Description
The dataset comprises records on the distribution of living organism species across the territory of Ukraine and several neighboring countries. These data were originally published in the early XX century in some of the rarest local scientific journals issued by Ukrainian universities, research institutes, nature reserves, and scientific societies of that time.
The early XX century marked a period of remarkable growth in scientific and conservation activity in Ukraine, during which numerous scientific periodicals were published simultaneously in different cities, extensive field studies were conducted, and large zoological, botanical, and herbarium collections were established. Unfortunately, most of these publications have now become bibliographic rarities. Some survive only in one or two copies, often held outside of central scientific libraries.
One of the main reasons for their extreme rarity lies in the period of Soviet repressions of the 1930s, when, under directives of the party leadership, the majority of scientists, conservationists, and members of the Ukrainian intelligentsia were persecuted or executed. Publications of scientific societies, as well as any materials printed in the Ukrainian language, were systematically confiscated and destroyed. Consequently, the full extent of scientific output from that period remains largely unknown.
Data Records
The data in this occurrence resource has been published as a Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A), which is a standardized format for sharing biodiversity data as a set of one or more data tables. The core data table contains 21,784 records.
This IPT archives the data and thus serves as the data repository. The data and resource metadata are available for download in the downloads section. The versions table lists other versions of the resource that have been made publicly available and allows tracking changes made to the resource over time.
Versions
The table below shows only published versions of the resource that are publicly accessible.
How to cite
Researchers should cite this work as follows:
Vasyliuk O, Marushchak M, Marushchak O, Miasoiedov M, Parkhomenko V, Kovalchuk V, Kostryts A (2025). Biodiversity records from Ukraine and neighbouring countries extracted from digitalized rare Ukrainian publications. Version 1.3. Ukrainian Nature Conservation Group (NGO). Occurrence dataset. https://ukraine.ipt.gbif.no/resource?r=digitaloldliteratureua1&v=1.3
Rights
Researchers should respect the following rights statement:
The publisher and rights holder of this work is Ukrainian Nature Conservation Group (NGO). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY 4.0) License.
GBIF Registration
This resource has been registered with GBIF, and assigned the following GBIF UUID: 27209824-d4ee-4a92-bd19-9215f980f34e. Ukrainian Nature Conservation Group (NGO) publishes this resource, and is itself registered in GBIF as a data publisher endorsed by Participant Node Managers Committee.
Keywords
Occurrence; old publications; living organisms; plants; animals; microorganisms; algae; fungi; Ukraine; digitalized literature; preservation; conservation; herbarium; material citation; Observation
Contacts
- Metadata Provider ●
- Originator ●
- Point Of Contact
- Head
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1067-6827
- Originator
- student
- +380985082151
- Custodian Steward ●
- Originator
- researcher
- +380964882670
- Originator
- student
- Originator
- environmentalist
- Originator
- Originator
Geographic Coverage
The dataset covers mainly the entire territory of Ukraine with particular records from Moldova, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, russian federation, Belarus and Kazakhstan.
| Bounding Coordinates | South West [39.021, 23.901], North East [58.449, 133.125] |
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Taxonomic Coverage
The dataset includes a very wide variety of living organisms.
| Kingdom | Animalia, Fungi, Plantae, Bacteria, Chromista, Protozoa |
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| Phylum | Amoebozoa, Annelida, Arthropoda, Ascomycota, Basidiomycota, Bryophyta, Bryozoa, Charophyta, Chlorophyta, Chordata, Ciliophora, Cyanobacteria, Euglenozoa, Glaucophyta, Marchantiophyta, Mollusca, Myzozoa, Ochrophyta, Oomycota, Platyhelminthes, Porifera, Rhodophyta, Rotifera, Tracheophyta |
Temporal Coverage
| Formation Period | 1814/1998 |
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Project Data
The dataset was developed within the framework of the project “Conservation of Natural Heritage for LIFE in Ukraine” (LIFE23-PRE-CZ-ConNaturLIFE Ukraine), co-funded by the European Union and the Ministry of the Environment of the Czech Republic.
