As part of the SPRING project, different sampling events were carried out in three locations in Flanders, Belgium during 2023.
These events aimed to both sample wild bees and hoverflies, and to evaluate different monitoring techniques (transect walks & pan traps).
This dataset was used in the writing of an article, when this is published a link will be provided here.
","language":"eng","homepage":"https://www.vlaanderen.be/inbo/projecten/spring-strengthening-pollinator-recovery-through-indicators-and-monitoring","citation":{"text":"Maebe K, Van de Meutter F, Pollet M, Eves Down M (2025). SPRING Pollinator monitoring in Flanders, 2023. Version 1.1. Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO). Occurrence dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/qj4wzs accessed via GBIF.org on 2026-10-12.","citationProvidedBySource":false},"contactsCitation":[{"key":6435979,"abbreviatedName":"Maebe K","firstName":"Kevin","lastName":"Maebe","roles":["ORIGINATOR","METADATA_AUTHOR"],"userId":["https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5900-8109"]},{"key":6435980,"abbreviatedName":"Van de Meutter F","firstName":"Frank","lastName":"Van de Meutter","roles":["ORIGINATOR"],"userId":["https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9850-1860"]},{"key":6435981,"abbreviatedName":"Pollet M","firstName":"Marc","lastName":"Pollet","roles":["ORIGINATOR"],"userId":["https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5198-5928"]},{"key":6435983,"abbreviatedName":"Eves Down M","firstName":"Maria-Rose","lastName":"Eves 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many of the wild bees, hoverflies, butterflies and moths have been identified to species level as possible. \nAll other insects have been identified to at least order or (super)family level.","coverages":[{"scientificName":"Diptera","rank":{"verbatim":"order","interpreted":"ORDER"}},{"scientificName":"Hymenoptera","rank":{"verbatim":"order","interpreted":"ORDER"}},{"scientificName":"Mecoptera","rank":{"verbatim":"order","interpreted":"ORDER"}},{"scientificName":"Coleoptera","rank":{"verbatim":"order","interpreted":"ORDER"}},{"scientificName":"Hemiptera","rank":{"verbatim":"order","interpreted":"ORDER"}},{"scientificName":"Lepidoptera","rank":{"verbatim":"order","interpreted":"ORDER"}},{"scientificName":"Orthoptera","rank":{"verbatim":"order","interpreted":"ORDER"}}]}],"geographicCoverages":[{"description":"Three locations in Flanders, Belgium - Lemberge-Merelbeke, Haaltert & Ghent","boundingBox":{"minLatitude":-90.0,"maxLatitude":90.0,"minLongitude":-180.0,"maxLongitude":180.0,"globalCoverage":true}}],"temporalCoverages":[{"@type":"range","start":"2023-05-02T00:00:00.000+00:00","end":"2023-09-14T00:00:00.000+00:00"}],"keywordCollections":[{"thesaurus":"GBIF Dataset Type Vocabulary: http://rs.gbif.org/vocabulary/gbif/dataset_type_2015-07-10.xml","keywords":["transect walk","Pollinator","SPRING","Occurrence","Insect","pan trap"]}],"project":{"title":"SPRING","contacts":[{"type":"PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR","primary":false,"userId":["https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5900-8109"],"firstName":"Kevin","lastName":"Maebe","position":[],"email":[],"phone":[],"homepage":[],"address":[]},{"type":"PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR","primary":false,"userId":["https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5198-5928"],"firstName":"Marc","lastName":"Pollet","position":[],"email":[],"phone":[],"homepage":[],"address":[]},{"type":"PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR","primary":false,"userId":["https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9850-1860"],"firstName":"Frank","lastName":"Van de Meutter","position":[],"email":[],"phone":[],"homepage":[],"address":[]},{"type":"PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR","primary":false,"userId":["https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5198-5928"],"firstName":"Marc","lastName":"Pollet","position":[],"email":[],"phone":[],"homepage":[],"address":[]}],"funding":"This work was supported by the Strengthening Pollinator Recovery through INdicators and monitorinG (SPRING) project, funded by the European Union Directorate General for the Environment. SPRING Flanders received financial support from the Flemish Government through the Monitoring Biodiversity in Agricultural areas (MBAG) project.","awards":[],"studyAreaDescription":"For this study, three sites with an area of a selection of wild pollinators (bees, butterflies and hoverflies) were collected from a 1 km 2 area at three sites in the province of East Flanders, Belgium. The specific sampling sites were: the experimental ‘trial’ fields of the Flanders Research Institute for Agriculture,\nFisheries and Food (ILVO) (Lemberge-Merelbeke, ILVO), which serve as a valuable testing environment for experiments and scientific studies within and beyond the agricultural sector, and two nature reserves, Bourgoyen-Ossemeersen (Ghent, BOGE), and Den Dotter (Haaltert, DDHA). \nAll sites are embedded in agricultural landscapes, but differ in the amount of semi-natural elements present, following a rough gradient from largely agricultural (ILVO) to mosaic landscape with extensive semi-natural elements (BOGE – DDHA). The distances between sites were 12.8 km between ILVO and BOGE, 15.5 km between BOGE and DDHA and 28.2 km between ILVO and DDHA.","designDescription":"Please see the associated publication for a description of the study design.","relatedProjects":[],"abstract":"This study evaluates six monitoring techniques for sampling two important pollinator groups, wild bees and hoverflies, as a preparation for the development of a standardised pollinator monitoring scheme in Flanders, northern Belgium (FL-PoMS).