Biodiversity Data Journal :
Data Paper (Biosciences)
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Corresponding author: Olivier Gargominy (gargo@mnhn.fr), Marie-France Leccia (marie-france.leccia@mercantour-parcnational.fr)
Academic editor: Vishwas Chavan
Received: 27 Apr 2022 | Accepted: 09 Aug 2022 | Published: 21 Dec 2022
© 2022 Jean Ichter, Olivier Gargominy, Marie-France Leccia, Solène Robert, Laurent Poncet
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation:
Ichter J, Gargominy O, Leccia M-F, Robert S, Poncet L (2022) The first large-scale All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory in Europe: description of the Mercantour National Park ATBI datasets. Biodiversity Data Journal 10: e85901. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.10.e85901
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An All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory (ATBI) is a comprehensive inventory of all species in a given territory. In 2007, the French Parc national du Mercantour and the Italian Parco Naturale Alpi Marittime started the first and most ambitious ATBI in Europe with more than 350 specialists and dozens of technicians and data managers involved.
The ATBI datasets from the Parc national du Mercantour in France are now publicly available. Between 2007 and 2020, 247,674 occurrences were recorded, checked and published in the INPN information system. All this information is available in open access in the GBIF web site. With 12,640 species registered, the ATBI is the most important inventory in France. This data paper provides an overview of main results and its contribution to the French National Inventory of Natural Heritage. It includes a list of 52 taxa new to science and 53 species new to France, discovered thanks to the ATBI.
Alps, biodiversity, chorology, conservation, ecology, France, hotspot, Italy, survey, taxonomy
The question of how many species belong to a given territory has always been an excellent driver for field biology studies and the starting point of many scientific findings (
Originally developed by the American ecologist, Daniel Janzen, for a project in Costa Rica, the concept of All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory (ATBI) is an approach for completing a comprehensive survey of the plants and animals living in a natural (or semi-natural) area, including data on their environment (e.g. habitat, ecological niche), their abundance, behaviour and the genetic diversity (
These datasets are now available in open access in both national (https://openobs.mnhn.fr) and global (www.gbif.org) biodiversity facilities. The objective of this data paper is to provide an updated description of the datasets produced in the framework of the ATBI in the Mercantour National Park, an overview of main results and its contribution to the French National Inventory of Natural Heritage (https://inpn.mnhn.fr).
An All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory (ATBI) is a comprehensive inventory of all species occurring in a given territory. Its objective is to improve knowledge on taxonomy and chorology and to better understand ecological communities and their interactions within ecosystems (
The ATBI Mercantour/Alpi Marittime project started with the creation of the European Distributed Institute of Taxonomy (EDIT) in 2006. EDIT was a network of excellence of 28 institutions whose main objective was to reduce the fragmentation in European taxonomy. With the support of the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle (MNHN) in Paris, the Parc national du Mercantour and the Parco Naturale Alpi Marittime applied to host a pilot project called 'All taxa biodiversity inventory + monitoring' (ATBI+M) as the first of a series in Europe.
Thanks to their high potential for biodiversity, logistical opportunities and successful previous scientific partnerships (
In 2009, when the EDIT work package ended, the two natural parks in collaboration with the MNHN in Paris and the Museo Regionale di Scienze Naturali in Turin (MRSN) proposed to continue the project, not only in pilot sites, but to their entire territories and with increased outputs in terms of management and decision-making. A three-year project called Inventaire Biologique Generalisé / Inventario Biologico Generalizzato (Generalised Biological Inventory) was accepted as an Integrated Transboundary Action Plan in the framework of the ALCOTRA 2007-2013 programme. Both park administrations were responsible for the fieldwork coordination and the MNHN was tasked with data management through a web-based application (https://cardobs.mnhn.fr/).
Inventories continued after the end of the EU funded programmes (EDIT and ALCOTRA). Scientists and naturalists are still conducting fieldwork and investigations on lesser-known species. The park authorities provided authorisations and conventions in exchange for the transmission of the data. The Mercantour National Park also initiated several projects that are a direct continuity of the ATBI: Explor'Nature (bioblitz), Programme Abeilles Sauvages (Wild Wasps), Myriapods inventory and ABC (Communal Atlas of Biodiversity). A new transboundary Alpine ATBI, funded by PITEM Biodiv'ALP, started in 2019 and is further proof of the persistence of this dynamic (see https://www.interreg-alcotra.eu). The authors consider the ATBI Mercantour/Alpi Marittime as an on-going collective process and follow the
More than 350 individual specialists contributed to the ATBI. Additionally, dozens of park rangers actively helped with preparation, fieldwork or conducting inventories. Two project managers were recruited to coordinate the programme in each park. In the Mercantour, two seasonal field technicians were hired from 2009 to 2012 as support for fieldwork and to collate historical data. After the fieldwork, many students, volunteers and laboratory technicians were tasked with sorting a large amount of material especially for the continuous sampling techniques (e.g. entomological traps). Although resources were specifically dedicated to material sorting and data management, part of the information was not yet available due to insufficient resources: time, finance and available experts (
The Mercantour National Park is part of the Mercantour- Argentea mountain range in the Southern Alps (Fig.
