Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species - Hawaii, United States

Study Extent

Temporal: data collection began in 2012 and is ongoing. Publication has been annual since 2018.

Sampling

occurrenceID - Required; from Darwin Core; an identifier for the Organism instance (at the record level); a controlled vocabulary that is manually generated using an ordinal number that is not repeated, prefixed by the umbrella dataset's abbreviated name (USRIIS), the record's locality (HI), and the record's kingdom; since the content of this field is not auto-generated, it is subject to human error.

Quality Control

Incoming data is error checked. Scientific names are validated against the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS), then the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), and other taxonomic authorities when necessary. Other data fields are assumed correct. The validity of the assertion of non-native status itself may subsequently be questioned and the entry deleted or moved to a watch list if: the scientific name is not in ITIS and not reaffirmed by other authoritative taxonomic sources; other authoritative sources state the species is not present or is native or cryptic; irreconcilable typographical errors in scientific names are found; entries are found to be duplicate or synonomous taxonomic names; nominate subspecies names are removed if they are the only subspecies in the list and the parent binomial is already in the regional list.

Method steps

1. Tools used are described in the following steps:
2. Microsoft Word to assist in formatting data.
3. Microsoft Excel to hold the data and sort and display it.
4. Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) to validate taxonomic names.
5. Global Biodiversity Information Facility to validate taxonomic names not found in ITIS.
6. Microsoft OneDrive to store the data.
7. Adobe Pro to extract text from image-based pdfs.
8. Atlassian Jira to track update and review tasks.
9. Sublime Text to assist with text formatting and metadata eml generation.
10. Various browsers (MS Edge, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari), species databases, and search engines, to discover authoritative introduced species lists for AK, HI, and L48.
11. PROVENANCE: Our team tracks the provenance of the dataset as any modifications, transformations, edits, or decisions to accept or reject data points are made. Provenance is essential to the dataset, which consists entirely of assertions of the presence and non-native status of a species in an area.
12. This tracking involves the inclusion of an authority or data source with each assertion that a species is introduced and established in a given area. The actual authorities' lists and manuscripts themselves are also saved digitally as written proof of the individual assertions and to justify, as necessary, each species' inclusion in the list.
13. To assist with tracking the evolution of a data record, there are "Acquisition Date" and "modified" fields (which are not auto-generated and so subject to human error). The "modified" field is a Darwin Core term for the date of the last modification of the record (YYYY-MM-DD), and the cumulative modifications to the record are described in the "Update Remarks" field, separated within the field by commas (for modifications made on the same date) and semicolons (separating modifications made on different dates).
14. The dataset and the reference authorities are maintained in Microsoft OneDrive. The list is worked on in MS Excel and the file's history can be used to 'roll back' to previous versions, if necessary. A versionHistory.txt file published online along with the data describes major changes and differences in each published version of the list. Past versions of the precursor (NNSL V3.0) to this dataset's umbrella dataset are maintained and made available as part of the deprecated .zip files at: https://doi.org/10.5066/P9E5K160.
15. ANALYZE CRITERIA: Assertions of introduced and established status for a species are accepted if the authority is a trusted source, such as a governmental or government-affiliated, non-governmental organization, international biodiversity organization, academic institution, or a taxonomic expert. If a list is found on the Web and judged as authoritative, it is downloaded for future reference. Authorities, in addition to being cited within each record, are accumulated in an AuthorityReferences spreadsheet. These criteria are part of our documentation. When there is disagreement among experts about establishment, taxonomy, native status, and approximate dates of introduction a wider search of available information is used to determine the best resolution. Cryptic species (of unknown origin) are not included in the GRIIS-HI. Taxa with conflicting status or taxonomy among different sources, that cannot be reconciled through further research, are moved to an informal watch list (available upon request).

All taxa are included (except Bacteria, which have not been documented in Hawaii), from Kingdoms Animalia, Chromista, Fungi, Plantae, Protozoa, and Virus. In the umbrella dataset, there are 12,981 unique scientific names, mostly taxon rank species, but also subspecies, variety, form, and hybrid. There are 6,075 names in the Hawaii (GRIIS-HI) dataset. Two Classes comprise 80% of the GRIIS-HI: 51% Insecta (insects) and 29% Magnoliopsida (dicotyledenous plants).

1. Animalia
   common name: Animals rank: Kingdom
2. Chromista
   common name: Chromists rank: Kingdom
3. Fungi
   common name: Mushrooms rank: Kingdom
4. Plantae
   common name: Plants rank: Kingdom
5. Protozoa
   common name: Protists rank: Kingdom
6. Virus
   common name: Viruses rank: Kingdom
7. Magnoliopsida
   common name: Dicots rank: Class
8. Insecta
   common name: Insects rank: Class

The State of Hawaii, United States of America