\nThe SPRING Minimum Viable Scheme (MVS), part of the EU Pollinator Monitoring Scheme (EU-PoMS), served as a baseline, focusing on transect walks and pan traps, while additional protocols were explored to improve sampling performance. We tested these methods at three sites in Flanders (Belgium), assessing their effectiveness in measuring species richness and abundance, cost efficiency, and ease of use by volunteers."},"samplingDescription":{"studyExtent":"The sampling sites were: the experimental ‘trial’ fields of the Flanders Research Institute for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (ILVO) (Lemberge-Merelbeke, ILVO), which serve as a valuable testing environment for experiments and scientific studies within and beyond the agricultural sector, and two nature reserves, Bourgoyen-Ossemeersen (Ghent, BOGE), and Den Dotter (Haaltert, DDHA). All sites are embedded in agricultural landscapes, but differ in the amount of semi-natural elements present, following a rough gradient from largely agricultural (ILVO) to mosaic landscape with extensive semi-natural elements (BOGE – DDHA).","sampling":"All three sites were part of SPRING Flanders, the Flemish monitoring of wild pollinators as part of the Minimum Viable Scheme (MVS) assessed within the SPRING project. Monitoring events were carried out at each site once a month from May till September 2023.\nThe standard SPRING Flanders protocol or MVS pilot protocol (MVS) was largely based on the standard SPRING protocols, with only a few adjustments. Please see the associated article (link to be added as soon as possible) for a full description of the sampling protocols used.","qualityControl":"Species identifications were validated via an expert (external to the project). \nData was analysed in R (R Core Team, 2023). Prior to analysis, data cleaning procedures were implemented to address missing values and inconsistencies. None of the wild bee or hoverfly records contained missing data, and any inconsistencies were resolved.\n\nThe identifiers of the insects (column 'identifiedBy') are as follows:\nK.M = Kevin Maebe\nM.P = Marc Pollet\nF.VdM = Frank Van de Meutter\nD.M = Dirk Maes\nIn the data, you will see the column 'observation remark'. Here you will see different codes, these detail the type of sampling method used:\n'PT' = Pan trap\n'TS' = Walking transect\n'UV' = Ultraviolet paint treatment\n'Veg' = the sample was collected at the level of the nearby vegetation\n'Soil' = the sample was collected at the soil level\n'Sweep' = Sweeping of vegetation with a net during walking transect.\n'Visual' = Visual detection and individual collection of pollinators during walking transect. \nIn the column 'taxonRemarks', the functional group of the identified insect is given.","methodSteps":["Please see the associated article (link to be added as soon as possible) for a full description of the sampling protocols used and the steps carried out throughout the collection of this dataset."]},"countryCoverage":[],"collections":[{"name":"INBO Collection at the VMM","specimenPreservationMethod":"DRIED","curatorialUnits":[]}],"dataDescriptions":[],"dataLanguage":"eng","purpose":"The SPRING Minimum Viable Scheme, part of the EU Pollinator Monitoring Scheme, served as a baseline, focusing on transect walks and pan traps, while additional protocols were explored to improve sampling performance. We tested these methods at three sites in Flanders, Belgium, assessing their effectiveness in measuring species richness and abundance, cost efficiency, and ease of use by volunteers.","introduction":"This project focused on the monitoring of butterflies, hoverflies and bees using MVS methods proposed by SPRING at three sites in the province of East Flanders. At each of these sites, the MVS-methods were subjected to field testing as part of the methodological obligations defined by the SPRING project. In addition to the standard SPRING monitoring protocols, four additional methods were trialled: UV-reflective pan traps, variation in trap placement height, trap exposure duration, and transect walks with sweep netting. These were selected for their potential to enhance data quality, sampling efficiency, and suitability for volunteer-based monitoring.","gettingStarted":"The specific sampling sites were: the experimental ‘trial’ fields of the Flanders Research Institute for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (ILVO) (Lemberge-Merelbeke, ILVO), which serve as a valuable testing environment for experiments and scientific studies within and beyond the agricultural sector, and two nature reserves, Bourgoyen-Ossemeersen (Ghent, BOGE), and Den Dotter (Haaltert, DDHA). All sites are embedded in agricultural landscapes, but differ in the amount of semi-natural elements present, following a rough gradient from largely agricultural (ILVO) to mosaic landscape with extensive semi-natural elements (BOGE – DDHA). Please see the 'project data' and 'sampling methods' sections for more detailed information.","acknowledgements":"The following people have helped substantially with the sampling efforts, laboratory work and insect identification: Wouter Van Gompel, Dimitri Brosens, Bart Demunck, Tanja Milotic, Kristine Vander Mijnsbrugge, Sara Reverte Raiz, Luc Vanhercke, Lien Reysenhove, Sander De Beer, Nuria Simoens, Axel Neukermans, Kato Vanhaverbeke, Dirk Maes, Filip Berlengée, Merlijn Jocqué, Kurt Schamp, Jan Vanden Houten.
Thank you all!
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