During the first two years of the project (2007-2009), the sampling strategy coordinated by EDIT was to concentrate the effort on an intensive survey of 17 pilot sites. In 2009, a transboundary Steering Committee was created and composed of around 10 people including Parks' staff, taxonomists, ecologists, a hydrobiologist and a biomathematician. The sampling effort was extended to the whole area of the two parks, to increase the diversity of habitat and the potential use in terms of management and monitoring. By increasing the area sampled, species richness and representativity also increased. However, as a result, not all areas could not be monitored as exhaustively as originally planned.
In terms of organisation, participants could work independently or within a coordinated thematic group. Independent specialists could decide the dates and the sites to visit. They were given permission by the park authorities to sample and could apply to have their fees reimbursed. In exchange, they agreed to liaise with park authorities to announce their visits, share information on their sampling methods, provide a report with the results of their research and deliver a specimen of each species collected. Due to the great number of taxonomists (350+), countries and institutions involved, the majority of field days were organised this way.
As the inventory progressed, the steering committee preferred the groups thematic system as used in the Smoky Mountains ATBI. They were built around different sampling strategies: 1) taxonomical targets (e.g. lichens, bryophytes, tracheophytes); 2) biological groups with similar sampling strategies (e.g. terrestrial invertebrates); or 3) types of ecosystems (e.g. superficial aquatic habitats, biospeology).
These two approaches (by groups and/or independent) proved to be complementary. During the project, the collaboration between taxonomists and the park's scientific services significantly improved. This had positive effects at various levels including improvements of the sampling strategy, better communication with the stakeholders, involvement from local taxonomists and data flow management (
To complement the taxonomy, molecular analyses were added to the sampling strategy. Barcoding is a standardised method that attributes to each species a unique DNA sequence. The studies were conducted by the Molecular Systematic Service of the MNHN and Centre de Biologie pour la Gestion des Populations (Cirad-Ensa-Inra-IRD). The results are published in the sequence database, Barcode of Life Data Systems (Ratnasingham and Hebert 2007) and not presented in this data paper. So far, more than 2,000 gene sequences have been published corresponding to 344 taxa.
The ATBI Mercantour/Alpi Marittime was funded via EDIT by the European Commission as part of the sixth framework programme (FP6) between 2006 and 2011. Funds were also provided by France's Ministry of Ecology, the Albert II of Monaco Foundation, the Monegasque Government and the European Regional Development Fund - Alcotra 2007-2013 programme.
Since 2013, the Mercantour National park is continuing the ATBI through different projects and funding sources: Explor'nature bioblitz (Barcelonnette 2017, Sospel 2018, Guillaumes 2019), Wild bees and Myriapods inventories (both funded by the Albert II of Monaco Foundation and the Monegasque Government, 2017-2019 and 2019-2021) and Atlas of biodiversity in the Municipalities (ABC).
Since 2019, a new EU funded ATBI of seven alpine protected areas has been ongoing for 3 years thanks to the Thematic Integrated Plan (PITEM Biodiv'ALP) of the European Territorial Cooperation Programme ALCOTRA (INTERREG).
A great variety of sampling methods were used. Experts could choose their methods, but they had to be accepted by the park authorities prior to the fieldwork. In a limited number of cases, restrictions were applied to specific areas. For example, in the core area of the National Park some methods were prohibited, such as the use of chemicals for surveying earthworms or sampling of rocks covered with saxicolous lichens in archaeological sites. The sampling strategy consisted of a combination of one-shot (individual collecting) and continuous sampling techniques using permanent devices in the field (
Non-standardised individual collecting was the most employed method. It was recognised as one of the most productive methods in terms of species richness because it relies on the expert's field experience (
The invertebrates provide the most diverse sampling techniques since they target a large spectrum of ecological groups like the flying insects (entomological net, light traps, interception traps), the ground fauna (pitfall traps, soil sieving, see Fig.
