Freshwater biodiversity of the Eastern Highlands of Zimbabwe: Assessing conservation priorities using primary species-occurrence data

Kudzai Mafuwe1, Sheila Broadley1, Nobuhle Sithole1, Kudzanai Dhliwayo1, Kudzai mafuwe2

1 Natural History Museum of Zimbabwe, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe; 2 

Corresponding author(s): Kudzai MafuweSheila BroadleyNobuhle SitholeKudzanai Dhliwayo

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

Mafuwe K, Broadley S, Sithole N, Dhliwayo K (2018): Freshwater biodiversity of the Eastern Highlands of Zimbabwe: Assessing conservation priorities using primary species-occurrence data. v1.4. Natural History Museum of Zimbabwe. Dataset/Checklist. http://www.nhmbyo.co.zw/ipt/resource?r=eastern_highlands_species&v=1.4

Abstract

The Eastern Highlands of Zimbabwe harbors several freshwater species of conservation interest, such as birds, invertebrates, fish and amphibians, whose numbers and distribution are little known. The impacts of the on-going human activities and threats such as agricultural expansion, illegal mining activities and introduction of alien invasive species on the local wetland biodiversity, and the integrity of the ecosystem in the region is also not very clear. A related problem is the inaccessibility and unavailability of the relevant data on the wetland biodiversity from previous studies and surveys, for policy and decision making in the area. This project seeks to mobilise the much required data on freshwater biodiversity in the Eastern Highlands of Zimbabwe and make use of Biodiversity Informatics tools to identify the important sites for Conservation of Freshwater biodiversity, with a focus on fish, invertebrates, amphibians and bird species in the region. The outputs from this project will therefore help to show policy makers. Wildlife managers, researchers and conservationists where to target resources and conservation effort should be target and will help protect the biodiversity that still occur in the unprotected wetlands of this region, that could be lost to human activities such as clearing for agriculture.

Keywords: Checklist; Eastern Highlands of Zimbabwe; Freshwater species, Checklist

Project details

Project title: Freshwater biodiversity of the Eastern Highlands of Zimbabwe: Assessing conservation priorities using primary species-occurrence data
Personnel: Kudzai Mafuwe, Sheila Broadley, Nobuhle Sithole, Kudzanai Dhilwayo
Funding: This project was made possible with funding from the GBIF and the EU, through the Biodiversity Information Development program (BID).
Study area descriptions/descriptor: The project includes records of specimens collected from the Eastern Highlands of Zimbabwe; a biodiversity hotspot along the Chimanimani-Inyanga Biodiversity corridor which extends for about 300 kilometres (190 mi) along Zimbabwe's eastern border with Mozambique

Data published through GBIF: https://ipt.gbif.org/resource?r=test-upload-data-zm-marie

Taxonomic coverage

General taxonomic coverage description: This data set covers records from fish, invertebrates, amphibians and bird species from the Eastern Highlands of Zimbabwe
Taxonomic ranks
Class: Insecta, Amphibia, Aves, Actinopterygii
Common names: Insects, Frogs, Birds, Fish

Spatial coverage

General spatial coverage: This dataset covers records of specimens collected from The Eastern Highlands of Zimbabwe a biodiversity hotspot that forms part of the Eastern Afromontane region
Coordinates: 21°48'21.6''S and 17°8'27.6''S Latitude; 31°54'14.4''E and 33°2'49.2''E Longitude 

Methods

Method step description: The creation of the checklist included the following processes: 1 A list of invertebrates, fish, birds and amphibians recorded from the given study area was obtained from the museum specimen records and literature found in the Natural History Museum of Zimbabwe Zoology Collections. 2 Digitization and documentation of the list was carried out into Microsoft Excel (2010) database using Darwin Core Standards. 3. Data validation and cleaning was then carried out in OPEN REFINE (Version 2.5) as well as Microsoft Excel (2010) data validation tools. 4 The determination of taxonomic status and authorship and checking for taxonomic errors was carried out using The Catalogue of life List Matching Service, Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) database, The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) name parser and The Global Names index database where possible. 5. The dataset was then uploaded and published on the GBIF database using The Integrated Publishing Toolkit (version 1.2) for the Natural History Museum of Zimbabwe.
Study extent description: This study includes records of invertebrates, fish, birds and amphibians recorded from the Eastern Highlands of Zimbabwe obtained from the museum specimen records and literature found in the Natural History Museum of Zimbabwe Zoology Collections.
Sampling description: All records of freshwater species from the Eastern Highlands of Zimbabwe identified to genus, species or sub species level, collected between 1911 and 2017 were collated and used to develop this checklist. The records where digitized into Microsoft Excel (2010) database and the records where cleaned using OPEN REFINE Data cleaning tool (Version 2.5). Taxonomic ranks, status and authorship was also verified using The Catalogue of life List Matching Service (2017), Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) database, The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) name parser (2011) and The Global Names index database where possible.
Quality control description: While standardizing the records to DarwinCore standards, we carried out a major effort for checking errors and inconsistencies among the data using Excel, OPEN REFINE and GBIF Data validation tools. We followed the guidelines proposed by Chapman 2005 and also checked for synonyms and taxonomic errors in the data set

Datasets

Dataset description
Object name: Darwin Core Archive Freshwater biodiversity of the Eastern Highlands of Zimbabwe: Assessing conservation priorities using primary species-occurrence data
Character encoding: UTF-8
Format name: Darwin Core Archive format
Format version: 1.0
Distribution: https://ipt.gbif.org/archive.do?r=test-upload-data-zm-marie
Publication date of data: 2023-02-14
Language: English
Licences of use: Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC) 4.0 License

Metadata language: English
Date of metadata creation: 2018-05-25
Hierarchy level: Dataset