In July, when the NBN made its first major update of datasets from the NBN Atlas to GBIF.org, the 47 million occurrence records it added immediately made the United Kingdom the second-largest national contributor of data to the global index.

This milestone marks the conclusion of NBN’s own efforts to implement machine-readable licensing of all occurrence datasets, a task that shadowed the three-year process that GBIF recently completed. In August 2016, to give NBN more time to work with its data partners and ensure appropriate licensing and permissions, GBIF and NBN withdrew 329 datasets containing 27.3 million records, representing 72 percent of all occurrences published by UK institutions at that time.

But the wait has proven its worth. More than half of the withdrawn datasets have now returned, restoring nearly 12 million records, joined by 484 new ones holding more than 35 million occurrences. About two thirds of NBN’s data partners now choose to share open data through the GBIF network.

The character and standing of NBN’s member network is worth noting. Together they preserve and extend the UK’s unique history of volunteer naturalists collecting and sharing biodiversity data and information. Included among NBN’s more than 170 recording societies, environmental centres, collections and other institutions are many local groups whose systematic observation and identification of species occurrences date back decades or even centuries.

Their unparalleled knowledge often has a precise geographic or taxonomic focus to match the comprehensive, authoritative evidence it contributes to understanding some portion of the natural world, whether it’s lichens found in Welsh churchyards, the flora of Worcestershire or invertebrate observations from Cumbria between 1500 and 2014, to cite just a few examples.

Thanks to a reconfiguration in how NBN shares data from the UK, each of these NBN data partners all now appear in publisher search results on GBIF.org. That change means they also receive clearer, more direct credit when their datasets contribute to published research, at least when researchers use recommended citations for their download DOIs.

This practice makes it easier for GBIF to link user downloads applied in research and policy back to its contributing datasets, publishers and countries, so that we can show, for example, that Merseyside BioBank’s 5 datasets have informed 8 peer-reviewed papers and further, that records from their Active Naturalists (verified) dataset appear in 6 of those citations.

In a further indication that the exchange is not simply one-way, NBN and GBIF have established automatic registration and exchange between their data management systems. The open-source infrastructure that now powers the NBN Atlas was originally developed by the Atlas of Living Australia (ALA), one of GBIF’s long-standing national nodes. By redesigning and remastering some elements of the platform, NBN has produced a bespoke adaptation that improves support for its stakeholders and data users while providing a collaborative, cost-effective approach to ensure the interoperability of the UK’s biodiversity data systems and its data. In fact, the first UK country portals to come online, NBN Atlas, NBN Atlas Scotland and NBN Atlas Wales, are three of several ‘Living Atlases’ now in production, in development or under discussion across GBIF’s wider international network.

Written by Kyle Copas, Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)

New datasets with more than 1 million occurrences

Returning datasets with more than 500,000 records

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Its task group on data fitness for use in research on invasive alien species (IAS) has set up a survey and would like your input.  It is seeking survey responses from data users and data holders which are intended to help improve both the suitability and the access to data for use in invasion biology and related fields.

Through the survey the task group aims to document limitations in existing GBIF services, improve the utility of GBIF-mediated data and get suggestions on functional improvements needed to support better IAS-related research.

The 21-question survey, should take 15-20 minutes to complete,

Take the survey now

The survey is open for responses until 30 September 2016, though feedback is welcome at any point.

Please direct any questions or comments about the survey to Dmitry Schigel, GBIF Programme Officer for Content Analysis and Use.

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Two awards of €4,000 are available to graduate students in a master’s or doctoral programme.

Students must apply through a Head of Delegation of a GBIF Participant country (see the complete list of GBIF Participants), who will forward a maximum of two nominations to the GBIF Secretariat by 15 July 2016.

Review

The GBIF Science Committee will review the nominations and adjudicate the Young Researchers Awards by end of August 2016, with announcement of the awardees at the Governing Board meeting in October 2016 in Brazil.

Review criteria for the proposed research include:
• its originality and innovation;
• its use of and strategic significance for GBIF- enabled data, and
• its measureable effectiveness and impact in advancing biodiversity informatics and/or the conservation of biological diversity.

Declined proposals may be updated and re-submitted in subsequent years’ competitions for the Young Researcher Award.

Awardees are expected to disseminate research results via peer-reviewed publications, presentations at professional meetings, and other media, clearly acknowledging GBIF support.

Download the call for proposals

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