The ATBI Mercantour/Alpi Marittime was also an opportunity to collect and disseminate information on methods and protocols. In particular, 79 scholars contributed to the publication of the two volumes of the 'Manual on field recording techniques and protocols for All Taxa Biodiversity Inventories and Monitoring' in ABC taxa, a journal dedicated to capacity building in taxonomy and collection management (
All datasets presented in this publication are managed by the MNHN which is responsible for the national inventory of natural heritage (INPN). The INPN is part of the SINP information system on nature and landscape (http://www.naturefrance.fr) which is the national system for sharing observation data on biodiversity in France. This information system guarantees the traceability of data and authorship and normalised standards of data and metadata.
Before being published, a series of checks are routinely performed (
In addition, a series of automatic controls called scientific validation were applied to verify that data were compliant with other reference databases: taxonomical repository, biogeographic status and know distribution (e.g. atlas). However, for the Mercantour ATBI, there was no expert validation to assess the reliability, i.e. the degree of confidence that can be placed in the data. The datasets producers are responsible for the reliability of the identification. Authors have the possibility to tag an identification as doubtful, so that the data would not be published.
The study area covers the territory of the Mercantour National Park (2,163 km²), which is protected and managed as such since 1979.
This territory is divided into two areas: a core area (679 km2), which benefits from strict protection and a peripheral area (1,484 km2). As biological and geological sampling are forbidden in the core of the National Park, all sampling carried out within the framework of the ATBI has been regulated by specific authorisations. These authorisations were issued to taxonomists upon request after reference check of their skills and reliability.
For this paper, the limits defined for the Mercantour National Park, including core and peripheral areas, are defined by the following communes: Allos (Post Code: 04006), Belvedere (Code: 06013), Beuil (Code: 06016), Breil-Sur-Roya (Code: 06023), Chateauneuf-D'entraunes (Code: 06040), Colmars (Code: 04061), Guillaumes (Code: 06071), Isola (Code: 06073), Jausiers (Code: 04096), La-Bollene-Vesubie (Code: 06020), Larche (Code: 04100), Meyronnes (Code: 04120), Moulinet (Code: 06086), Peone (Code: 06094), Roubion (Code: 06110), Roure (Code: 06111), Saorge (Code: 06132), Sospel (Code: 06136), St-Etienne-De-Tinée (Code: 06120), St-Martin-Vésubie (Code: 06127), St-Sauveur-Sur-Tinée (Code: 06129), Tende (Code: 06163), Uvernet-Fours (Code: 04226), Valdeblore (Code: 06153), Fontan (Code: 06062), Entraunes (Code: 06056), St-Dalmas-Le-Selvage (Code: 06119) and Rimplas (Code: 06102).
Fig.
The ATBI Mercantour/Alpi Marittime aims to inventory the entire biota and is mainly focused on four kingdoms: Animalia, Chromista, Fungi and Plantae. For the species occurring in France, the taxonomy follows TAXREF, the national repository for flora, fauna and fungi of metropolitan France and Overseas Territories. TAXREF assigns a unique, unambiguous and (whenever possible) consensual scientific name to all species occurring in France. The repository is constantly updated and a new version is published every year.
The ATBI data package does not include datasets on chordates: Birds, Reptiles, Amphibians, Mammals (managed by the Mercantour National Park information system) and Fishes (managed by the water information system, SIE). However, opportunistic data on chordates were also produced during the inventories and are, therefore, present in the results (except for Fishes).
Fig.
Fig.
Rank | Scientific Name |
---|---|
kingdom | Animalia |
kingdom | Chromista |
kingdom | Fungi |
kingdom | Plantae |
The ATBI Mercantour/Alpi Marittime officially started in 2007. The data presented here are those collected from this date. It also includes older bibliographic data entered during the project.
In theory, the ATBI will end when the inventory is considered comprehensive. From a technical point of view, an inventory is close to exhaustion when the curve of the number of species inventoried as a function of the sampling effort tends towards a horizontal asymptote, i.e. all species were inventoried at least twice (
Therefore, the ATBI is still on-going due to: 1. successful partnership between the Mercantour National Park and a community of taxonomists and 2. new national and EU-funded projects: Atlas of Biodiversity in the Municipalities and the Thematic Integrated Plan (PITEM Biodiv'ALP) of ALCOTRA Territorial Cooperation Programme.
Fig.
Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 4.0 International Public Licence
The main dataset of the ATBI in the Mercantour National Park. The project started in 2007 in the framework of the European Distributed Institute of Taxonomy and has continued since 2012 thanks to the collaboration between the Parks, the MNHN and a vast community of taxonomists. It includes data with sampling protocols and opportunistic data collected by taxonomists, park staff and naturalists under a convention with the park and bibliographic data entered as part of the ATBI.
