GBitsa publication of

no. 46
Mar 2016

Call for nominations for 2016
Young Researchers Award
The GBIF Secretariat invites the nomination of graduate
students for the 2016 Young Researchers Award. Thisprize intends to foster innovative research and discovery
that make use of GBIF-mediated data.
This year, GBIF will present two awards of €4,000 eachto one master’s student and one doctoral student.
Students must apply through a Head of Delegationof 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.
DownloadCall for nominations

Call for nominations for 2016 Young
Researchers AwardCAPACITY ENHANCEMENT....1
BID Africa 2015 call brings in initial
proposals from 34 African countries
BIFA programme supports four projects
to benefit 14 countries in Asia
GBIF nodes staff earn first digitalbadges for data publishing
Capacity Enhancement Support
Programme opens 2016 call for
proposalsVideos from training workshops now
onlineAgreement targets improved dataexchange on Arctic species

DATA PUBLISHING...............3
Experts offer recommendations for
improving GBIF-mediated data for
agrobiodiversity research

CAPACITY ENHANCEMENT
BID Africa 2015 call brings in initial
proposals from 34 African countries

The first call for proposals from sub-Saharan Africa
for the Biodiversity Information for Development (BID)
programme, published in September 2015, brought in
143 initial concept notes for projects coordinated from34 African countries.

New report offers recommendations
on improving GBIF-mediated data for
distribution modelling

MEDIA.................................4
GBIF Benin on national TV

GBIF DATA IN USE................4
NEW DATA............................5
EVENTS...............................9

The total amount of funds requested was in excess of six
times the value of the €900,000 available for this call.
GBIF and its evaluation panel invited a selected number
of applicants to prepare full proposals. Selected projects
will be announced in April 2016.
Funded by the European Union and led by GBIF, BID is a

To subscribe to the GBits newsletter, visit
www.gbif.org/newsroom/summary#signup
or email info@gbif.org

GBitsmulti-year programme to increase the availability
and use of biodiversity information for researchand decision-making in the ‘ACP’ nations of subSaharan Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific.

➢• The mobilization of biodiversity data fromthe Association for Southeast Asian Nations(ASEAN) Heritage Parks—regionally significant
protected areas for biodiversity—supported by
the ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity (ACB), TaiBIF
and GBIF Norway.

Read moreNews release

BIFA programme supports four
projects to benefit 14 countries in
Asia

The Biodiversity Information Fund for Asia (BIFA)
has awarded €106,000 in grants to four projects
that support the data needs of researchers andpolicy makers.
The projects will enhance data publishing capacityin 14 Asian countries while engaging eight GBIF
nodes as well as prospective new Participant
countries in Asia.

• Enhancing the data publishing capacity of GBIF
Philippines with help from the ASEAN Centre for
Biodiversity (ACB) and the Belgian Biodiversity
Platform.
The fund will also be used to support the next
meeting of GBIF Asian nodes in the Philippines in
July. BIFA allocates supplementary funds provided
by the Ministry of Environment, Government ofJapan, for GBIF-related activities in Asia.
Read more
Details of funded projects

GBIF nodes staff earn first digitalbadges for data publishing

The GBIF Secretariat has awarded digital badges
to 10 participants who completed training
on biodiversity data publishing support andpromotion. This initiative pilots a new approachfor certifying skills and expertise within the GBIF
community.
The badge recipients are among the nodes staff
members who sought to attain the credentials
following a training event in Madagascar before of
the 2015 Governing Board meeting.

YUSHAN NATIONAL PARK, TAIWAN. PHOTO BY KAILING3, VIA
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS. CC BY SA 3.0.

The four projects selected through a call for
proposals in 2015 are:
• The development of an open-access learning
resource – the ‘biodiversity informatics
cookbook’ – by the GBIF nodes in India, Japan,
Korea and Taiwan, to support training activities
in Asia.
• The development of a biodiversity databasesystem in Vietnam, with mentoring support
from JBIF, Japan’s GBIF national node.

