Sightings Map of Invasive Plants in Portugal

Hélia Marchante1, Elizabete Marchante2, Maria Cristina Morais2, Users registered at invasoras.pt3

1 CFE - Centre for Functional Ecology, Coimbra College of Agriculture of the Polytechnic Institute of Coimbra, Bencanta, 3040-316, Coimbra, Portugal; 2 CFE - Centre for Functional Ecology, Department of Life Sciences, University of Coimbra, Calçada Martim de Freitas, 3000-456, Coimbra, Portugal; 3 Unkown, , Portugal

Corresponding author(s): Hélia Marchante (hmarchante@gmail.com), Elizabete Marchante (emarchante@uc.pt)

Received {date}; Revised {date}; Accepted {date}; Published {date}

Citation: Combination of authors, year of data paper publication (in parentheses), Title, Journal Name, Volume, Issue number (in parentheses), and doi of the data paper.

Resource Citation

Invasoras.pt (2017)  Sightings Map of Invasive Plants in Portugal. 12672 records, contributed by 547 users. v2.5. CFE - Centre for Functional Ecology, Department of Life Sciences, University of Coimbra. Dataset/Occurrence. http://ipt.gbif.pt/ipt/resource?r=invasoras&amp;v=2.5 doi:10.15468/ic8tid

Abstract

The dataset available through the Sightings Map of Invasive Plants in Portugal results from a Citizen Science platform available at invasoras.pt, which records sightings of invasive plants in Portugal (mainland and Archipelagos of Madeira and Azores). This platform is part 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.
Sightings are made by users who register at the platform and submit them, either directly on the website (http://invasoras.pt/en/sightings-map/) or using an app for Android devices (http://invasoras.pt/en/download-the-app-for-android/); only validated sightings are available on the dataset. Validation is made based on photographs submitted along with the sightings. As with all citizen science projects there is some risk of erroneous records and duplication of sightings.

Keywords: Occurrence, Invasive Plants; Alien Plants, Portugal; Citizen Science, Occurrence, Observation

General description

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.

Project details

Project title: Invasive Plants: a threat from outside
Personnel: Elizabete Marchante
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. From the end of 2013 to November 2015 the platform was maintained through project 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), funded by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT, Portuguese funding agency for science, technology and innovation) and COMPETE. After that, the platform is run on a voluntary base.
Study area descriptions/descriptor: 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 available is part of the project “Plantas Invasoras: uma ameaça vinda de fora” which included also other tasks aiming to raise awareness about invasive plants in Portugal. 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 (http://invasoras.pt/mapa-de-avistamentos/) or using an app for Android (http://invasoras.pt/en/download-the-app-for-android/), submitting sightings 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 project, 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 time frame 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.

Data published through GBIF: http://ipt.gbif.pt/ipt/resource?r=invasoras

Taxonomic coverage

General taxonomic coverage description: All plants were identifyed to the species level
Taxonomic ranks
Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Spermatophyta, Pteridophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida, Liliopsida, Filicopsida
Order: Fabales, Asterales, Geraniales, Proteales, Caryophyllales, Poales, Polemoniales, Sapindales, Rosales, Liliales, Haloragales, Commelinales, Hydrocharitales, Umbellales, Zingiberales, Salviniales
Common names: Plants

Spatial coverage

General spatial coverage: Portugal, including Mainland and the Archipelagos of Azores and Madeira
Coordinates: 29°30'36''N and 42°15'0''N Latitude; 31°16'12''W and 6°4'48''W Longitude 

Temporal coverage: February 22, 2013 - August 31, 2017

Natural collections description

Parent collection identifier: Not applicable
Collection name: Sightings Map of Invasive Plants in Portugal
Collection identifier: e4b00ec9-6c79-46c6-a6ed-818742707395

Methods

Method step description: NA
Study extent description: 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 was made available online.
Sampling description: Registers are occasional, whenever submitted by users.
Quality control description: Dataset is obtained directly from the web application that results from the submitted sightings. Data submitted is from the responsibility of the users registered in the platform. The scientific team of the project 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 infrutescences 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.

Datasets

Dataset description
Object name: Darwin Core Archive Sightings Map of Invasive Plants in Portugal
Character encoding: UTF-8
Format name: Darwin Core Archive format
Format version: 1.0
Distribution: http://ipt.gbif.pt/ipt/archive.do?r=invasoras
Publication date of data: 2017-10-12
Language: Portuguese
Licences of use: Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 License

External datasets

Dataset description
Object name: Sightings Map of Invasive Plants in Portugal
Character encoding: UTF-8
Format name: Google Fusion
Distribution: https://www.google.com/fusiontables/data?docid=1Uox2xXHpWPCGYScwJJUxcLuzKCJwn97DIHSk1HY#map:id=3

Metadata language: English
Date of metadata creation: 2014-10-30
Hierarchy level: Dataset