Occurrences of Protected Species of Plants and Fungi in the Koygorodskiy National Park (Komi Republic, Russia)

Study Extent

The dataset contains the occurrences of the fungi and plant species, included in the Red Data Book of the Komi Republic [Degteva 2019] and collected within the boundaries of the National Park Koygorodskiy. When classifying the rarity of a species, we used the criteria and categories of status adopted in the Red Data Book of the Russian Federation [Bardunov and Novikov 2008].

Sampling

Field studies were carried out mainly by the route method. The data were recorded in field journals together with geobotanical descriptions. For each occurrence, geographical coordinates were recorded using GPS receiver (WGS 84), the number of plants, the area of distribution were estimated, and a brief description of phytocenotic parameters were fixed. All findings of rare species of plants and fungi were confirmed by preserved specimens, some of them are already stored in the Herbarium (SYKO) of the Institute of Biology of Federal Research Centre Komi Science Centre of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. All plants and fungi species, included in the dataset are classed as high sensitivity species via categories of sensitivity provided by A.D. Chapman and O. Grafton [Chapman & Grafton 2008]. For rare species, it is recommended to generalize the original GPS coordinates of the finds in order to protect localities from destruction. In our case, all species are located in a specially protected natural area and are under protection. They are not in danger of unauthorized collection. Therefore, we decided to fill this dataset with original GPS coordinates, without generalization.

Quality Control

Data has been collected, and species identification was made or checked by specialists on the corresponding taxa from the Institute of Biology of Federal Research Centre Komi Science Centre of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The identification of 28 occurrences (8 % of the dataset) of 11 species (34 % of the species included in the dataset) was supported by preserved specimens. The taxa names were normalized with help of the GBIF species matching tool (https://www.gbif.org/tools/species-lookup). The dataset was checked for errors and cleaned by methods described by R. Mesibov in A Data Cleaner's Cookbook [Mesibov 2021].

Method steps

1. The data of recent field studies of the authors of this document conducted on the National Park Koygorodskiy territory were summarized on the MS Excel sheet.
2. The authors prepared occurrence data (separate datasets for the taxonomic groups for which they were responsible) of rare species, not previously published in GBIF, with a common xlsx-template based on the occurrence template recommended by the GBIF (https://www.gbif.org/ru/news/82852/new-darwin-core-spreadsheet-templates-simplify-data-preparation-and-publishing). Authors were allowed to add Darwin Core terms as additional fields in their xlsx-files.
3. The occurrence datasets prepared by the specialists were merged into a single dataset. The “taxonID” field was filled with values from the corresponding field from the checklist dataset "Red Data Book of the Komi Republic" (http://ib.komisc.ru:8088/ipt/resource?r=redbook_komi_2019_checklist). All additional fields used by the authors were included in the merged dataset. The values in the fields “decimalLongitude” and “decimalLatitute” were filled with original GPS coordinates and the “coordinateUncertaintyInMeters” field was set to a single value of 30 meters (means standard error of the GPS receiver). The field “taxonRemarks” was used to indicate the rarity status of each taxon. Each record in the occurrence dataset also included a URL leading to the corresponding species’ description and images at the Red Data Book of the Komi Republic web page.

The dataset includes information on occurrences of 32 plant and fungi taxa, listed in the third edition of the Red Data Book of the Komi Republic [Degteva 2019] and found on the territory of the Koygorodskiy National Park during our research in 2021, including 21 fungi species (9 fungi and 12 lichens) and 11 plant taxa (4 bryophytes and 7 vascular plants). The “taxonID” field was filled with values from the corresponding field from the checklist of the species included in third edition of Red Data Book of the Komi Republic dataset (http://ib.komisc.ru:8088/ipt/resource?r=redbook_komi_2019_checklist). The volume and names of families, genera and species of fungi and lichens are given according to the Index Fungorum database (http://www.indexfungorum.org, acc.date – 06.12.2021). The volume and names of families, genera and species of mosses are given according to the annotated checklist of bryophytes of Europe, Macaronesia and Cyprus (An annotated checklist of bryophytes of Europe, Macaronesia and Cyprus N. G. Hodgetts, L. Söderström, T. L. Blockeel, S. Caspari, M. S. Ignatov, N. A. Konstantinova, N. Lockhart, B. Papp, C. Schröck, M. Sim-Sim, D. Bell, N. E. Bell, H. H. Blom, M. A. Bruggeman-Nannenga, M. Brugués, J. Enroth, K. I. Flatberg, R. Garilleti, L. Hedenäs, D. T. Holyoak, V. Hugonnot, I. Kari-yawasam, H. Köckinger, J. Kučera, F. Lara, R. D. Porley // Journal of Bryology. 2020. Vol. 42, N 1. P. 1–116. – DOI:10.1080/03736687.2019.1694329). The vascular plants species names were given according to “The Plant list” (http://www.theplantlist.org).

1. Fungi
   rank: kingdom
2. Plantae
   rank: kingdom
3. Ascomycota
   rank: phylum
4. Marchantiophyta
   rank: phylum
5. Bryophyta
   rank: phylum
6. Tracheophyta
   rank: phylum
7. Basidiomycota
   rank: phylum

The Koygorodskiy National Park was approved by the Decree № 1607 of the Government of the Russian Federation dated 07.12.2019. The area of the park is 56.7 thousand hectares. The forests of the National Park, located in the southern part of the Komi Republic, on the territory of the Koygorodskiy and Priluzskiy districts, and adjacent to the borders of the State Reserve "Nurgush", located in the north of the Kirov region, are recognized as the largest unaffected by human activity array of pristine forests within ecotone of the southern and middle taiga subzones in European Russia. The territory of the National Park has severe and continental climate with frequent invasion of arctic air masses from the Arctic Ocean. It is in the Atlantic-Arctic climatic zone with moderate cold (boreal) weather with long winter and short and cool summer seasons. The average annual temperature ranges from 0–1 °С. Annual precipitation is not higher than 600 mm [Taskaev 1997]. Most of the territory of the National Park Koygorodskiy is covered by taiga communities, mainly spruce forests dominated by Picea obovata Ledeb. In addition, pine forests (Pinus sylvestris L.) are enough widespread among the forests, mainly on sandy terraces along riverbanks and peat soils on the edges of raised bogs. Old-growth aspen and mixed birch-spruce forests are common in large part of the National Park territory.