In the future, GBIF expects to use the badges
to support the Biodiversity Information for
Development (BID) programme and to recognize thecontributions of project partners.

➢

Read moreNews release

Capacity Enhancement Support
Programme opens 2016 call for
proposals

The GBIF Secretariat has invited proposals forfunding under the 2016 Capacity Enhancement
Support Programme, which seeks to enhance thelong-term capacity of GBIF Participants throughcollaborative projects.
The call is only open to GBIF Participants.

22

Aug 2011

no. 46 Mar 2016

The deadline for submitting concept notes was 11
April 2016 for the first stage of the programme’s
two-stage selection process. A panel will assess
concept notes and invite selected applicants topresent full proposals by 20 May 2016.
Proposals for one-year projects starting on 16
June 2016 can receive a maximum of €15,000 for
mentoring activities, regional training support, GBIF
advocacy actions, documentation and capacity
needs assessments.
Read more

The partnership will focus on promoting
efficient exchange of data between CAFF’s Arctic
Biodiversity Data Service (ABDS) and GBIF.org.
Read moreNews release on the agreement

DATA PUBLISHING

Experts offer recommendations for
improving GBIF-mediated data for
agrobiodiversity research

Call for proposals

Videos from training workshops now
onlineA set of 16 videos from a December 2015 workshop
on data quality is available for viewing on GBIF
Spain’s website. The videos in Spanish include
presentations by trainers Pablo Muñoz of Oxford
University, Francisco Pando, Katia Cezón, Santiago
Martínez de la Riva and Cristina Villaverde
from GBIF Spain. High definition versions of therecordings are available through the portal of the
Spanish National Research Council (CSIC).
Additionally, interviews of GBIF nodes staff from
Argentina, Brazil, France, Portugal, Spain andAustralia on progress in developing national
biodiversity portals based on the ALA portal arealso available via youtube. The interviews wererecorded during a meeting of the group.
Watch
Training videos from the data quality 		workshop
GBIF nodes staff talk about progress in
adapting the ALA portal

NEW MEMBERS

Agreement targets improved dataexchange on Arctic species
A new partnership between GBIF and theConservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna Working
Group (CAFF) aims to improve the quality andscope of Arctic biodiversity information available toscience and society.

TOMATO DIVERSITY BY IBVDERBLE, VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS. CC BY-SA
3.0

A team of international experts have completed areport providing more than 50 recommendations
for enhancing the coverage, completeness andusefulness of GBIF-mobilized data for research inagrobiodiversity.
GBIF’s task group on data fitness for use inagrobiodiversity assembled its recommendations
following a survey, in-depth interviews of otherexperts and a public consultation. The final report
is now available via GBIF.org.
Download
Final report of the task group on data 		fitness for agrobiodiversity research

New report offers recommendations
on improving GBIF-mediated data for
distribution modelling

A group of experts tasked with helping to improvethe usefulness of GBIF-mobilized data for
distribution modelling research have presented
their insights in a just-published report.
33GBits
The report draws on survey results from the
distribution modelling research community andthe group’s own views as well as input gathered at‘Frontiers of Biodiversity Informatics and Modelling
Species Distributions’ symposium and panel
discussion.
The task group’s recommendations call for GBIF to:• provide users with known indicators about data
precision, quality and uncertainty• include features that enable users to annotate
data errors or issues• help train and guide users on the appropriate
uses and interpretations of the data
The Secretariat is providing the distribution
modelling user community with opportunities toprovide feedback on the report (user registration
required) and to share their specific use cases andexperiences in working with GBIF-mediated data.
Read more
Task group reportNews release on the report

MEDIA

GBIF Benin on national TV
A 52-minute television programme on biodiversity
informatics for the conservation and sustainable
management of natural resources in Benin, airedon national TV, can be viewed on youtube. The
programme includes interviews with Joseph
Hounhouigan, dean of the faculty of agriculturalsciences at the University of Abomey-Calavi, whichhosts the GBIF node in Benin, Gaston Akouehou,
Head of Delegation for Benin and Jean Cossi
Ganglo, node manager of GBIF Benin.
Watch
Part 1 of TV programme
Part 2 of TV programme

GBIF DATA IN USE
The Secretariat maintains a programme to monitor
use of GBIF-mediated data in scientific literature.
The following peer-reviewed articles represent somerecent highlights.