Column label | Column description |
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associatedReferences | A list (concatenated and separated) of identifiers (publication, bibliographic reference, global unique identifier, URI) of literature associated with the Occurrence. |
basisOfRecord | The specific nature of the data record. |
coordinateUncertaintyInMetres | The horizontal distance (in metres) from the given decimalLatitude and decimalLongitude describing the smallest circle containing the whole of the Location. Leave the value empty if the uncertainty is unknown, cannot be estimated or is not applicable (because there are no coordinates). Zero is not a valid value for this term. |
country | The name of the country or major administrative unit in which the Location occurs. |
countryCode | The standard code for the country in which the Location occurs. |
dataGeneralisations | Actions taken to make the shared data less specific or complete than in its original form. Suggests that alternative data of higher quality may be available on request. |
datasetID | An identifier for the set of data. May be a global unique identifier or an identifier specific to a collection or institution. |
dateIdentified | The date on which the subject was determined as representing the Taxon. |
decimalLatitude | The geographic latitude (in decimal degrees, using the spatial reference system given in geodeticDatum) of the geographic centre of a Location. Positive values are north of the Equator, negative values are south of it. Legal values lie between -90 and 90, inclusive. |
decimalLongitude | The geographic longitude (in decimal degrees, using the spatial reference system given in geodeticDatum) of the geographic centre of a Location. Positive values are east of the Greenwich Meridian, negative values are west of it. Legal values lie between -180 and 180, inclusive. |
eventDate | The date when the Event was recorded (dd/mm/yyyy). |
eventID | An identifier for the broader Event that groups this and potentially other Events. |
footprintWKT | A Well-Known Text (WKT) representation of the shape (footprint, geometry) that defines the Location. A Location may have both a point-radius representation (see decimalLatitude) and a footprint representation and they may differ from each other. |
id | An identifier for the Occurrence (as opposed to a particular digital record of the occurrence). In the absence of a persistent global unique identifier, construct one from a combination of identifiers in the record that will most closely make the occurrenceID globally unique. |
identificationVerificationStatus | A categorical indicator of the extent to which the taxonomic identification has been verified to be correct. |
identifiedBy | A list (comma separated) of names of people who assigned the Taxon to the subject. |
informationWithheld | Additional information that exists, but that has not been shared in the given record. |
institutionCode | The name (or acronym) in use by the institution having custody of the object(s) or information referred to in the record. |
locality | The specific description of the place. |
locationRemarks | Comments or notes about the Location. |
maximumDepthInMetres | The greater depth of a range of depth below the local surface, in metres. |
maximumElevationInMetres | The upper limit of the range of elevation (altitude, usually above sea level), in metres. |
minimumDepthInMetres | The lesser depth of a range of depth below the local surface, in metres. |
minimumElevationInMetres | The lower limit of the range of elevation (altitude, usually above sea level), in metres. |
modified | The most recent date-time on which the resource was changed. |
municipality | The full, unabbreviated name of the next smaller administrative region than county (city, municipality etc.) in which the Location occurs. Do not use this term for a nearby named place that does not contain the actual location. |
nameAccordingTo | The reference to the source in which the specific taxon concept circumscription is defined or implied - traditionally signified by the Latin "sensu" or "sec." (from secundum, meaning "according to"). For taxa that result from identifications, a reference to the keys, monographs, experts and other sources should be given. |
occurrenceID | An identifier for the Occurrence (as opposed to a particular digital record of the occurrence). In the absence of a persistent global unique identifier, construct one from a combination of identifiers in the record that will most closely make the occurrenceID globally unique. |
occurrenceStatus | A statement about the presence or absence of a Taxon at a Location. |
originalNameUsage | The taxon name, with authorship and date information if known, as it originally appeared when first established under the rules of the associated nomenclaturalCode. The basionym (botany) or basonym (bacteriology) of the scientificName or the senior/earlier homonym for replaced names. |
recordedBy | A list (comma separated) of names of people responsible for recording the original Occurrence. The primary collector or observer is listed first. |
scientificName | The full scientific name, with authorship and date information if known. |
basisOfRecord | The specific nature of the data record. |
taxonID | An identifier for the nomenclatural (not taxonomic) details of a scientific name. |
Within the framework of its adhesion to the Mercantour National Park, the Municipality of Barcelonnette and the Park organised a 3-day event focused on the knowledge of biodiversity, the discovery of scientific inventories and the exchange with scientists.
Column label | Column description |
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idem as "Datasets from the Mercantour ATBI" | idem as "Datasets from the Mercantour ATBI" |
Within the framework of its Atlas of Communal Biodiversity, the commune of Sospel and the Mercantour National Park, in partnership and with the financial support of the French Agency for Biodiversity (AFB), organised a 3-day event focused on the knowledge of biodiversity, the discovery of the scientific inventories and the exchange with scientists.
