Inventory of the terrestrial isopods in Belgium (2011-2020)

Dataset type

Deze dataset bevat primaire waarnemingsgegevens voor soorten.

Beschrijving

Inventory of the terrestrial isopods in Belgium (2011-2020) is an occurrence dataset published by Spinicornis (Terrestrial Isopod Research Group of Belgium), the Research Institute of Nature and Forest (INBO), and Natuurpunt Studie and described in Boevaere et al. 2022 https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1101.65810). The dataset represents the most complete overview of terrestrial isopods in Belgium and includes occurrences of 35 species, observed between 2011 and 2020. There are 36 native terrestrial isopod species in Belgium (De Smedt et al. 2018) and only one (i.e. Miktoniscus patiencei Vandel, 1946) hasn’t been detected in Belgium between 2011 and 2020. The occurrences originate from field surveys, pitfall trap projects and casual observations. The recorded data are registered through the citizen science portals waarnemingen.be and observations.be, managed by Natuurpunt Studie and Natagora respectively. All data were verified by experts. Here, the dataset is published as a standardized Darwin Core Archive and includes for each record an occurrenceID, reference, date, location and scientific name and if available also individual count, sex, lifestage, behavior, sampling protocol and information on the identification. Generalized and/or withheld information: location information is generalized to 5 x 5 km² Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) grid cells. Observer name, exact XY-coordinates, toponyms, and photographs are not included in the published dataset, but are known in the source database. To allow anyone to use this dataset, we have released the data to the public domain under a Creative Commons Zero waiver http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/). We would appreciate however, if you read and follow these norms for data use http://www.natuurpunt.be/normen-voor-datagebruik) and provide a link to the original dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/mw9c66) whenever possible. If you use these data for a scientific paper, please cite the dataset following the applicable citation norms and/or consider us for co-authorship. We are always interested to provide more information and available for help with analysing the data for your project, so please contact us via the contact information provided in the metadata or via pepijn@spinicornis.be.

Geografische beschrijving

Belgium is a small country (ca. 30.500 km²) in Western Europe. It has a short shoreline (approx. 65 km) along the North Sea. The country is part of two European biogeographical regions, namely the Atlantic and the Continental region. The Atlantic region is largely covered by agricultural land and urban areas. The Continental region is less covered by agricultural land and urban areas and is instead more forested.

Despite its small size, Belgium has a rich geology going from a flat Atlantic region in the west consisting of Holocene and Pleistocene deposits to a Continental hilly landscape with Mesozoic and Pleistocene deposits in the east and the south. The Atlantic region has clay loam and heavy clay soils in the northwest, and loam and sandy loam soils in the middle with a relatively high terrestrial isopod diversity. On the sandy soils in the northeast of the Atlantic region, terrestrial isopod diversity is rather low.

The Continental region contains two bands of soils with calcareous outcrops, with a high species richness of terrestrial isopods. In between these chalky soil bands and in the east of the country, the land is covered by slate and sandstone soils, some with large areas of peatlands, which are more species poor.

Gegevenskwaliteit

Records were collected by both terrestrial isopod experts and volunteers. Observations by volunteers were only included in the database after being validated by experts of Spinicornis based on photographs of their observations.

Methoden

Spinicornis members sampled different habitats in all squares of the UTM 10 x 10 km² grid in Belgium and entered the observations in waarnemingen.be / observations.be. These portals are managed by Natuurpunt Studie and Natagora respectively, but use the same underlying database system.Spinicornis members identified specimens observed and collected. The data records were subsequently imported in the waarnemingen.be database.Spinicornis also validated observations entered by volunteers in waarnemingen.be and observations.be between 2011 and 2020.A custom SQL view is created in the database to map the original data to Darwin Core as an occurrence core.A delimited file was created and exported from the waarnemingen database.The generated Darwin Core file was imported in the INBO IPT and documented with metadata.The dataset is published and registered with GBIF.

Type inhoud

Omvat: Puntvoorkomstengegevens.

Bronvermelding

Boeraeve P, De Smedt P, Segers S, Arijs G, Lambrechts J, Gielen K, Swinnen K, Desmet P, Brosens D (2022): Inventory of the terrestrial isopods in Belgium (2011-2020). v1.11. Natuurpunt. Dataset/Occurrence. https://doi.org/10.15468/mw9c66

Rechten

To the extent possible under law, the publisher has waived all rights to these data and has dedicated them to the Public Domain (CC0 1.0). Users may copy, modify, distribute and use the work, including for commercial purposes, without restriction.

Gedigitaliseerde records

Metadata voor het laatst bijgewerkt op 2025-06-23 11:56:20.0