Meetnetten.be - Transects for fire salamanders in Flanders, Belgium

Study Extent

Salamandra salamandra, the Fire salamander occurs mainly in old oak and beech forests, where the species reproduces in small brooks, pools and puddles.

Sampling

Fire salamanders have to be counted along fixed transects of ca. 1 km. Transect counts are walked between August 15th and November 15th on nights with high humidity, and preferably at temperatures higher than 5°C. Animals are searched for by means of a flashlight (6 m to the left and right of the trail). Each transect must be visited at least twice a year. Sampling was done using the protocol described in De Bruyn et al. (2015), updated by Speybroeck et al. (2020), and explained to volunteers in Lewylle et al. (2017).

Quality Control

Data are collected using a predefined sampling protocol.

Method steps

1. Researchers from INBO and Natuurpunt Studie define and document the appropriate sampling protocol for the target species.
2. Fieldwork is planned and coordinated by Natuurpunt Studie, using https://meetnetten.be.
3. Data are collected in the field by specialized volunteers, using the predefined sampling protocol.
4. Volunteers enter the collected data in https://meetnetten.be.
5. A custom SQL view is created in the meetnetten.be database to map the original data to Darwin Core as an event core with an occurrence extension
6. The Darwin Core views are connected to the INBO IPT and documented with metadata.
7. The dataset is published and registered with GBIF.

The target species for Meetnetten.be are listed at https://meetnetten.be/#group-1. Other salamanders observed during the sampling are also included. This dataset covers the fire salamander protocol, for which there is 1 target species.

1. Animalia
   rank: kingdom
2. Chordata
   rank: phylum
3. Amphibia
   rank: class
4. Caudata
   rank: order
5. Salamandra salamandra
   rank: species

Flanders, Belgium