Column label | Column description |
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idem as "Datasets from the Mercantour ATBI" | idem as "Datasets from the Mercantour ATBI" |
Within the framework of its Atlas of Communal Biodiversity, the commune of Guillaumes and the Mercantour National Park, in partnership and with the financial support of the French Agency for Biodiversity (AFB), organised a 3-day event focused on the knowledge of biodiversity, the discovery of the scientific inventories and the exchange with scientists.
Column label | Column description |
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idem as "Datasets from the Mercantour ATBI" | idem as "Datasets from the Mercantour ATBI" |
Floristic observations from the flora database of the Conservatoire botanique national alpin (CBNA) carried out by the Parc national du Mercantour (PNM) and located on the territory of the PNM in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence Department. Observations carried out within the framework of ATBI and other programmes.
Column label | Column description |
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idem as "Datasets from the Mercantour ATBI" | idem as "Datasets from the Mercantour ATBI" |
Floristic observations from the flora database of the Conservatoire botanique national alpin (CBNA) in the Mercantour National Park (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence Department). These observations are produced by the CBNA or from the bibliography.
Column label | Column description |
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idem as "Datasets from the Mercantour ATBI" | idem as "Datasets from the Mercantour ATBI" |
Inventories of the Conservatoire botanique national méditerranéen de Porquerolles carried out between 2008, 2009 and 2010 as part of the ATBI - Mercantour.
Column label | Column description |
---|---|
idem as "Datasets from the Mercantour ATBI" | idem as "Datasets from the Mercantour ATBI" |
Thanks to the ATBI, 14,791 taxa and 12,640 species are now known from the Mercantour National Park. Between 2007 and 2020, 247,674 data sources were recorded, checked and published in the INPN information system. All this information is available in open access in the GBIF web site.
When compared to the national taxonomic repository (TAXREF v.13), the Mercantour National Park hosts 15% of all species known to occur in metropolitan France in less than 0.4% of the territory (Table
Proportion of French species occurring in the Mercantour National Park. Note: numbers above the average proportion are in bold.
Species in France | Species in Mercantour | Proportion | |||
Fungi | 24,497 | 1,651 | 6.7% | ||
Lichens | 3,165 | 1,213 | 38.3% | ||
Algae (sensu lato) | 2,391 | 414 | 17.3% | ||
Plants | 10,113 | 2,530 | 25% | ||
Bryophytes | 1,264 | 537 | 42.5% | ||
Angiosperms | 7,625 | 1,697 | 22.3% | ||
Gymnosperms | 73 | 11 | 15.1% | ||
Pteridophytes | 179 | 48 | 26.8% | ||
Animalia | 48,746 | 8,147 | 16.7% | ||
Worms | 1,376 | 28 | 2.0% | ||
Chordate | 857 | 135 | 15.8% | ||
Birds | 486 | 86 | 17.7% | ||
Fishes | 81 | 0 | 0% | ||
Reptiles | 41 | 14 | 34.1% | ||
Amphibians | 43 | 5 | 11.6% | ||
Mammals | 206 | 30 | 14.6% | ||
Molluscs | 700 | 90 | 12.9% | ||
Rotifers | 473 | 1 | 0.2% | ||
Arthropods | 45,191 | 7,892 | 17.5% | ||
including | Insects | 39,447 | 7,333 | 18.6% | |
Arachnids | 3,481 | 302 | 8.7% | ||
Crustaceans | 833 | 80 | 9.6% | ||
Myriapods | 524 | 58 | 11.1% | ||
Entognatha | 906 | 119 | 13.1% | ||
Tardigrades | 67 | 1 | 1.5% | ||
Bacteria | 169 | 94 | 55.6% | ||
Protozoa | 525 | 59 | 11.2% | ||
Chromista | 1,396 | 159 | 11.4% | ||
TOTAL | 85,446 | 12,640 | 14.8% |
Proportion of the French insects occurring in the Mercantour National Park.
Note: numbers above the average proportion are in bold.
