Meetnetten.be - Fyke counts for Amphibia in Flanders, Belgium

Study Extent

Triturus cristatus, or the great crested newt, is our largest native newt. It is widespread in Flanders, especially in wide river valleys and in locations with (many) old bomb pits. Although the crested newt appears to react positively to the construction of new pools near existing populations in nature reserves, it seems to be declining in the outlying area. This species prefers fish-free pools with sun-drenched banks and rich underwater vegetation located in a varied terrestrial habitat. These include cattle drinking pools in meadows with many small landscape elements, large (spring) pools in more wooded habitats, cut-off rivers, but also old quarries.

Sampling

The inventories are made by means of two sessions (at least two traps). Catching the adults takes place between mid-March and the end of May. In this period two trap catches are made. Two traps are placed on the eve of the visit and are emptied the following day. 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 Caudata 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 amphibian fyke protocol, for which there is 1 target species.

1. Animalia
   rank: kingdom
2. Chordata
   rank: phylum
3. Caudata
   rank: order
4. Triturus cristatus
   common name: great crested newt rank: species

Flanders, Belgium