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Introduction
Biodiversity informatician. Passionate about open data and open science. I develop research software, maintain data standards and publish datasets.
Current institution
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September 2012 - present
September 2008 - July 2012
Publications
Publications (66)
Weather radars detect more than weather, they also continuously register the movements of billions of animals aloft in the lower atmosphere. This makes archived, unfiltered weather radar data a goldmine for biological monitoring purposes, providing coverage of the aerial habitat in a way no other method can. Here we present two datasets of biologic...
Rapid growth in bio-logging-the use of animal-borne electronic tags to document the movements, behaviour, physiology and environments of wildlife-offers opportunities to mitigate biodiversity threats and expand digital natural history archives. Here we present a vision to achieve such benefits by accounting for the heterogeneity inherent to bio-log...
https://www.gbif.org/dataset/2c38cf8a-f981-4dfb-bc9d-dd2b6fc792ed Waarnemingen.be / observations.be - List of species observed in Belgium is a species checklist dataset published by Natuurpunt and Natagora. Waarnemingen.be (in Dutch, managed by Natuurpunt) and observation.be (in French, managed by Natagora) are the two local Belgian subsites of the...
The gcube R package, developed during the B-Cubed hackathon (Hacking Biodiversity Data Cubes for Policy), provides a flexible framework for generating biodiversity data cubes using minimal input. The package assumes three consecutive steps (1) the occurrence process, (2) the detection process, and (3) the grid designation process, accompanied by th...
EuropaBON EBV workflow templates
The information provided here represents the EBV workflow templates collected during the EuropaBON online workshop on Essential Biodiversity
Variable (EBV) workflows from 22–24 February 2023. The templates were designed to capture comprehensive descriptions about the three
workflow components (data collection and s...
The information represents the EBV workflow templates collected during the EuropaBON online workshop on Essential Biodiversity Variable (EBV) workflows from 22–24 February 2023.
The templates were designed to capture comprehensive descriptions about the three workflow components (data collection and sampling, data integration, and modelling) that...
Introduction
Species distribution models (SDMs) are often used to produce risk maps to guide conservation management and decision-making with regard to invasive alien species (IAS). However, gathering and harmonizing the required species occurrence and other spatial data, as well as identifying and coding a robust modeling framework for reproducibl...
Camera trapping has revolutionized wildlife ecology and conservation by providing automated data acquisition, leading to the accumulation of massive amounts of camera trap data worldwide. Although management and processing of camera trap‐derived Big Data are becoming increasingly solvable with the help of scalable cyber‐infrastructures, harmonizati...
Camera trapping has revolutionized wildlife ecology and conservation by enabling automated data acquisition, leading to the accumulation of massive amounts of camera trap data worldwide (Steenweg et al. 2016, Kays et al. 2020, Delisle et al. 2021). Although management and processing of camera trap-derived big data are becoming increasingly solvable...
Effective biodiversity management and policy decisions require timely access to accurate and reliable information on biodiversity status, trends, and threats. However, the process of data cleaning, aggregation, and analysis is often time-consuming, convoluted, laborious, and irreproducible. Biodiversity monitoring across large areas faces challenge...
Camera trapping has revolutionized wildlife ecology and conservation by providing automated data acquisition, leading to the accumulation of massive amounts of camera trap data worldwide. Although management and processing of camera trap-derived Big Data are becoming increasingly solvable with the help of scalable cyber-infrastructures, harmonizati...
https://www.gbif.org/dataset/2c38cf8a-f981-4dfb-bc9d-dd2b6fc792ed
Waarnemingen.be / observations.be - List of species observed in Belgium is a species checklist dataset published by Natuurpunt and Natagora. Waarnemingen.be (in Dutch) and observation.be (in French) are the two local Belgian subsites of the global observation.org website. The checkl...
We describe six datasets that contain GPS and accelerometer data of 202 Eurasian oystercatchers (Haema-topus ostralegus) spanning the period 2008-2021. Birds were equipped with GPS trackers in breeding and wintering areas in the Netherlands and Belgium. We used GPS trackers from the University of Amsterdam A peer-reviewed open-access journal Henk-J...
Invasive alien species represent one of the major threats to biodiversity. Prevention is better than cure, but once invasive species get established, early management interventions are important to prevent further damage to nature and increasing management costs. Managers need to be informed as swiftly as possible when invasive species pop up in th...