Order | Species in France | Species in Mercantour | Proportion |
Diptera | 8,865 | 761 | 8.6% |
Odonata | 98 | 37 | 37.8% |
Mantodea | 8 | 3 | 37.5% |
Phasmida | 4 | 1 | 25% |
Psocodea | 116 | 0 | 0% |
Blattodea | 38 | 5 | 13.2% |
Hemiptera | 3,527 | 595 | 16.9% |
Mecoptera | 10 | 4 | 40% |
Zygentoma | 16 | 0 | 0% |
Coleoptera | 10,887 | 2,086 | 19.2% |
Dermaptera | 18 | 5 | 27.8% |
Embioptera | 2 | 1 | 50% |
Neuroptera | 175 | 39 | 22.3% |
Orthoptera | 237 | 95 | 40.1% |
Plecoptera | 195 | 56 | 28.7% |
Hymenoptera | 8,630 | 1,317 | 15.3% |
Lepidoptera | 5,555 | 2,204 | 39.7% |
Megaloptera | 3 | 1 | 33.3% |
Trichoptera | 473 | 143 | 30.2% |
Siphonaptera | 96 | 7 | 7.3% |
Strepsiptera | 13 | 0 | 0% |
Thysanoptera | 265 | 0 | 0% |
Archaeognatha | 52 | 0 | 0% |
Ephemeroptera | 146 | 31 | 21.2% |
Raphidioptera | 18 | 6 | 33.3% |
TOTAL | 39,447 | 7,397 | 18.8% |
These results confirm the importance of the Mercantour National Park in terms of biodiversity, which several authors consider a hotspot in Europe (
This information can also be used to steer further investigation. Based on the results, the authors consider that a taxonomical group not reaching 15% of the species known to occur in Metropolitan France is likely to be insufficiently inventoried and would require more research. However, the average number of 15% is expected to increase as new results concerning groups such as hemipters, dipters and hymenopters are published in the near future.
Since the beginning of the ATBI, 52 taxa, new to science have been published (see Table
Species | Reference | Country where first discovered | Collection (Holotype) |
Dichrorampha tarmanni |
|
Italy | coll. P. Huemer |
Clinopodes vesubiensis |
|
France | MNHN, Paris (FR) |
Eulamprotes occidentella |
|
France | TLMF, Innsbruck (AUS) |
Malthodes coryli |
|
Italy | unknown |
Istocheta incisor |
|
France | SMNS, Stuttgart (GER) |
Klimeschiopsis maritimaealpina |
|
France | TLMF, Innsbruck (AUS) |
Sistotrema ampullaceum |
|
Italy |
unknown |
Troglocheles lanai |
Italy |
MBD-OSU, Columbus (USA) | |
Duvalius magdelainei tordjmani |
|
France | MNHN, Paris (FR) |
Caryocolum dauphini |
|
France | MNHN, Paris (FR) |
Diplocephalus guidoi | Italy | MCSNB, Bergamo (IT) | |
Histopona leonardoi |
|
Italy | MCSNB, Bergamo (IT) |
Eulamprotes mirusella |
|
France | TLMF, Innsbruck (AUS) |
Plinthisus heteroclitus |
|
France | MNHN, Paris (FR) |
Bryobia cinereae |
|
France | CBGP, Montpellier (FR) |
Bryobia mercantourensis |
|
France | CBGP, Montpellier (FR) |
Eotetranychus quercicola |
|
France | CBGP, Montpellier (FR) |
Aberrantidrilus |
|
France | MNHN, Paris (FR) |
Aberrantidrilus stephaniae |
|
France | MNHN, Paris (FR) |
Alloxysta alpina |
|
France | MNHN, Paris (FR) |
Alloxysta franca |
|
France | MNHN, Paris (FR) |
Alloxysta pilae |
|
France | MNHN, Paris (FR) |
Deutonura jeromoltoi |
|
France | MNHN, Paris (FR) |
Echiniscus pardalis |
|
Italy | coll. R. Schill |
Empis fusca |
|
France | MNHN, Paris (FR) |
Marionina sambugarae |
|
France | MNHN, Paris (FR) |
Nematopogon argentellus |
|
France | MNHN, Paris (FR) |
Odontidium apiculatum |
|
Italy | NMW, Cardiff (UK) |
Odontidium neolongissimum |
|
Italy | Herb. Mus. Palat. Vindob., Acqu. |
|
Italy | coll. F. Meister, Engadin (CH) | |
Orogastrura tetrophthalma |
|
France | MNHN, Paris (FR) |
Rhamphomyia brevis |
|
France | MNHN, Paris (FR) |
Xyalaspis pseudolaevigata |
|
France | MNHN, Paris (FR) |
Cricotopus royanus |
|
France | coll. J. Moubayed-Breil, Montpellier (FR) |
Dichrorampha melaniana |
|
France | Coll. Th. Varenne, Nice (FR) |
Kessleria lativalva |
|
France | Coll. Th. Varenne, Nice (FR) |
Mercantouria |
|
France | TLMF, Innsbruck (AUS) |
Mercantouria neli |
|
France | TLMF, Innsbruck (AUS) |
Stomopteyrx alpinella |
|
France | Coll. Th. Varenne, Nice (FR) |
Autaretia aliciae |
|
France | MNHN, Paris (FR) |
Chaetocladius coppai |
|
France | coll. J. Moubayed-Breil Montpellier (FR) |
Polypedilum mercantourus |
|
France | coll. J. Moubayed-Breil Montpellier (FR) |
Virgatanytarsus rossaroi |
