Records of vascular plants, bryophytes and lichens from the Kamianska Sich National Nature Park and valley of river Inhulets in 2002 (Kherson and Mykolaiv Regions, Ukraine)

Study Extent

The dataset contains co-occurrences of vascular plants, bryophytes and lichens recorded during 2002 in Southern Ukraine. The study area is situated in the central-southern part of the Black Sea Lowland in the southern part of the steppe zone of Ukraine in the Mykolaiv and Kherson regions.

Sampling

To obtain this dataset, we sampled 49 plots of different sizes 4-60 (square meters) of natural types of vegetation Festuco-Brometea. Sampling locations were chosen to cover different types of natural and seminatural open grassland habitats within the study area. In each plot, we recorded occurrences of vascular plants (shoot presence), all terricolous soil-growing bryophytes and lichens. For each m2 plot, several environmental and structural parameters were recorded: cover of vegetation layers and of litter, rocks, slope, aspect, inclination and managment.

Quality Control

Some specimens of the vascular plants and almost all lichens and mosses were collected as herbarium for determination and verification after the fieldwork. After digitizing the data, we harmonised the taxonomic information according to the nomenclature sources: for vascular plants - POWO (2024), for bryophytes - An annotated checklist of bryophytes of Europe, Macaronesia and Cyprus (Hodgetts et al. 2020), and for lichens – The fourth checklist of Ukrainian Lichen-forming and lichenicolous fungi with analysis of current additions (Kondratyuk et al. 2021). Then we used GBIF Backbone Taxonomy (GBIF species matching tool: https://www.gbif.org/tools/species-lookup) for the taxonomic check and implemented minor corrections of species names regarding misprints and problematic taxa to avoid misinterpretation. We additionally checked and verified the header data of vegetation plots (Event Core and GBIF Relevé Extension, Occurrence Extension) using OpenRefine (https://openrefine.org/), ]and QGIS 3.22 (https://qgis.org) for quality control.

Method steps

1. Site selection, field research.
2. Identification of herbarium specimens of vascular plants, lichens, bryophytes.
3. Digitizing the field data forms.
4. Data checking and cleaning.
5. Transformation of the dataset according to the Darwin Core standards.
6. Taxonomic check, final quality control.

Vascular plants (Plantae, Tracheophyta - Gnetopsida, Liliopsida, Magnoliopsida), Mosses (Plantae - Bryophyta, Briopsida), Lichens (Fungi - Ascomycota).

1. Plantae
   rank: kingdom
2. Tracheophyta
   rank: phylum
3. Gnetopsida
   rank: class
4. Magnoliopsida
   rank: class
5. Liliopsida
   rank: class
6. Bryophyta
   rank: phylum
7. Briopsida
   rank: class
8. Fungi
   rank: kingdom
9. Ascomycota
   rank: class

Kherson and Mykolaiv Regions, southern Ukraine.