preferably validated in ITIS, or secondarily, in GBIF, or otherwise by another taxonomic authority; Genus names alone are not allowed; does not include scientificNameAuthorship. scientificNameAuthorship - Optional; from Darwin Core; as provided by the taxonomic authority or the reference. vernacularName - Required; from Darwin Core; generally provided by ITIS, the authority, or another reliable source; may be a very generic term where specific common names are not in use. taxonRank - Required; from Darwin Core; as provided by the taxonomic authority or derived by data searcher. establishmentMeans - Required; from Darwin Core; controlled vocabulary: introduced (alien, exotic, non-native, nonindigenous), introduced: assisted colonization, native (indigenous), native: reintroduced, uncertain (unknown, cryptogenic), vagrant (casual). degreeOfEstablishment - Required; from Darwin Core; an assertion provided by or derived from the authority describing the established or invasive status of the taxa within the region; controlled vocabulary (smaller for this dataset than from Darwin Core, due to the nature of the dataset): established (category C3), meaning reproducing in the locality; invasive (category D2), meaning causing, or likely to cause, harm; widespread invasive (category E), meaning at least locally abundant and harmful ecologically, economically, or to health. occurrenceStatus - Required; from Darwin Core; value = "present". associatedTaxa - Optional; from Darwin Core; only contains content if a biocontrol species. Consists of "biocontrol for: " followed by a text description of the name of the organism(s) that the species was introduced to control. eventRemarks - Optional; from Darwin Core; consists of "approx. date of introduction: " and a date or text string describing when the taxon is believed to have been introduced to the locality. Also includes brief (Author (YYYY)) value if the associatedReferences authority is not the authority providing the date of introduction. taxonRemarks - Optional; from Darwin Core; only included if the scientific name has many synonyms or misspellings, or, if the name provided by the authority is an unaccepted synonym of a valid/accepted name in a taxonomic authority; Multiple names are separated by a semicolon and a space. kingdom - Required; from Darwin Core; one of seven names as specified in ITIS or another naming authority; controlled vocabulary: Animalia, Bacteria, Chromista, Fungi, Plantae, Protozoa, Virus. phylum - Required; from Darwin Core; as provided by the taxonomic authority; occasionally = "undefined". class - Required; from Darwin Core; as provided by the taxonomic authority; occasionally = "undefined". order - Required; from Darwin Core; as provided by the taxonomic authority; occasionally = "undefined". family - Required; from Darwin Core; as provided by the taxonomic authority; occasionally = "undefined". taxonomicStatus - Required; from Darwin Core; value = "Accepted " followed by the acronym of the taxonomic authority providing the taxonID. taxonID - Required; from Darwin Core; a unique number for the taxa, as provided by the taxonomic authority. Where possible, a URN. Otherwise a stable URL. associatedReferences - Required; from Darwin Core; the abbreviated name for the author of the resource asserting the taxa's non-native species status. Generally, but not always, followed by (year), followed by a URL back to an online version of the reference, or by a full reference. eventDate - Required; from Darwin Core; the date of creation of the record, in the format YYYY-MM-DD; manually generated so errors are possible. NOTE: if earliest occurrence for the species is known or suspected, it is provided in the eventRemarks field. modified - Required; from Darwin Core; date of latest edit/change made to the record; is manually generated, so errors are possible. occurrenceRemarks - Optional; from Darwin Core; text field with comments about the record, generally extracted from the text of the associatedReference or other references. occurrenceID - Required; from Darwin Core; an identifier for the Organism instance (at the record level); a controlled vocabulary that is manually generated using an ordinal number that is not repeated, prefixed by the umbrella dataset's abbreviated name (USRIIS), the record's locality (L48), and the record's kingdom; since the content of this field is not auto-generated, it is subject to human error. Deleted occurrenceIDs are not reused.

