Alien Flora of Nepal at KATH

KATH (National Herbarium and Plant Laboratories)1, Sajita Dhakal2

1 KATH (National Herbarium and Plant Laboratories), Godawari, Lalitpur; 2 National Herbarium and Plant Laboratories, DPR, Godawari, Lalitpur

Corresponding author(s): KATH (National Herbarium and Plant Laboratories) (dhakalsajita0@gmail.com)

Received {date}; Revised {date}; Accepted {date}; Published {date}

Citation: Combination of authors, year of data paper publication (in parentheses), Title, Journal Name, Volume, Issue number (in parentheses), and doi of the data paper.

Resource Citation

KATH (National Herbarium and Plant Laboratories) (2020): Alien Flora of Nepal at KATH. v1.2. Department of Plant Resources, MoFE, Government of Nepal. Dataset/Occurrence. http://rds.icimod.org:8080/hkh-bif/resource?r=alien_flora_of_nepal_kath&amp;v=1.2

Abstract

The database contains occurrence records of the alien plants of Nepal based on the herbarium specimens that have been deposited at the National Herbarium and Plant Laboratories (KATH) of the Department of Plant Resources, Ministry of Forest and Environment, Kathmandu, Nepal. The species included are invasive as well as non-invasive naturalized species. It has records of 133 alien species included in 3513 herbarium records. 

The digitization and publication process of this database was supported by Biodiversity Information Fund for Asia (BIFA; project no. BIFA3_025) program of Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) funded by Ministry of Environment, Government of Japan.

Keywords: Occurrence, Specimen

General description

Purpose: The database has been developed and published to fill geographic gap of the freely available occurrence data of plants and inform policy process for the conservation of biodiversity. Specifically, the database helps to meet Nepal’s commitment to make biodiversity data available as a part of Global Strategy for Plant Conservation 2011-2020 of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

Project details

Project title: Mobilizing occurrence data of alien and endemic plant species of Nepal
Personnel: Mohan Siwakoti, Sanjeev Kumar Rai, Bharat Shrestha, Suresh Kumar Ghimire, Kalpana Sharma Dhakal, Sajita Dhakal, Subash Khatri
Funding: The main funding for this project (BIFA3_025) came from the Biodiversity Information Fund for Asia (BIFA) program of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) which was funded by Ministry of Environment, Government of Japan. Co-funding came from the Central Department of Botany (Tribhuvan University), Department of Plant Resources, and Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (UK).
Study area descriptions/descriptor: This work covered the entire area of Nepal which lies between India and China in Asia. The country has been divided into three ecological regions: western (west of 83 degree east longitude), central (between 83 and 86.5 degree east longitude) and eastern (east of 86.5 degree east longitude). Politically, the country has been also divided into 77 districts (previously 75 districts). During this project, we digitized herbarium specimens of the flowering plants (limited to alien and endemic plants) collected since 1925 AD.
Design description: The aim of the project was to digitize and publish occurrence data of the alien and endemic plants of Nepal based on the herbarium specimens. The project started with the preparation and validation of the checklist of the alien and endemic plant species of Nepal. We finalized the checklist of 179 alien species and 313 species of endemic species. Herbarium specimens of these species that have been deposited at Tribhuvan University Central Herbarium (TUCH) and National Herbarium and Plant Laboratories (KATH) were sorted out and identification confirmed with the help of taxonomic experts. In each herbarium specimen, barcode and institutional stamp were put. In addition, color chart and scale were put at the time of the photography of the specimens. We used camera at TUCH and scanner at KATH for capturing image of the specimens. Information associated with each specimen were entered in database using MS excel and formatted according to the Darwin Core Standard.

Data published through GBIF: http://rds.icimod.org:8080/hkh-bif/resource?r=alien_flora_of_nepal_kath

Taxonomic coverage

General taxonomic coverage description: Flowering plants that are naturalized in Nepal
Taxonomic ranks
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Common names: Flowering plants

Spatial coverage

General spatial coverage: A country in Asia located between India and China
Coordinates: 25°31'22.8''N and 31°4'19.2''N Latitude; 79°20'34.8''E and 89°38'52.8''E Longitude 

Temporal coverage: March 6, 1926 - June 14, 2018

Methods

Method step description: Using the checklist of the alien flowering plants of Nepal (179 species), herbarium specimens deposited at National Herbarium and Plant Laboratories (KATH) were checked and sorted out. Identification of the specimens were checked and verified by taxonomic experts. All the herbarium specimens of the alien plant species were photographed and related information were captured. In situation when geographic coordinates (latitude and longitude) were absent in the original records, geo-referencing was done but this was limited to only those specimens which has sufficiently detail description of the collection localities. We also used information available in the website of the Flora of Nepal (http://www.floraofnepal.org/data/localities) for geo-referencing some locations. The geographic coordinates obtained from the geo-referencing were presented up to two digit after decimal point.  

Data were captured by research assistants. The raw data were checked for uniformity of the format and accepted scientific names including author citation. Entire data was managed in Darwin Core Standard format in the template that was available online in GBIF. OccurrenceID was designed by combining institution code (i.e. KATH), district code (two letters for each district; for example KT for Kathmandu district) and bar code number with colon in between them. We considered 75 districts in Nepal (In current system the number of districts is 77 but all the herbarium collections mentioned district according to 75 district system). In situation when district was not known and geographic coordinates were absent, we used ‘NP’ (which stands for ‘Nepal’) instead of district code in the OccurrenceID. We mentioned ecological regions (eastern Nepal, central Nepal and western Nepal) under the heading of ‘stateProvince’ and district name under ‘county’ in the DwC format.

Before starting publication, the database was validated and inconsistencies identified during validation were fixed by checking raw data and original specimens. When data was ready, we communicated with data hosting institution which has installed Integrated Publishing Toolkit (IPT). Earlier to this, we registered the organization as data published in GBIF.
Study extent description: The database includes the occurrence records of the alien (invasive as well as non-invasive naturalized species) plants of Nepal based on the herbarium specimens that have been deposited at National Herbarium and Plant Laboratories (KATH), Godawari, Lalitpur, Nepal. The specimens were collected from different part of Nepal by Nepalese and foreign researchers.
Sampling description: Using the checklist of alien flowering plants of Nepal (179 species), herbarium specimens deposited at National Herbarium and Plant Laboratories (KATH) were checked and sorted out. Identification of the specimens were checked and verified by taxonomic experts. All the herbarium specimens of the alien plant species were photographed and related information were captured.
Quality control description: Identification of plants were confirmed by taxonomic experts of the project team. In situation when geographic coordinates (latitude and longitude) were absent in the original records, geo-referencing was done but this was limited to only those specimens which has sufficiently detail description of the collection localities. We also used information available in the website of the Flora of Nepal (http://www.floraofnepal.org/data/localities) for geo-referencing some locations. The geographic coordinates obtained from the geo-referencing were presented up to two digit after decimal point. Entire data were managed in Darwin Core Standard format.

Datasets

Dataset description
Object name: Darwin Core Archive Alien Flora of Nepal at KATH
Character encoding: UTF-8
Format name: Darwin Core Archive format
Format version: 1.0
Distribution: http://rds.icimod.org:8080/hkh-bif/archive.do?r=alien_flora_of_nepal_kath
Publication date of data: 2020-09-23
Language: English
Licences of use: Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC) 4.0 License

Metadata language: English
Date of metadata creation: 2019-07-30
Hierarchy level: Dataset