RAINBIO: A mega-database of tropical African vascular plants distributions


Abstract:

The tropical vegetation of Africa is characterized by high levels of species diversity but is undergoing important shifts in response to ongoing climate change and increasing anthropogenic pressures. Although our knowledge of plant species distribution patterns in the African tropics has been improving over the years, it remains limited. Here we present RAINBIO, a unique comprehensive mega-database of georeferenced records for vascular plants in continental tropical Africa. The geographic focus of the database is the region south of the Sahel and north of Southern Africa, and the majority of data originate from tropical forest regions. RAINBIO is a compilation of 13 datasets either publicly available or personal ones. Numerous in depth data quality checks, automatic and manual via several African flora experts, were undertaken for georeferencing, standardization of taxonomic names and identification and merging of duplicated records. The resulting RAINBIO data allows exploration and extraction of distribution data for 25,356 native tropical African vascular plant species, which represents ca. 89% of all known plant species in the area of interest. Habit information is also provided for 91% of these species.

Año de publicación:

2016

Keywords:

  • Biodiversity assessment
  • Tropical forests
  • native species
  • Cultivated species
  • Herbarium specimens
  • Taxonomic backbone
  • digitization
  • Georeferencing
  • Habit

Fuente:

scopusscopus

Tipo de documento:

Article

Estado:

Acceso abierto

Áreas de conocimiento:

  • Botánica
  • Taxonomía de plantas
  • Biodiversidad

Áreas temáticas de Dewey:

  • Plantas
  • De obras sobre temas específicos
Procesado con IAProcesado con IA

Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible:

  • ODS 15: Vida de ecosistemas terrestres
  • ODS 13: Acción por el clima
  • ODS 17: Alianzas para lograr los objetivos
Procesado con IAProcesado con IA