Sightings Map of Invasive Plants in Portugal

Hélia Marchante1, Maria Cristina Morais2, Elizabete Marchante3, Maria Cristina Morais4, Users registered at invasoras.pt5, Hélia Marchante6, Elizabete Marchante7

1 CFE - Centre for Functional Ecology, Coimbra College of Agriculture of the Polytechnic Institute of Coimbra, Bencanta, 3040-316, Coimbra, Portugal; 2 Universidade de Trás os Montes e Alto Douro, , Portugal; 3 CFE - Centre for Functional Ecology, Department of Life Sciences, University of Coimbra, Calçada Martim de Freitas, 3000-456, Coimbra, Portugal; 4 CITAB - Centre for the Research and Technology of Agro-Environmental and Biological Sciences, Universidade de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Quinta de Prados., 5001-801, Vila Real, Portugal; 5 Unkown, , Portugal; 6 Escola Superior Agrária, Instituto Politécnico de Coimbra, Bencanta, Coimbra, Portugal; 7 Centre for Functional Ecology,University of Coimbra, Calçada Martim de Freitas, 3000-456, Coimbra, Portugal

Corresponding author(s): Hélia Marchante (hmarchante@gmail.com)Maria Cristina Morais, 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

Marchante H, Morais M C (2020): Sightings Map of Invasive Plants in Portugal. v2.9. CFE - Centre for Functional Ecology, Department of Life Sciences, University of Coimbra. Dataset/Occurrence. doi:10.15468/ic8tid doi:10.15468/ic8tid

Abstract

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.

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

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. 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 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 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.

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 - April 30, 2019

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 INVASORAS.PT 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; 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.

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: 2020-12-28
Language: Portuguese
Licences of use: Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 License

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

References
Marchante H, Morais C, Marchante E (2019). Mapa de avistamentos de plantas invasoras em Portugal. Versão 2.9. CFE - Centro de Ecologia Funcional, Departamento de Ciências da Vida, Universidade de Coimbra & Escola Superior Agrária do Instituto Politécnico de Coimbra. Conjunto de dados de ocorrência doi:10.15468/ic8tid acessado por GBIF.org em 22/03/2020. doi:10.15468/ic8tid