|
France | coll. J. Moubayed-Breil Montpellier (FR) |
Agrotis mayrorum |
|
France | TLMF, Innsbruck (AUS) |
Grammospila martae |
|
Italy | RMNH, Leiden (NL) |
Setina irrorella panthera |
|
France | MNHN, Paris (FR) |
Acarospora epiaspicilia |
|
France | Coll. C. Roux, Mirabeau (FR) |
Stygepactophanes occitanus |
|
France | MNHN, Paris (FR) |
Caryocolum lamai |
|
France | TLMF, Innsbruck (AUS) |
Caryocolum habeleri |
|
France | TLMF, Innsbruck (AUS) |
Kessleria helvetica lecciae |
|
France | MNHN, Paris (FR) |
Scrobipalpa huemeri |
France |
MNHN, Paris (FR) |
Acronyms. CBGP: Centre de Biologie pour la Gestion des Populations (UMR INRA, CIRAD, IRD, Montpellier SupAgro); MBD-OSU: Museum of Biological Diversity-Ohio State University; MCSNB: Museo Civico di Storia Naturale Bergamo; MNHN: Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle; NMW: National Museum of Wales; RMNH: Naturalis Biodiversity Center; SMNS: Staatliche Museum für Naturkunde Stuttgart; TLMF: Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum.
About a third of the new species discovered are moth (14 species of Lepidoptera new to science). Flies (Diptera; Fig.
Throughout the duration of the ATBI, 53 species new for France were discovered (see Table
Species | Taxon authorities | Reference |
Catocala lupina | Herrich-Schäffer, 1851 |
|
Moehringia argenteria | Casazza & Minuto, 2008 | comm. pers. Noble (2009) |
Mimela aurata | (Fabricius, 1801) |
|
Drosophila suzukii | (Matsumura, 1931) |
|
Ceratophyllus vagabundus alpestris | Jordan, 1926 |
|
Geocoris phaeopterus | (Germar, 1838) |
|
Dicyphus flavoviridis | Tamanini, 1949 |
|
Helicoconis (Fontenellea) hispanica | Ohm, 1965 |
|
Helicoconis (Helicoconis) hirtinervis | Tjeder, 1960 |
|
Hydrocyphon ovatus | Nyholm, 1967 |
|
Nomada gransassoi | SCHWARZ, 1986 |
|
Platycheirus ciliatus | Bigot, 1884 |
|
Platycheirus fasciculatus | Loew, 1856 |
|
Alloxysta abdera | Fergusson, 1986 |
|
Alloxysta arcuata | (Kieffer, 1902) |
|
Alloxysta brachycera | Hellén, 1963 |
|
Alloxysta brevis | (Thomson, 1962) |
|
Alloxysta fracticornis | (Thomson, 1862) |
|
Alloxysta mullensis | (Cameron, 1883) |
|
Alloxysta pilipennis | (Hartig, 1840) |
|
Alloxysta postica | (Hartig, 1841) |
|
Alloxysta proxima | Belizin, 1962 |
|
Apocharips trapezoidea | (Hartig, 1841) |
|
Bactericera parastriola | Conci, Ossiannilsson & Tamanini, 1988 |
|
Cacopsylla propinqua | (Schaefer, 1949) |
|
Craspedolepta artemisiae | (Foerster, 1848) |
|
Craspedolepta nebulosa | (Zetterstedt, 1828) |
|
Cyamophila prohaskai | (Priesner, 1927) |
|
Trioza flixiana | Burckhardt & Lauterer, 2002 |
|
Trioza senecionis | (Scopoli, 1763) |
|
Trioza flixiana | Burckhardt & Lauterer, 2002 |
|
Lasioglossum (Dialictus) duckei | (Alfken, 1909) |
|
Phaenoglyphis abbreviata | (Thomson, 1877) |
|
Phaenoglyphis americana | Baker, 1896 |
|
Phaenoglyphis calverti | Andrews, 1978 |
|
Phaenoglyphis evenhuisi | Pujade-Villar & Paretas-Martínez, 2006 |
|
Phaenoglyphis fuscicornis | (Thomson, 1877) |
|
Phaenoglyphis gutierrezi | Andrews, 1978 |
|
Phaenoglyphis longicornis | (Hartig, 1840) |
|
Nematopogon sericinellus | Zeller, 1847 |
|
Drepanepteryx algida | (Erichson in Middendorff, 1851) |
|
Chrysotoxum tomentosum | Giglio-Tos, 1890 |
|
Stelis franconica | BLÜTHGEN 1930 |
|
Apatania zonella | (Zetterstedt, 1840) |
|
Cheilosia rhodiolae | Schmid, 2000 |
|
Cionus leonhardi | Wingelmüller, 1914 |
|
Acompsia subpunctella | Svensson, 1966 |
|
Cicadetta sibillae Fig. |
Hertach & Trilar, 2015 |
|
Epiblema confusana | (Herrich-Schäffer, 1856) |
|
Scrobipalpa clintoni | Povolný, 1968 |
|
Chrysso nordica | (Chamberlin & Ivie, 1947) |
|
Urozelotes trifidus | Tuneva, 2003 |
|
Hoplodrina alsinides | Costantini, 1922 |
|
With 247,674 data sources, the ATBI contributes 0.33% of the total amount of data currently released in the INPN (in November 2020). The inventories added 1077 taxa for which no occurrence was previously recorded in the INPN and 1,244 taxa for which no occurrence was previously recorded in the National Park.