Quality Control

Incoming data is error checked. Scientific names are validated against the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS), then the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), and other taxonomic authorities when necessary. Other data fields are assumed correct. The validity of the assertion of non-native status itself may subsequently be questioned and the entry deleted or moved to a watch list if: the scientific name is not in ITIS and not reaffirmed by other authoritative taxonomic sources; other authoritative sources state the species is not present or is native or cryptic; irreconcilable typographical errors in scientific names are found; entries are found to be duplicate or synonomous taxonomic names; nominate subspecies names are removed if they are the only subspecies in the list and the parent binomial is already in the regional list.

Method steps

1. Tools used are described in the following steps:
2. Microsoft Word to assist in formatting data.
3. Microsoft Excel to hold the data and sort and display it.
4. Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) to validate taxonomic names.
5. Global Biodiversity Information Facility to validate taxonomic names not found in ITIS.
6. Microsoft OneDrive to store the data.
7. Adobe Pro to extract text from image-based pdfs.
8. Atlassian Jira to track update and review tasks.
9. Sublime Text to assist with text formatting and metadata eml generation.
10. Various browsers (MS Edge, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari), species databases, and search engines, to discover authoritative introduced species lists for AK, HI, and L48.
11. PROVENANCE: Our team tracks the provenance of the dataset as any modifications, transformations, edits, or decisions to accept or reject data points are made. Provenance is essential to the dataset, which consists entirely of assertions of the presence and non-native status of a species in an area.
12. This tracking involves the inclusion of an authority or data source with each assertion that a species is introduced and established in a given area. The actual authorities' lists and manuscripts themselves are also saved digitally as written proof of the individual assertions and to justify, as necessary, each species' inclusion in the list.
13. To assist with tracking the evolution of a data record, there are "Acquisition Date" and "modified" fields (which are not auto-generated and so subject to human error). The "modified" field is a Darwin Core term for the date of the last modification of the record (YYYY-MM-DD), and the cumulative modifications to the record are described in the "Update Remarks" field, separated within the field by commas (for modifications made on the same date) and semicolons (separating modifications made on different dates).
14. The dataset and the reference authorities are maintained in Microsoft OneDrive. The list is worked on in MS Excel and the file's history can be used to 'roll back' to previous versions, if necessary. A versionHistory.txt file published online along with the data describes major changes and differences in each published version of the list. Past versions of the precursor to this dataset are maintained and made available as part of the deprecated .zip files at: https://doi.org/10.5066/P9E5K160.
15. ANALYZE CRITERIA: Assertions of introduced and established status for a species are accepted if the authority is a trusted source, such as a governmental or government-affiliated, non-governmental organization, international biodiversity organization, academic institution, or a taxonomic expert. If a list is found on the Web and judged as authoritative, it is downloaded for future reference. Authorities, in addition to being cited within each record, are accumulated in an AuthorityReferences spreadsheet. These criteria are part of our documentation. When there is disagreement among experts about establishment, taxonomy, native status, and approximate dates of introduction a wider search of available information is used to determine the best resolution. Cryptic species (of unknown origin) are not included in the GRIIS-L48. Taxa with conflicting status or taxonomy among different sources, that cannot be reconciled through further research, are moved to an informal watch list (available upon request).

All taxa are included, from Kingdoms Animalia, Bacteria, Chromista, Fungi, Plantae, Protozoa, and Virus. In the umbrella dataset, there are 12,981 unique scientific names, mostly taxon rank species, but also subspecies, variety, form, and hybrid. There are 8,656 names in the Conterminous 48 United States (GRIIS-L48) dataset. Just two Classes comprise 88% of the GRIIS-L48: 46% Magnoliopsida (dicotyledonous plants) and 42% Insecta (insects).

1. Animalia
   common name: Animals rank: kingdom
2. Bacteria
   common name: Bacteria rank: kingdom
3. Chromista
   common name: Chromists rank: kingdom
4. Fungi
   common name: Mushrooms rank: kingdom
5. Plantae
   common name: Plants rank: kingdom
6. Protozoa
   common name: Protists rank: kingdom
7. Virus
   common name: Viruses rank: kingdom
8. Magnoliopsida
   common name: Dicots rank: class
9. Insecta
   common name: Insects rank: class

The Conterminous 48 United States, also known as the Contiguous 48 United States.