Invasive alien species (IAS) are recognised as one of the major threats to biodiversity. The European Union (EU) Regulation 1143/2014 on the prevention of introduction and spread of invasive alien species imposes an obligation on Member States to develop management responses against a list of IAS of Union Concern and requires reporting on those int...
This data paper describes a recent and spatially complete inventory of the terrestrial isopods of Belgium between 2011 and 2020. During these 10 years every 10 × 10 km² cell of the Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) grid in Belgium (373 grid cells) was visited in search for terrestrial isopods. Inventories covered different habitat types in every...
Camera traps (CT) provide an easy and non‐invasive way to study wildlife. It is also possible to estimate densities if accurate protocols are followed in a standardised way and additional parameters are estimated. However, the processing and storage of the thousands of images that a typical CT study generates has become a major challenge for CT use...
Weather radar networks have great potential for continuous and long-term monitoring of aerial biodiversity of birds, bats, and insects. Biological data from weather radars can support ecological research, inform conservation policy development and implementation, and increase the public’s interest in natural phenomena such as migration. Weather rad...
Camera trapping is one of the most important technologies in conservation and ecological research and a well-established, non-invasive method of collecting field data on animal abundance, distribution, behaviour, temporal activity, and space use (Wearn and Glover-Kapfer 2019). Collectively, camera trapping projects are generating a massive and cont...
Species checklists are a crucial source of information for research and policy. Unfortunately , many traditional species checklists vary wildly in their content, format, availability and maintenance. The fact that these are not open, findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable (FAIR) severely hampers fast and efficient information flow to poli...
Species checklists are a crucial source of information for research and policy. Unfortunately, many traditional species checklists vary wildly in their content, format, availability and maintenance. The fact that these are not open, findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable (FAIR) severely hampers fast and efficient information flow to polic...
This report (in Dutch) summarizes results and lessons learnt from the citizen science project Vespawatch in Flanders (North Belgium), a project on monitoring the invasion of Vespa velutina using various citizen science groups.
To support invasive alien species risk assessments, the Tracking Invasive Alien Species (TrIAS) project has developed an automated, open, workflow incorporating state-of-the-art species distribution modelling practices to create risk maps using the open source language R. It is based on Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) data and openl...
The digital era has brought about an impressive increase in the volume of published species occurrence data. Research infrastructures such as the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), the digitization of legacy data, and the use of mobile applications have all played a role in this transition. More data implies, unavoidably, more heterog...
In this data paper three datasets are described containing GPS tracking and acceleration data of Western marsh harriers ( Circus aeruginosus ) breeding in Belgium and the Netherlands. The Western marsh harrier is included as a threatened bird species in Annex I of the European Bird Directive due to the steep decline in population densities. In orde...
In this paper we describe a method of aggregating species occurrence data into what we coined "occurrence cubes". The aggregated data can be perceived as a cube with three dimensions - taxonomic, temporal and geographic - and takes into account the spatial uncertainty of each occurrence. The aggregation level of each of the three dimensions can be...
"Watervogels – Wintering waterbirds in Flanders, Belgium" is a sampling event dataset published by the Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO). It contains more than 94,000 sampling events (site counts), covering over 710,000 species observations (and zero counts when there is no associated occurrence) and 36 million individual birds for th...
Observations reported by citizens are crucial to the ability of scientists to inform policy on biodiversity. This is particularly relevant in the case of preventing and controlling biological invasions; that is, the introduction and spread of species outside their natural ranges as a consequence of human activity. Such invasions of natural ecosyste...
Camera traps placed in the field, photograph warm-bodied animals that pass in front of an infrared sensor. The imagery represents a rich source of data on mammals larger than ~200 grams, providing information at the level of species and communities. Camera-trap surveys generate observations of specific mammals at a certain location and time, includ...
To improve the suitability of the Darwin Core standard for the research and management of alien species, the standard needs to express the native status of organisms, how well established they are and how they came to occupy a location. To facilitate this, we propose:
1. To adopt a controlled vocabulary for the existing Darwin Core term dwc:establi...
Camera traps placed in the field, photograph warm-bodied animals that pass in front of an infrared sensor. The imagery represents a rich source of data on mammals larger than ~200 grams, providing information at the level of species and communities. Camera-trap surveys generate observations of specific mammals at a certain location and time, includ...