4

4

Acosta AL, Giannini TC, Imperatriz-Fonseca VL et
al. Worldwide alien invasion: a methodologicalapproach to forecast the potential spread of ahighly invasive pollinator. PLoS ONE. Author
country: Brazil
Aguiar LMS, Bernard B, Ribeiro V, Machado RB &Jones G Should I stay or should I go? Climate change
effects on the future of Neotropical savannah batsGlobal Ecology and Conservation 5: 22-33 Author
countries: Brazil, United Kingdom
Bateman BL, Pidgeon AM, Radeloff VC et al. The
pace of past climate change vs. potential bird
distributions and land use in the United States.
Global Change Biology. Author countries: UnitedStates, Australia
Bellard C, Genovesi P & Jeschke JM. Global patterns
in threats to vertebrates by biological invasions.
Proceedings of the Royal Society B 283 (1823).
Author countries: France, Italy, Germany
Cardador L, Carrete M, Gallardo B et al. Combining
trade data and niche modelling improves
predictions of the origin and distribution of nonnative European populations of a globally invasive
species. Journal of Biogeography. Author country:
Spain
Coro G, Magliozzi C, Berghe EV, et al. Estimating
absence locations of marine species from data ofscientific surveys in OBIS. Ecological Modelling.
Author countries: Italy, Belgium, Greece, Philippines
Crowl AA, Miles NW, Visger CJ, et al. A global
perspective on Campanulaceae: biogeographic,
genomic, and floral evolution. American Journal of
Botany. Author country: United States
Deblauwe V, Droissart V, Bose R et al. Remotelysensed temperature and precipitation data improvespecies distribution modelling in the tropics. Global
Ecology and Biogeography. Author countries:
France, Belgium, Cameroon, United States, India,
Denmark, Netherlands
Díaz S, Kattge J, Cornelissen JHC et al. The global
spectrum of plant form and function. Nature.
Author countries: Argentina, Germany, Netherlands,
Australia, France, Colombia, United Kingdom,
United States, Panama, Russian Federation, French
Guiana, Italy, Canada, Costa Rica
Dunne JA, Maschner H, Betts MW et al. The roles
and impacts of human hunter-gatherers in North
Pacific marine food webs. Scientific Reports. Author
countries: United States, Canada

Aug 2011

no. 46 Mar 2016

Griffiths HJ & Waller CL. The first comprehensive
description of the biodiversity and biogeography of
Antarctic and Sub-Antarctic intertidal communities.
Journal of Biogeography. Author country: United
Kingdom

Ramirez-Cabral NYZ, Kumar L & Taylor S. Crop nichemodeling projects major shifts in common bean
growing areas Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
218-219: 102-113 Author countries: Australia,
MexicoHattab T, Leprieur F, Ben Rais Lasram F et al.
Forecasting fine-scale changes in the food-web
structure of coastal marine communities underclimate change. Ecography. Author countries:
France, Tunisia, Canada

Spalink D, Drew BT, Pace MC et al. Evolution ofgeographical place and niche space Patternsof diversification in the North American sedge(Cyperaceae) flora. Molecular Phylogenetics andEvolution 95: 183-195 Author countries: UnitedStates, China

Huang D, Hoeksema BW, Affendi YA et al.
Conservation of reef corals in the South China
Sea based on species and evolutionary diversity.
Biodiversity and Conservation. Author countries:
Singapore, Malaysia, China, Taiwan, Brunei
Darussalam, Philippines, Cambodia, Vietnam,
ThailandJanssens SB, Vandelook F, De Langhe E et al.
Evolutionary dynamics and biogeography ofMusaceae reveal a correlation between thediversification of the banana family and thegeological and climatic history of Southeast Asia.
New Phytologist. Author countries: Belgium,
Netherlands, Tanzania

