Dataset of the model species from the spontaneous flora of the Forest-Steppe and the Steppe zones of Ukraine

Study Extent

Territory of the Forest-Steppe and the Steppe zones of Ukraine

Sampling

This dataset aggregates data from three types of resources: - specimens of the Herbarium of M.G. Kholodny Institute of Botany, (KW); - data from our own geobotanical relevés kept in Turboveg - direct observations, field notes For the herbaria samples digitization was used simple photosytem consisted of the standard horizontal tripod Beike Q996H, light source – two led lamps Yongnuo YN-300 Air, photo camera Canon EOS 90D, scale X-rite ColorChecker Classic Mini (for image calibration). The lamps were attached to the tripod’s legs using two 11” Magic Arm handles. For photo hosting platform Flickr https://www.flickr.com/ was chosen. Overall, 238 samples of the "Flora of Ukraine" collection at the Herbarium of M.G. Kholodny Institute of Botany (KW) were digitized. Exact coordinates for the most occurrences were absent, so we georeferenced them based on verbatimLocality and specified the coordinateUncertaintyInMeters. Also, the original label information concerning the locality was kept and was written in the Cyrillic languages (Ukrainian and Russian). We assigned a date (eventDate) as the most precise period derived from the description. The database also contains images of 6 herbarium sheets from the "Dzharylhatskyi" National Nature Park (Kherson region, Skadovsk district), taken by A. Davydova in spring 2012. This is a very small herbarium, up to 50 sheets, recently created in this institution. Although the quality of the photos is not very good, we have decided to include them. The administrative building of the park in Skadovsk is currently under occupation, so there may not be a second chance to digitize this herbarium. But we want to preserve at least something for its history. Data from geobotanical relevés were exported from the Turboveg databases and mapped according to selected DarwinCore fields. For the last type of recourse, this information was directly transcribed to the table. Preserved specimen was chosen as the basis of record for occurrences obtained from herbaria samples, and Human observation was chosen for other data. We aligned taxonomy with GBIF Backbone Taxonomy and Plants of the World Online.

Method steps

1. Choosing of the Darwin core fields to be filled in addition to required fields;
2. Digitalization of specimens of the Herbarium of M.G. Kholodny Institute of Botany, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (KW); -- - hosting of media and providing of URL for images;
3. Verification of locality; translation of label information from the Cyrillic languages to English;
4. Aggregation of occurrences received from herbaria specimens, our own databases (occurrences from geobotanical relevés kept in Turboveg), field diaries and direct observations;
5. Unification of the taxonomy with the POWO database;
6. Data management (Data cleaning in program OpenRefine, Georeferencing)
7. Data publishing

Vascular plants identified to species

1. Plantae
   rank: kingdom
2. Tracheophyta
   rank: phylum
3. Magnoliopsida
   rank: class
4. Liliopsida
   rank: class

Territory of the Forest-Steppe and the Steppe zones of Ukraine. Observations took place at Cherkasy, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Kharkiv, Kherson, Kirovohrad, Kyiv, Luhansk, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Poltava, Sumy, Zaporizhzhia Regions.