A new era for specimen databases and biodiversity information management in South Africa

-Freely available high quality, data on species occurrence and associated variables are needed in order to track changes in biodiversity. One of the main issues surrounding the provision of such data is that sources vary in quality, scope, and accuracy. Publishers of such data must face the challenge of maximizing quality, utility and breadth of data coverage, in order to make such data useful to users. With the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), we recently conducted a content needs assessment survey to consolidate and synthesize major user needs regarding biodiversity data. We find a broad range of recommendations from the survey respondents, principally concerning issues such as data quality, bias, and coverage, and ease of access. We recommend a candidate set of actions for the GBIF that fall into three classes: 1) addressing data gaps, data volume, and data quality, 2) aggregating data types that are relatively new to GBIF, to support emerging new applications, and 3) promoting ease-of-use and providing incentives for wider use. Addressing the challenge of providing high quality primary biodiversity data potentially can serve the needs of national and international biodiversity initiatives. These include the "flexible framework" for addressing the new 2020 biodiversity targets of the Convention on Biological Diversity, the global biodiversity observation network (GEO BON) and the new Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). Each of these presents opportunities for countries to define appropriate actions and corresponding data needs, with links from local to global scales.

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“…These efforts might be enhanced by appropriate training and capacity development (e.g. Coetzer 2012). …”

Section: Promoting Ease-of-use and Incentives For Wide-usementioning

confidence: 99%

Bridging the biodiversity data gaps: Recommendations to meet users’ data needs

Faith¹,

Collen²,

Ariño³

et al. 2013

Biodiv. Inf.

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“…Rapid advances in biodiversity informatics leading to huge volumes of reliable historical and recent occurrence data through public portals such as the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (https://www.gbif.org) make it possible to conduct taxonomic and conservation biodiversity assessments and compile reliable annotated species lists even for poorly known countries and regions (Soberón and Peterson 2004; Beaman and Cellinese 2012; Coetzer 2012; Wieczorek et al 2012). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tapping into technology and the biodiversity informatics revolution: updated terrestrial mammal list of Angola, with new records from the Okavango Basin

Taylor

Neef²,

Keith³

et al. 2018

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Using various sources, including the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), published literature, recent (2015–2017) collections, as well as bat detector and camera trap surveys with opportunistic sightings and live capture in the upper Okavango catchment in central Angola, we present an updated mammal checklist of 275 species from 15 different orders for Angola (including the Cabinda region). Recent surveys (captures and bat detectors) of small mammals from the upper Okavango catchment yielded 46 species (33 species of bats, ten species of rodents and three species of shrews). One bat (Pipistrellusrusticus, rusty pipistrelle); two rodents (Mussetzeri, Setzer’s mouse and Zelotomyswoosnami, Woosnam’s broad-faced mouse) and one shrew (Suncusvarilla, lesser dwarf shrew) were captured for the first time, in Angola. While our species lists of bats conformed to predicted totals, terrestrial small mammals were under sampled, with only 13 species recorded by our trapping survey compared to a total of 42 shrew and rodent species expected based on GBIF records for the central Angolan highlands. Seven terrestrial small mammal species (one shrew and six rodents) are endemic to the central and western Angolan highlands but none of these were captured in our survey. The bat detector surveys added three further bat species to the country list: Pipistrellushesperidus, Kerivoulaargentata, and Mopsmidas. Camera trap surveys and opportunistic sightings in the upper Okavango catchment in 2016 yielded a total of 35 species of medium-large mammals, from 17 families, although all of these had been reported previously in Angola. GBIF proved to be an excellent source of biodiversity data for Angolan mammals, most importantly for documenting dramatic historical range changes of larger mammals such as the sable (Hippotragusnigerniger), Kirk’s sable (H.nigerkirkii) and the giant sable (H.nigervariani).

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“…In 2012, the Museum Data Migration Project 18 was initiated by SAIAB to migrate the specimen records of selected museums to newly developed collection databases. Museum staff were then trained to use the databases to better manage specimen collections.…”

Section: Improving Biodiversity Data Curation In South African Naturamentioning

confidence: 99%

Managing South African biodiversity research data: Meeting the challenges of rapidly developing information technology

Coetzer¹,

Hamer²

2019

S. Afr. J. Sci.

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New developments in the funding requirements of biodiversity science as well as rapidly developing information technology warrant a sharper focus on the way in which biodiversity data are managed. We propose that an opportunity presents itself to develop a specific set of informatics skills among a new class of data analysts in the biodiversity science community. Our consideration of capacity development specifically emphasises the need for conceptual rigour, compliance with technical data standards and the culture of data publication or data sharing. There is a pressing need for data stewardship skills and positions in the South African biodiversity science community. We describe previous and current initiatives that may help to provide the context of, and develop skills and capacity for, effective management or stewardship of biodiversity research data. The overlapping competencies of data stewardship, data curation and data preservation include: processes and activities related to the organization and integration of data collected from various sources, annotation of the data, and publication and presentation of the data such that the value of the data is maintained over time, and the data remains available for reuse and preservation. 1 The role of the data steward can be distilled into the fundamental principles of findability, accessibility, interoperability and reusability (the FAIR principles). 1 From where do biodiversity data originate? During the last 5 years, a significant component of funding for South African biodiversity science has been channelled through the Foundational Biodiversity Information Programme (FBIP). 2 The FBIP is funded by the South African Department of Science and Technology (DST) and administered by the National Research Foundation and the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI). The FBIP recognises the importance of biodiversity, not only in the narrower sense of a particular discipline of scientific research (e.g. taxonomy, systematics or ecology), but also in the broader context of the relevance of biodiversity to society. Four large, collaborative FBIP projects have been funded. These projects focus on marine biodiversity (the Seakeys Project), the effect of habitat fragmentation on the faunal diversity of Eastern Cape forests, filling gaps in biodiversity information to support decisions about the exploitation of shale gas in the Karoo (the Biogaps Project), and camera trapping of mammals to assess the status of species and populations inside and outside protected areas (the Snapshot Safari Project). In 2016, 20 smaller FBIP projects were undertaken to investigate a variety of subjects, including bat monitoring in the Kruger National Park, bryozoan e-taxonomy, and a number of applied projects, e.g. the use of polychaetes as bait, and a survey of earthworms and their use in vermicomposting. The FBIP explicitly requires researchers to generate and submit research data characterised as species occurrences, species attributes or population abundance records, or devel...

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A new era for specimen databases and biodiversity information management in South Africa

Cited by 15 publications

References 17 publications

Bridging the biodiversity data gaps: Recommendations to meet users’ data needs

Bridging the biodiversity data gaps: Recommendations to meet users’ data needs

Tapping into technology and the biodiversity informatics revolution: updated terrestrial mammal list of Angola, with new records from the Okavango Basin

Managing South African biodiversity research data: Meeting the challenges of rapidly developing information technology

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