Trowbridge CD, Little C, Ferrenburg LS et al. Shallow
subtidal octocorals in an Irish marine reserve.
Marine Biodiversity. Author countries: UnitedStates, United Kingdom, Ireland

NEW DATA
AndorraSpecies observations in Andorra
Publisher: Centre d’estudis de la neu i de la
muntanya d’Andorra (CENMA), Institut d’Estudis
Andorrans
Total records: 108,287

Jenkins CN, Alves MAS, Uezu A et al. Patterns ofvertebrate diversity and protection in Brazil. PLoS
ONE. Author country: Brazil

Observations of arthropods, fungi, vertebrates
and flora in Andorra from the CENMA – Institutd’Estudis Andorrans.

Loskutov IG, Melnikova SV & Bagmet LV Ecogeographical assessment of Avena L. wild species
at the VIR herbarium and genebank collection
Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution Author
country: Russian Federation

ArcticNewbold T, Hudson LN, Hill SLL et al. Global
patterns of terrestrial assemblage turnover within
and among land uses. Ecography. Author countries:
United Kingdom, Norway

Muskox abundance
Publisher: Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna
Total records: 117
Circumpolar musk ox occurrences gathered from1970 to 2016.

Osawa T, Kohyama K & Mitsuhashi H. Trade-off
relationship between modern agriculture andbiodiversity: Heavy consolidation work has a longterm negative impact on plant species diversity.
Land Use Policy. Author country: Japan
Pérez-Moreno H, Martínez-Meyer E, Soberón
Mainero J et al. Climatic patterns in theestablishment of wintering areas by North American
migratory birds. Ecology and Evolution. Author
countries: Mexico, United States
MUSK OX (OVIBOS MOSCHATUS), QUEBEC, CANADA. PHOTO BY LAURENT
BELANGER. CC BY-SA 4.0
55

GBitsSpider diversity
Publisher: Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna
Total records: 652
Spider observations from pan traps set in two wet
and two dry habitats in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut,
Canada.

Australia

24 new and updated datasets from the CSIRO
Oceans and Atmosphere (OBIS Australia)
Fish census in the Great Barrier Reef
Publisher: CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere
Total records: 147,466
Observations of 191 fish species from a long-term
census on the Great Barrier Reef.

Zomerganzen – Summering geese
Publisher: Research Institute for Nature and Forest(INBO)
Total records: 20,416
Summering geese observed in Flanders during
geese management and population counts. The
dataset contains over 3,700 sampling events.
Note: Sampling event dataset
Butterfly observations from Flanders and Brussels
Publisher: Natuurpunt
Total records: 612,934
Citizen science observations of butterflies fromFlanders and Brussels, gathered through the
Waarnemingen.be portal.

BrazilCollection of the Herbário da Universidade Federal
do AcrePublisher: Universidade Federal do Acre
Total records: 18,133
Amazonian plant specimens from Brazil, Peru and
Bolivia from the herbarium at the Universidade
Federal do Acre.

Colombia

FLYNN REEF, PART OF THE GREAT BARRIER REEF NEAR CAIRNS,QUEENSLAND, AUSTRALIA. PHOTO BY TOBY HUDSON, VIA WIKIMEDIA

Soviet fishery data
Publisher: CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere
Total records: 79,717
Data on fish catch composition and trawl locations
from 35 cruises of Russian fishery research vessels
in Australian waters between 1965 and 1978.

Belgium

Vlinderdatabank – butterflies in Flanders andBrussels
Publisher: Research Institute for Nature and Forest(INBO)
Total records: 761,660
Butterfly occurrences from historical collections,
literature and monitoring, providing a nearcomplete overview of species in the region.
6

6

Hemiptera from the Instituto Humboldt’s
entomological collection
Publisher: Instituto de Investigación de Recursos
Biológicos Alexander von Humboldt
Total records: 17,369
Hemiptera specimens – shield bugs, cicadas,aphids and leaf hoppers, nearly all georeferenced,
from Colombia.
Turtle survey data
Publisher: WCS Colombia
Total records: 281
Observations of Dahl’s toad-headed turtle(Mesoclemmys dahlia) and red-footed tortoise(Chelonoidis carbonaria) from a survey ofendangered turtles in Colombian dry forests.