Animal-borne sensor data, along with other types of sensor-based observations, provide a growing volume and proportion of documentation about biodiversity. These data differ from the traditional specimen, sampling and human observation records for which the Taxonomic Database Working Group (TDWG) originally designed the Darwin Core standard. The or...
The Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO) is co-managing three biologging networks as part of a terrestrial and freshwater observatory for LifeWatch Belgium. The networks are a GPS tracking network for large birds, an acoustic receiver network for fish, and a camera trap network for mammals. As part of our mission at the Open science lab...
GBIF occurrence dataset: https://www.gbif.org/dataset/71cfd412-6327-4ec7-8035-d8b2d0509ac5
Waarnemingen.be - Hymenoptera occurrences in Flanders and the Brussels Capital Region, Belgium is a species occurrence dataset published by Natuurpunt. The dataset contains over 260,000 bee, wasp and ant (Hymenoptera) occurrences of 1,188 naturally occurring...
Red Lists estimate the extinction risk of species at global or regional levels and areimportant instruments in conservation policies. Global Red List assessments are readilyavailable via the IUCN website (https://www.iucnredlist.org) and are regularly updated by(taxonomic) experts. Regional Red Lists, however, are not always easy to find and oftenu...
Adriaens T., Groom Q., Vanderhoeven S., Davis A., Strubbe D., Reyserhove L., Desmet P., Oldoni D. & D’hondt B. 2018. The importance of citizen science for research, policy and management on invasive alien species. Natuur.focus 17(4): 185-193 [in Dutch]
Flanders is a highly urbanized area in Europe and a global invasion hotspot. The management of in...
Weather surveillance radars are increasingly used for monitoring the movements and abundances of animals in the airspace. But analysis of weather radar data remains a specialised task that can be technically challenging. Major hurdles are the difficulty of accessing and visualising radar data on a software platform familiar to ecologists and biolog...
Nocturnal avian migration flyways remain an elusive concept, as we have largely lacked methods to map their full extent. We used the network of European weather radars to investigate nocturnal bird movements at the scale of the European flyway. We mapped the main migration directions and showed the intensity of movement across part of Europe by ext...
In recent years, there has been several initiatives raising the importance of reliable data for invasive alien species research, policy and management (Groom et al. 2015; Lucy et al. 2016). Some of them are calling for considerable effort to maintain, update, standardize, archive, and aggregate datasets, to ensure proper valorization of data and in...
The Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS) began in 2000 as the repository for data from the Census of Marine Life. Since that time, OBIS has expanded its goals beyond simply hosting data to supporting more aspects of marine conservation (Pooter et al. 2017). In order to accomplish those goals, the OBIS secretariat in partnership with its Eu...
Citizen scientists make important contributions to the collection of occurrence data of non-native species. We present two datasets comprising more than 520,000 records of 1,771 non-native species from Flanders and the Brussels Capital Region in Belgium, Western Europe, collected through the website http://www.waarnemingen.be hosted by Stichting Na...
Reducing the damage caused by invasive species requires a community approach informed by rapidly mobilized data. Even if local stakeholders work together, invasive species do not respect borders, and national, continental and global policies are required. Yet, in general, data on invasive species are slow to be mobilized, often of insufficient qual...
The ability to communicate and assess the quality and fitness for use of data is crucial to ensure maximum utility and re-use. Data consumers have certain requirements for the data they seek and need to be able to check if a data set conforms with these requirements. Data publishers aim to provide data with the highest possible quality and need to...
https://www.gbif.org/dataset/37e094f3-dcf2-469f-93a2-c4b9b5fa7275
Waarnemingen.be - Hemiptera occurrences in Flanders and the Brussels Capital Region, Belgium is a species occurrence dataset published by Natuurpunt. The dataset contains over 59,000 Hemiptera occurrences of 789 naturally occurring species (native, vagrant or migrant species), record...
Invasieve uitheemse soorten staan door hun impact op de biodiversiteit en de beheerkost die ze met zich meebrengen hoog op de natuurbeleidsagenda. Natuurvrijwilligers vormen een belangrijke schakel in het toezicht op uitheemse soorten. Vrijwilligers melden graag nieuw opduikende soorten, maar eens de soorten algemener zijn, zwakt de motivatie vaak...
https://www.gbif.org/dataset/958b1d2f-2d11-4e94-a828-c8e2d2c013ca
Waarnemingen.be - Orthoptera occurrences in Flanders and the Brussels Capital Region, Belgium is a species occurrence dataset published by Natuurpunt. The dataset contains over 90,000 Orthoptera occurrences of 41 naturally occurring species (native, vagrant or migrant species), reco...
