Transcript GLOBAL BIODIVERSITY

GLOBAL
BIODIVERSITY
INFORMATION
FACILITY
Open Access to Scientific Data on Biological
Diversity: the GBIF Experience
James Edwards
Permanent Access to Scientific Information in Southern Africa
6 September 2005
GBIF.ORG and GBIF.NET
Global Biodiversity Information Facility
What is GBIF ?
An independent international organisation designed
to

Make the world’s biodiversity data freely and
universally available via the Internet, and
especially to

Share primary scientific biodiversity data for
science, society and a sustainable future
Global Biodiversity Information Facility
What do we mean by primary
biodiversity data?

Label data on ~ 1.5 - 3.0 billion specimens in
natural history collections, herbaria, botanical
gardens, etc.
 Associated notes,
recordings, publications,
etc.
 Observational data (e.g.
bird banding data)

These data have been
amassed over ~ 300
years; most not digital

Big legacy data problem
Global Biodiversity Information Facility
GBIF was established in 2001 …

… to partner with other biodiversity
organisations

e.g., the Convention on Biological Diversity
… to help overcome the digital divide
 … to repatriate biodiversity data to
countries of origin
 … to help deal with the unequal
distribution of biodiversity information

Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Biodiversity and information about it are
unevenly distributed….
biodiversity hotspot
holder of large amounts of biodiversity data
Global Biodiversity Information Facility
GBIF Data Portal

Prototype data portal opened in February 2004


Now serves > 80 million data records, from 132
data providers from 30 countries
About 30% observational data, rest from natural
history and living collections

Can search by species name, country,
specimen

Soon to come—searching by locality, searching
on more than one species at a time,
customised portals
Global Biodiversity Information Facility
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Data Providers
Providers
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60,0
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50,0
60
40,0
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Data Records (in millions)
Growth in Data Sharing Oct 2003 - Aug 2005
Records
90,0
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70,0
GBIF especially concentrates on
georeferenced data

Georeferenced data include information
about where and when a particular
specimen was collected or observation
made

A global database of georeferenced data
can enable the use of tools such as
Ecological Niche Modelling (ENM)
Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Modeling and predicting an invasive species
The Asian long-horned
beetle invaded the
United States from
China in packing
material
Predicting the threat
of the Asian long-horned beetle
Predicted
habitat
in China
based
on 40
occurrences
Distribution model applied to North
American based on climatic conditions
Places where the
asian long-horned beetle
has been recorded in the
USA (Chicago and NY)
Red: Highest Probability
of invasion
Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Who are GBIF’s members ?


GBIF is a network of Participants
Each Participant agrees to



Share biodiversity data
Set up a computer node(s) for accessing those data
GBIF also works closely with the relevant
international conventions and organisations

Especially the Convention on Biological Diversity,
FAO, International Conservation Union, etc.
Global Biodiversity Information Facility
GBIF’s Participants—countries

Currently has 78 Participants

47 countries—latest Cameroon, Equatorial
Guinea, Guinea, Philippines
26 Voting Participants
21 Associate Participants
Global Biodiversity Information Facility
GBIF membership—organisations

31 international organisations (all Associate
Participants)
 Including






European Commission
UNEP
UNESCO
World Conservation Union (IUCN)
Nordic Gene Bank
Convention on Biological Diversity also has
ex officio seat on the Governing Board
Global Biodiversity Information Facility
GBIF’s IPR principles



Open access
All IPR stays with data providers
Data providers can restrict access to sensitive
information



e.g. geographic coordinates of endangered species
Requires users to acknowledge source(s) of
data
Cannot assure validity of any specific data in
GBIF

But are making available tools to allow providers to
clean up data and users to determine fitness of use
of the data for their particular purposes
Global Biodiversity Information Facility
GBIF 3rd-year review

Done by
ICSU/CODATA and
KPMG

“GBIF is the right
initiative at the right
time with the right
goals”

“If it didn’t already
exist, it would need
to be invented”
Review Committee:
Marvalee Wake
(chair)
Motonori Hoshi
Tim Littlejohn
Ghillean Prance
Jameson Seyani
Peter Toledo
Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Make available data cleaning tools

Three papers on data quality and use are
available for comment at www.gbif.org
Everything GBIF does is in
partnership with others
SABIF
UNESCO/Tanzania
IUCN/Species Information Service
CBD/Global Taxonomy Initiative
Global Strategy
for Plant
Conservation
Global Biodiversity Information Facility
GBIF plays a critical role in
e-biodiversity
GBIF
“Bioinformatics”
= Molecular
Informatics
Ecoinformatics
Biodiversity
Informatics
Global Biodiversity Information Facility