| Title | Conservation of Natural Heritage for LIFE in Ukraine |
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| Identifier | LIFE23-PRE-CZ-ConNaturLIFE Ukraine |
The personnel involved in the project:
Sampling Methods
The information was obtained from published historical literature sources based on the species occurrence descriptions they contain. All data were extracted directly from the original texts, including species names, dates, and locality information. Geographic coordinates were determined by interpreting the locality descriptions provided by the original authors in those publications. Depending on the level of detail and accuracy of each locality description, an estimate of positional uncertainty was assigned to every record, allowing for a more informed interpretation of these historical data. In some cases, the localities mentioned in the examined publications no longer exist today—for instance, they were ploughed over or destroyed as a result of the flooding of the Dnipro River valley by a cascade of reservoirs. Additionally, some settlements have since changed their names, disappeared, or were incorporated into larger towns or villages. All these historical circumstances were carefully taken into account when determining the geographic coordinates of each occurrence record. The current version of the dataset includes the complete set of records on species occurrences published by Ukrainian researchers in the following rare early 20th-century scientific journals and proceedings. All available information from each listed issue of these periodicals has been incorporated into the dataset. 1. Materials on Nature Conservation – published in Kharkiv in 1928; only Issue No. 1 was released. 2. Protection of Natural Monuments in Ukraine – published in Kharkiv in 1927–1928; Issues Nos. 1–2 were released. 3. Bulletin of Natural Science (Visnyk Pryrodoznavstva) – published in Kharkiv in 1927–1931; Issues Nos. 1–10 were released. 4. Proceedings of the Donetsk Hydrobiological Station named after Prof. V. M. Arnoldi – published in Kharkiv in 1940; only Issue No. 1 was released. 5. Proceedings of Agricultural Botany – published in Kharkiv in 1926–1929; Issues Nos. 1–2 were released. 6. Proceedings of the Donetsk Expedition – published in Kharkiv in 1930; only Issue No. 1 was released. 7. Collected Papers of the Kaniv Biogeographical Reserve – published in Kyiv from 1947 onward; Issues Nos. 1–7 are known, though not all have been preserved. 8. Nature of the “Horyste” Reserve – published in Kyiv in 1941; only Issue No. 1 is known. 9. Courses for Training Leaders to Conduct Nature Excursions with Children – published in Kyiv in 1915; only Issue No. 1 is known. 10. Proceedings of the Natural Science Section of the Ukrainian Scientific Society (UNS) – published in Kyiv in 1918–1919; Issues Nos. 1–3 were released. 11. Collected Papers of the State Fish Reserve “Koncha-Zaspa” – published in Kyiv in 1928; only Issue No. 1 is known. 12. Materials on the Fauna of Southern Russia – published in Kyiv in 1915–1917; Issues Nos. 1–2 were released. 13. Notes of the Poltava Agricultural Institute – published in Poltava in 1930; only Issue 4(1) was processed. 14. Scientific Notes on Biology – published in Kharkiv in 1927; only Issue No. 1 is known. 15. Ukrainian Zoological Journal – published in Kyiv in 1923; only Issue No. 1 is known. 16. Zoological Journal of Ukraine – published in Kyiv in 1921; only Issue No. 1 is known. 17. Collected Papers Dedicated to the 30th Anniversary of the Museum – published in Poltava in 1928; only Issue No. 1 was released.
| Study Extent | The dataset encompasses all records of identified species occurrences at specific sites and dates, derived from rare Ukrainian scientific publications issued in the early XX century. |
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| Quality Control | The authors are fully responsible for the quality of data provided within the dataset in terms of correct extraction and inerpretation of the data presented in the original publications. |
Method step description:
- Search for literary sources.
- Scanning literary sources and extracting text blocks from scanned versions.
- Searching digitized publications for information about encounters of species of living organisms, indicating specific locations and dates.
- Organizing data according to Darwin Core standards.
Bibliographic Citations
- Охорона пам’яток природи на Україні. 1927-1928. №1-2.
- Матеріали до охорони природи. 1928. №1.
- Вісник Природознавства. 1927–1931. №1–10.
- Труди Донецької гідробіологічної станції ім. проф. В. М. Арнольді. 1940. №1.
- Труди сільськогосподарської ботаніки. 1926–1929. №1–2.
- Труди Донецької експедиції. 1930. №1.
- Збірник праць Канівського біогеографічного заповідника. 1947-1952. №1–7.
- Природа заповідника «Гористе».1941. №1.
- Курсы по подготовке руководителей для ведения экскурсий с детьми в природу. 1915. №1.
- Вісти Природничої Секції УНТ. 1918–1919. №1–3.
- Збірник праць Державного рибного заповідника «Конча-Заспа». 1928. №1.
- Материалы к познанию фауны Южной России. 1915–1917. №1–2.
- Записки Полтавського сільськогосподарського інституту. 1930. № 4(1).
- Наукові записки по біології.1927. №1.
- Український зоологічний журнал. 1923. №1.
- Зоологічний журнал України. 1921. №1.
- Збірник, присвячений 30-річчю Музею. 1928. Т.№1.
Additional Metadata
| Acknowledgements | The authors express their gratitude to Nataliia Shchebetiuk (National Agricultural Library), Liudmyla Lastykova (Library of the I. I. Schmalhausen Institute of Zoology), and Viktoriia Kunets (Library of the Sokolovskyi Institute of Soil Science) for their assistance in accessing rare publications. Special thanks are also extended to Denys Davydov, whose Botanical Blog (https://davydovbotany.blogspot.com/) was of significant help in identifying lists of publications sought by the contributors during the creation of this dataset. |
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| Introduction | This dataset therefore serves as a preservation effort for invaluable historical information on biodiversity collected by Ukrainian scientists and conservationists during the first half of the XX century, providing access to data that would otherwise have been irretrievably lost. |
| Getting Started | One of the main reasons for their extreme rarity lies in the period of Soviet repressions of the 1930s, when, under directives of the party leadership, the majority of scientists, conservationists, and members of the Ukrainian intelligentsia were persecuted or executed. Publications of scientific societies, as well as any materials printed in the Ukrainian language, were systematically confiscated and destroyed. Consequently, the full extent of scientific output from that period remains largely unknown. |
| Purpose | To compile this dataset, both analytical and investigative work were undertaken. Archival searches allowed the identification of repositories holding the last surviving copies of these rare publications, from which digital versions were created for the first time. Some of these sources were previously unknown even to the scientific community and now exist in a severely deteriorated physical condition. |
| Maintenance Description | The dataset is open for further contributions and will be continuously expanded, with unknown regularity, as additional rare scientific publications are processed. |
| Alternative Identifiers | 27209824-d4ee-4a92-bd19-9215f980f34e |
| https://ukraine.ipt.gbif.no/resource?r=digitaloldliteratureua1 |