The current paradigm for studies on biodiversity change are single studies, of finite duration, and a single published output. Yet the results of a such a workflow become out-of-date quickly, particularly as the speed of environmental change increases. If new environmental policies are implemented it is important to monitor their effects, which imp...
Invasive species are a global problem for conservation, economics and health. Information on their distribution, spread and impact are essential to inform national and international policy on biodiversity. Furthermore, demand for these data are only likely to increase as recent environmental change results in the widespread reconfiguring of species...
Waarnemingen.be - Plant occurrences in Flanders and the Brussels Capital Region, Belgium is a species occurrence dataset published by Natuurpunt. The dataset contains almost 1.2 million plant occurrences of 1,222 native vascular plant species, mostly recorded by volunteers (citizen scientists), mainly since 2008. The occurrences are derived from th...
Science-based strategies to tackle biological invasions depend on recent, accurate, well-documented, standardized and openly accessible information on alien species. Currently and historically, biodiversity data are scattered in numerous disconnected data silos that lack interoperability. The situation is no different for alien species data, and th...
Imagine a future where dynamically, from year to year, we can track the progression of alien species (AS), identify emerging problem species, assess their current and future risk and timely inform policy in a seamless data-driven workflow. One that is built on open science and open data infrastructures. By using international biodiversity standards...
The dataset provides a shapefile on the baseline distribution of the invasive species of EU concern in Belgium based on an aggregated dataset (ias_belgium_t0_2016). Data were compiled from various datasets holding invasive species observations such as data from research institutes and research projects (76%), citizen science observatories (23%) and...
Globally, billions of flying animals undergo seasonal migrations, many of which occur at night. The temporal and spatial scales at which migrations occur and our inability to directly observe these nocturnal movements makes monitoring and characterizing this critical period in migratory animals’ life cycles difficult. Remote sensing, therefore, has...
An animated gif of nocturnal migration in Europe using the bird migration flow visualization.
The animation represents 12 hours from 2013-04-06 19:00 UTC to 2013-04-07 07:00 UTC.
(GIF)
In this data paper, we describe two datasets derived from two sources, which collectively represent the most complete overview of butterflies in Flanders and the Brussels Capital Region (northern Belgium). The first dataset (further referred to as the INBO dataset – http://doi.org/10.15468/njgbmh) contains 761,660 records of 70 species and is compi...
A database on the distribution of butterflies (Lepidoptera) in northern Belgium (Flanders and the Brussels Capital Region)
In this data paper, Bird tracking - GPS tracking of Lesser Black-backed Gulls and Herring Gulls breeding at
the southern North Sea coast is described, a species occurrence dataset published by the Research Institute
for Nature and Forest (INBO). The dataset (version 5.5) contains close to 2.5 million occurrences, recorded
by 101 GPS trackers mounte...
Billions of insects, birds and bats use the aerosphere for migration, dispersive movements or foraging. This enormous movement of biomass plays a key role in ecological connectivity, yet monitoring aerial movements is technically very challenging. Individual tracking devices have been increasingly used over the last decade but these are currently o...
Rapidly changing environmental conditions and the increasing establishment of invasive alien species present many challenges for policy makers, managers and researchers. The traditional policies for data management, or lack thereof, are obstructing an adequate response to invasive alien species, which requires accurate and up-to-date information. T...
The Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO) has been performing standardized fish stock assessments in Flanders, Belgium. This Flemish Fish Monitoring Network aims to assess fish populations in public waters at regular time intervals in both inland waters and estuaries. This monitoring was set up in support of the Water Framework Directive,...
The planet is experiencing an ongoing global biodiversity crisis. Measuring the magnitude and rate of change more effectively requires access to organized, easily discoverable, and digitally-formatted biodiversity data, both legacy and new, from across the globe. Assembling this coherent digital representation of biodiversity requires the integrati...
LifeWatch INBO: building a terrestrial and freshwater observatory in Flanders, Belgium
The Database of Vascular Plants of Canada or VASCAN (http://data.canadensys.net/vascan) is a comprehensive and curated checklist of all vascular plants reported in Canada, Greenland (Denmark), and Saint Pierre and Miquelon (France). VASCAN was developed at the Université de Montréal Biodiversity Centre and is maintained by a group of editors and co...
