Global Occurrences of the Atlantic Blue Crab, Native and Non-Native

40,388 geo-referenced occurrences of the Atlantic blue crab Callinectes sapidus, compiled from online databases, literature, and unpublished sources. The dataset includes 39,824 records from its native range and 564 from non-native areas, spanning 53 countries. Giorgio Mancinelli harmonized this compilation, which contains taxonomic, spatial, temporal, and status flagging information.

Use Cases

• Modeling invasive species spread based on temporal and spatial coordinates.
• Analyzing native versus non-native status patterns across flagged geographic records.
• Studying taxonomic distribution and identification uncertainty using the provided taxonomic fields and notes.
• Mapping species occurrences under different environmental conditions (marine, inland, coastal) based on flagging fields.

Strengths

• 40,388 total geo-referenced occurrences provide a substantial global baseline.
• Data is harmonized from multiple authoritative sources including GBIF, OBIS, and peer-reviewed literature.
• Includes flagging fields for species status (native/non-native), location type, and record uniqueness.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.
• Row count for specific subsets is not detailed beyond the total and native/non-native split.

Provenance

Source

Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (HCMR) and connected networks like ELNAIS, plus online databases (GBIF, BISON, OBIS, iNaturalist) and literature.

Collection Method

Collated from online databases, peer-reviewed literature, and unpublished sources via personal communications.

Geography

Global, covering 53 countries across native (western Atlantic) and non-native (e.g., Europe) ranges.