The data management strategy is a critical factor for the success of an ATBI project (
The first challenge for the operation of an information system is a common understanding of the sharing rules and procedures by the different partners. This point is all the more important since the various participants often have their own tools and logic according to their resources and objectives. From our experience, data management was largely underestimated (
The second challenge is interoperability. In the case of the ATBI Mercantour/Alpi Marittime, the cross-border management was an issue since it was not possible to agree on a unique information system for both technical (mainly taxonomical and geographical) and political reasons. Unfortunately, the information systems on both sides of the border are not interoperable. For that reason, this data paper is limited to the French part of the ATBI.
Finally, the long-term preservation of data needs specific infrastructures and resources. By definition, a comprehensive inventory of biodiversity is a long-lasting process. Due to the taxonomic impediment (
The ATBI Mercantour/Alpi Marittime is the first and one of the most ambitious inventories of its kind in Europe. With 12,640 species registered, the ATBI is the most important inventory in France in terms of species' richness compared to similar initiatives, such as the Réserve naturelle nationale de la Forêt de la Massane in Pyrénées-Orientales (8,200 species in 3.37 km²), the Forêt de Païolive et le plateau des Gras in Ardèche-Gard (5,000 species in 150 km²) and the Réserve intégrale du Lauvitel in the Écrins National Park in Isère (2,200 species in 6.86 km²).
For the Mercantour National Park, the number of species known has doubled since 2007 and it is still growing. The success of the ATBI is the result of four main factors: the extensive sampling over a long period, the key biogeographic location, strong collaboration amongst a wide range of partners and the National Park's administration as the project manager. In terms of management, the discovery of endemic and potentially rare arthropods is a conservation asset similar to large mammals or birds of prey. The ATBI database is regularly used as a tool for a better management of ecosystems, such as forest and grassland. It also provides a consistent framework for future investigation, for example, taxonomic groups, sectors and times to inventory in priority and monitoring schemes. For all those reasons, the Mercantour National Park continues to invest in its ATBI with the support of its partners and a dynamic taxonomist community. The successful experience of the Mercantour/Alpi Marittime is also a benchmark for other national and regional parks (e.g. Ecrins, Vanoise, Queyras) that initiated an ATBI on their territory.
This data package of 247,674 species occurrences with precise information on date, location and altitude is for the first time publicly available for a wide range of uses including scientific investigation, natural area stewardship and conservation policies. More than 1000 scientific publications related to the ATBI Mercantour/Alpi Marittime have already been published (
In the context of the increasing decline in biodiversity, it is more urgent than ever to increase our knowledge on poorly-studied biological groups (
The authors wish to thank the hundreds of people involved in the ATBI Mercantour/Alpi Marittime during field surveys, species identification and data managment. Special attention is given to the staff at the Mercantour National Park for making the fieldwork possible. Thanks to the PatriNat (OFB/MNHN/CNRS) team for data managment and especially to Anaïs Chargros, Blandine Decherf, Claire Jacquet, Fanny Lepareur, Mathieu Manceau, Sophie Pamerlon, Kévin Plaetevoet, Rémy Poncet, Maëla Renaud, Frédéric Vest and Robin Vignaud for their contribution to this data paper. Thanks to H.-P. Tschorsnig and K. Gurcel for the pictures. The authors are truly indebted to Michelle Watson for the English revision.
This paper is dedicated to the memory of Professor Alain Couté, specialist in microalgae at the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle and one of the pillars of the programme who passed away in 2020.
Jean Ichter: conceptualisation, writing, data curation and analyses. Olivier Gargominy: conceptualisation, data curation and analyses. Marie-France Leccia: conceptualisation and data curation. Solène Robert: conceptualisation and data curation. Laurent Poncet conceptualisation and supervision.