Description
The dataset available through the Sightings Map of Invasive Plants in Portugal results from the Citizen Science platform INVASORAS.PT, which records sightings of invasive plants in Portugal (mainland and Archipelagos of Madeira and Azores). This platform was originally created in 2013, in the context of the project “Plantas Invasoras: uma ameaça vinda de fora” (Media Ciência nº 16905), developed by researchers from Centre for Functional Ecology of University of Coimbra and of Coimbra College of Agriculture of the Polytechnic Institute of Coimbra. Currently this project is over, but the platform is maintained by the same team. Sightings are reported by users who register at the platform and submit them, either directly on the website (https://invasoras.pt/pt/mapeamento) or using an app for Android (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=pt.uc.invasoras2) and iOS (https://apps.apple.com/pt/app/plantas-invasoras-em-portugal/id1501776731) devices. Only validated sightings are available on the dataset. Validation is made based on photographs submitted along with the sightings by experts from the platform INVASORAS.PT team. As with all citizen science projects there is some risk of erroneous records and duplication of sightings.
Data Records
The data in this occurrence resource has been published as a Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A), which is a standardized format for sharing biodiversity data as a set of one or more data tables. The core data table contains 9,478 records.
This IPT archives the data and thus serves as the data repository. The data and resource metadata are available for download in the downloads section. The versions table lists other versions of the resource that have been made publicly available and allows tracking changes made to the resource over time.
Versions
The table below shows only published versions of the resource that are publicly accessible.
How to cite
Researchers should cite this work as follows:
Marchante H, Morais M C (2021): Sightings Map of Invasive Plants in Portugal. v2.10. CFE - Centre for Functional Ecology, Department of Life Sciences, University of Coimbra. Dataset/Occurrence. doi:10.15468/ic8tid
Rights
Researchers should respect the following rights statement:
The publisher and rights holder of this work is CFE - Centre for Functional Ecology, Department of Life Sciences, University of Coimbra. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY 4.0) License.
GBIF Registration
This resource has been registered with GBIF, and assigned the following GBIF UUID: feb41318-374b-4ed6-b61e-0369993abedc. CFE - Centre for Functional Ecology, Department of Life Sciences, University of Coimbra publishes this resource, and is itself registered in GBIF as a data publisher endorsed by GBIF Portugal.
Keywords
Occurrence; Invasive Plants; Alien Plants; Portugal; Citizen Science; Occurrence; Observation; Occurrence
Contacts
- Curator
- Adjunt Professor
- Bencanta
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3247-5663
- Curator
- Researcher
- Content Provider ●
- Metadata Provider ●
- Point Of Contact
- Researcher
- Calçada Martim de Freitas
- Curator
- Researcher
- Quinta de Prados.
- Author
- users
- Curator
- Adjunt Professor
- Bencanta
Geographic Coverage
Portugal, including Mainland and the Archipelagos of Azores and Madeira
| Bounding Coordinates | South West [29.51, -31.27], North East [42.25, -6.08] |
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Taxonomic Coverage
All plants were identifyed to the species level.
| Kingdom | Plantae (Plants) |
|---|---|
| Phylum | Spermatophyta, Pteridophyta |
| Class | Magnoliopsida, Liliopsida, Filicopsida |
| Order | Fabales, Asterales, Geraniales, Proteales, Caryophyllales, Poales, Polemoniales, Sapindales, Rosales, Liliales, Haloragales, Commelinales, Hydrocharitales, Umbellales, Zingiberales, Salviniales |
Temporal Coverage
| Start Date / End Date | 2013-02-22 / 2020-02-15 |
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Project Data
No Description available
| Title | Invasive Plants: a threat from outside |
|---|---|
| Funding | The original project [“Plantas Invasoras: uma ameaça vinda de fora” (Media Ciência N.º 16905)] was supported by “MEDIA SCIENCE”, an initiative of Ciência Viva (Portuguese Agency for Scientific and Technological Culture) and was co-financed by COMPETE (Operational Programme Competitiveness Factors) in the area for the Promotion of Scientific and Technological Culture. After, the platform was maintained through projects INVADER-B (“Gestão de plantas INVasoras em Portugal: da prevenção à DEtecção Remota e controlo biológico de Acacia longifolia”, reference PTDC/AAG-REC/4607/2012, November 2013 to November 2015), and INVADER-IV (INnoVative Approaches to Detect invasive spEcies and biocontRol agents”, reference PTDC/AAGREC/4896/2014, July 2016 - June 2020) both funded by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT, Portuguese funding agency for science, technology and innovation), through COMPETE and FEDER, Portugal 2020 - Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalização (POCI). After that, the platform is run on a voluntary base by the research team of the platform INVASORAS.PT |
