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Manual of the Alien Plants of Belgium

Dataset homepage

Citation

Verloove F, Groom Q, Brosens D, Desmet P, Reyserhove L (2020). Manual of the Alien Plants of Belgium. Version 1.10. Meise Botanic Garden. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/wtda1m accessed via GBIF.org on 2025-05-13.

Description

The Manual of the Alien Plants of Belgium is a species checklist dataset published by the Botanic Garden Meise. It contains information on all (over 2.500) non-native vascular plants occurring in the wild in Belgium since 1800. The checklist is almost entirely based on a thorough herbarium revision of the main public Belgian herbaria (Verloove 2006), actively maintained, and updated regularly at Verloove (2018, http://alienplantsbelgium.be). Here it is published as a standardized Darwin Core Archive and includes for each species: the scientific name, kingdom, family, stable taxon identifier, and IPNI (2018) scientific name ID where available (in the taxon core), the presence in Flanders, Wallonia and the Brussels Capital Region, as well as the year of the first introduction (first collection) and last assessment/observation in Belgium (given as a year range in the event date in the distribution extension), coarse habitat information (in the species profile extension), and the pathway(s) of introduction, native range(s) and invasion stage in Belgium (in the description extension). The dataset can be used for researching and managing alien plants or compiling regional and national registries of alien species. Issues with the dataset can be reported at https://github.com/trias-project/alien-plants-belgium

We have released this dataset to the public domain under a Creative Commons Zero waiver. We would appreciate it if you follow the GBIF citation guidelines (https://www.gbif.org/citation-guidelines) when using the data. If you have any questions regarding this dataset, don’t hesitate to contact us via the contact information provided in the metadata or via https://twitter.com/trias_project.

This dataset was published as open data for the TrIAS project (Tracking Invasive Alien Species http://trias-project.be, Vanderhoeven et al. 2017), with technical support provided by the Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO). It is selected as one of the authoritative sources for the compilation of a unified and reproducible checklist of alien species in Belgium.

Sampling Description

Study Extent

See Verloove (2006).

Sampling

See Verloove (2006).

Quality Control

See Verloove (2006).

Method steps

  1. The source data for this standardized checklist is an Excel spreadsheet, maintained by the Filip Verloove and re-uploaded regularly at http://alienplantsbelgium.be/sites/alienplantsbelgium.be/files/Checklist2.xlsx.
  2. This raw data file was reformatted to make it more machine-readable and uploaded to a GitHub repository (https://github.com/trias-project/alien-plants-belgium). See https://trias-project.github.io/alien-plants-belgium for an introduction to this repository and the mapping of this dataset.
  3. We developed a RMarkdown script to document and perform the transformation of the data to Darwin Core, which includes the following steps:
  4. Perform some basic data cleaning of the raw data.
  5. Generate stable and unique identifiers for each taxon (taxonID).
  6. Create a taxon core file (http://rs.gbif.org/core/dwc_taxon.xml).
  7. Create a distribution extension file (http://rs.gbif.org/extension/gbif/1.0/distribution.xml), including standardization of the distribution date range. For species occurring exclusively in one of the 3 regions (Flanders, Wallonia or the Brussels Capital Region), national distribution date range is added for that region as well.
  8. Create a species profile extension file (http://rs.gbif.org/extension/gbif/1.0/speciesprofile.xml), with coarse habitat information.
  9. Create a description extension file (http://rs.gbif.org/extension/gbif/1.0/description.xml), with standardized pathway of introduction (using the pathway vocabulary from the Convention on Biological Diversity (2014)), native range (using the WGSRPD vocabulary from Brummitt (2001) where applicable), and invasion stage (based on Blackburn et al. (2011)).
  10. The resulting Darwin Core data files are uploaded to the INBO IPT and documented with metadata.
  11. The dataset is is published and registered with GBIF.

Taxonomic Coverages

In total, this dataset includes over 2.500 alien plant species, covering 139 families. Although some plant families contain many alien species, most recorded families count for only (very) few taxa. The four largest plant families worldwide embrace most of the recorded taxa: Poaceae (16%), Asteraceae (12%), Fabaceae (8%) and Brassicaceae (5%). Many families are exclusively represented by alien species (36% of all families). Inversely, the larger native families only have a few non-native species. Only taxa at specific or subspecific level are included in the list. Taxa of lower taxonomic rank (varieties and forms) are usually withheld, but in some rare cases they are nevertheless accepted and included in this list.
  1. Plantae
    common name: plants rank: kingdom
  2. Tracheophytes
    common name: vascular plants rank: subkingdom

Geographic Coverages

This checklist covers all plant species that occur as an alien species in Belgium. The dataset also includes information on the presence of a species in Flanders, Wallonia and/or the Brussels Capital Region (the three main political regions in Belgium).

Bibliographic Citations

  1. Blackburn TM, Pysek P, Bacher S, Carlton JT, Duncan RP, Jarosik V, Wilson JRU & Richardson DM (2011) A proposed unified framework for biological invasions. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 26: 333-339. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2011.03.023 -
  2. Brummitt RK (2001) World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (Ed. 2). Published for the International Working Group on Taxonomic Databases for Plant Sciences (TDWG) by the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh. http://grassworld.myspecies.info/sites/grassworld.myspecies.info/files/tdwg_geo2.pdf -
  3. Convention on Biological Diversity (2014) Pathways of introduction of invasive species, their prioritization and management. UNEP/CBD/SBSTTA/18/9/Add.1. Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, Montreal. https://www.cbd.int/doc/meetings/sbstta/sbstta-18/official/sbstta-18-09-add1-en.pdf -
  4. The International Plant Names Index (IPNI) (2012). Published on the Internet http://www.ipni.org [accessed 19 January 2018] -
  5. 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 -
  6. Verloove F (2006) Catalogue of Neophytes Belgium (1800-2005). Scripta Botanica Belgica 39:1:89. http://alienplantsbelgium.be/sites/alienplantsbelgium.be/files/tabel_2.pdf -
  7. Verloove F (2018) Manual of Alien Plants of Belgium. Botanic Garden of Meise, Belgium. At: http://alienplantsbelgium.be. -

Contacts

Filip Verloove
originator
Botanic Garden Meise
BE
email: filip.verloove@plantentuinmeise.be
homepage: http://alienplantsbelgium.be/
userId: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4144-2422
Quentin Groom
originator
Botanic Garden Meise
BE
email: quentin.groom@plantentuinmeise.be
userId: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0596-5376
Dimitri Brosens
originator
Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO)
BE
email: dimitri.brosens@inbo.be
userId: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0846-9116
Peter Desmet
originator
Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO)
BE
email: peter.desmet@inbo.be
userId: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8442-8025
Lien Reyserhove
originator
Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO)
BE
email: lien.reyserhove@inbo.be
userId: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7484-9267
Filip Verloove
metadata author
Botanic Garden Meise
BE
email: filip.verloove@plantentuinmeise.be
homepage: http://alienplantsbelgium.be
userId: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4144-2422
Lien Reyserhove
metadata author
Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO)
BE
email: lien.reyserhove@inbo.be
userId: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7484-9267
Peter Desmet
metadata author
Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO)
BE
email: peter.desmet@inbo.be
userId: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8442-8025
Filip Verloove
administrative point of contact
Botanic Garden Meise
BE
email: filip.verloove@plantentuinmeise.be
homepage: http://alienplantsbelgium.be
userId: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4144-2422
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