| Study Area Description | The area of Continental Portugal is about 89 015 km2 and it is situated in the Mediterranean biogeographic region, covering 5 terrestrial ecoregions, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature. The archipelago of the Azores is located in the middle of the northern hemisphere of the Atlantic Ocean and extends along a west-northwest to east-southeast orientation (between 36.5°–40° North latitudes and 24.5°–31.5° West longitudes) in an area approximately 600 km wide. The archipelago of Madeira is located 520 km from the African coast and 1 000 km from the European continent. It is found in the extreme south of the Tore-Madeira Ridge, a bathymetric structure of great dimensions oriented along a north-northeast to south-southwest axis that extends for 1 000 m. |
| Design Description | The dataset is created through a citizen science project which involves citizens in the mapping of invasive plants in Portugal (both mainland and Archipelagos of Azores and Madeira). Sightings can be submitted either directly on the website (https://invasoras.pt/pt/mapeamento) or using an app for Android (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=pt.uc.invasoras2) or iOS (https://apps.apple.com/pt/app/plantas-invasoras-em-portugal/id1501776731) devices, in situ. Sightings are distributed all over the country and are submitted by the users registered in the platform. Any citizen can register and submit sightings, but only validated sightings are visible in the dataset. Validation is made by the scientific team of the platform, based on photographs submitted with the sightings. No field validation is performed; nevertheless, the users that are more active in the platform have expertise in plant identification. For some species, namely Arundo donax, Opuntia maxima, Conyza bonariensis, Conyza canadensis, Conyza sumatrensis, Agave americana and Pittosporum undulatum, identification to species is rather difficult when photographs are not very detailed; as such, use of data of these species should take this warning into consideration. Although the timeframe of the project that developed the platform ended in 2013, the research team continues to follow up and validate the submitted sightings, and promoting activities aiming to engage the public. As such, the dataset is expected to be updated on a regular basis. |
The personnel involved in the project:
Sampling Methods
Registers are occasional, whenever submitted by users.
| Study Extent | The dataset includes Portuguese mainland and Archipelagos of Madeira and Azores. First record is from 2002 and there are some records from following years, but most sightings are after March 2013, when the citizen science platform INVASORAS.PT was made available online. |
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| Quality Control | Dataset is obtained directly from the web application that results from the submitted sightings; later it is Darwin Core transformed. Data submitted is from the responsibility of the users registered in the platform. The scientific team of the platform validate the sightings based only on photographs submitted along with the sighting; whenever there is doubt about the identification of the species, the user is contacted and the sighting is only validated if another photo or explanation allows verifying the species identification. However, in such a citizen science platform is not possible to be 100% sure of the reliability of the data. Nevertheless, as stated previously, the users that are more active in the platform (more than 80% of the sightings) have expertise in plant identification. For some species, namely Arundo donax, Opuntia maxima, Conyza bonariensis, Conyza canadensis, Conyza sumatrensis, Agave americana and Pittosporum undulatum, identification to species level is rather difficult when photographs are not very detailed; as such, use of data of these species should take this warning into consideration (they are most probably correctly identified to genus level and most often to species level, but some records may be similar species). For some species, phenology data may be uncertain, e.g., Cortaderia selloana keeps the lush “inflorescence” long after the flowering season and as such users may record them as “in flower”, but in fact they have seeds or the seeds may have already been dispersed even though they keep the apparent inflorescence. All sightings are georeferenced, but locating errors associated with GPS and other devices used for georeferencing are possible. Source of geolocation can be “Web”, “Android (gps)”, “Android (network)” – error associated with the last option can be sometimes bigger than the two other options. Another possibility is that some of the invasive plants that were recorded have been meanwhile controlled and removed from the sighting place. |
Method step description:
- NA
Collection Data
| Collection Name | Sightings Map of Invasive Plants in Portugal |
|---|---|
| Collection Identifier | e4b00ec9-6c79-46c6-a6ed-818742707395 |
| Parent Collection Identifier | Not applicable |
Additional Metadata
| Purpose | This dataset was created as part of a citizen science platform which aims to raise awareness about invasive plants in Portugal and simultaneously stimulate public participation in mapping of species. Data obtained will be helpful for scientific and management purposes. |
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| Alternative Identifiers | feb41318-374b-4ed6-b61e-0369993abedc |
| http://ipt.gbif.pt/ipt/resource?r=invasoras |