Denmark
Denmark’s Zoological Museum publishes 18
years of moth monitoring observations
The Zoological Museum in Copenhagen has
published data from an 18-year roof-top monitoring
programme that collects insects with light traps.
The published records account for 1,063 of theAug 2011

no. 46 Mar 2016

country’s 2,522 known butterfly and moth species,
or 42 per cent of Lepidoptera species recorded in
Denmark.
The 37,477 Lepidoptera records gathered by thestudy are among the first datasets publishedthrough GBIF.org as a sampling-event dataset.
Enabled through an extension of the Darwin
Core Standard approved last year, this class ofdataset provides richer detail about both a study’s
methodology and species abundance.
Read moreNews release on the dataset
Data from the Biodiversitet Nu and NaturTjek
projects
Publisher: Danish Society for Nature Conservation /Danmarks Naturfredningsforening
Total records: 52,612
Citizen science observations of 30 indicatorspecies.

Macroarthropods from Greenland
Publisher: Department of Bioscience, Aarhus
University
Total records: 336
Macroarthropod specimens captured in pitfall traps
in Isua, Greenland
Danish true bugs
Publisher: Danish Biodiversity Information Facility
Total records: 9,789
Specimens of Danish bugs stored in the Natural
History Museums in Aarhus and Copenhagen.

Ireland

Grey seal distribution
Publisher: National Biodiversity Data Centre
Total records: 48,944
GPS observations from the tagging of grey seals(Halichoerus grypus) along the Irish coast.

IsraelLarge mammals from camera traps
Publisher: Hamaarag
Total records: 7,667
Camera-trap observations of large mammals from
Hamaarag – Israel’s National Nature Assessment
Programme.
Note: Sampling event dataset

Kenya

Checklist of endangered species from the coastal
region of Kenya
Publisher: National Museums of Kenya
Taxa: 182
This checklist of endangered species in the coastal
forests of the country is Kenya’s first publisheddataset.

Madagascar

Species observations from the Mahafaly plateau
Publisher: Museum für Naturkunde Berlin
Total records: 10,634
Observations of birds, Madagascan tortoise tick,blind cave fish, Grandidier’s mongoose (Galidictis
grandidieri), Grey-brown mouse lemur (Microcebus
griseorufus), plants, reptiles, yam, from theMahafaly Plateau in southwest Madagascar.
EUROPEAN RED SQUIRREL (SCIURUS VULGARIS). PHOTO BY TOIVOTOIVANEN & TIINA TOPPILA VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS, PUBLIC DOMAIN.
77

GBitsNetherlands

Data from long-term monitoring of hoverflies
between 1970 and 2014 collected to identify coreareas for their conservation. First data shared from
Serbia.
Note: This is the first dataset published from Serbia

Historical data from the ringing of nestlings by
volunteers between 1911 and 1959, providing
information on the timing of breeding seasons.

South Africa

Vogeltrekstation - Data from the ringing of
nestlings Publisher: Vogeltrekstation - Dutch
Centre for Avian Migration and Demography
Total records: 157,978

Monitoring data from the North Sea
Publisher: Netherlands Biodiversity Information
Facility (NLBIF)
Total records: 29,691
Observation records from benthic monitoringin the North Sea by the Zoological Museum
Amsterdam, between 1990-2002.

NorwayKinorhyncha – mapping the mud dragons of
NorwayPublisher: Natural History Museum, University ofOslo
Total records: 119
Observations of Kinorhyncha - a lesser known
group of marine invertebrates, from a project toname and describe them in Norwegian waters.
Vegetation data from alpine site
Publisher: NTNU University Museum
Total records: 15,973

Waterbird counts
Publisher: Animal Demography Unit, Department of
Zoology, University of Cape Town
Total records: 288,393
Citizen science observations from mid-summer andmid-winter water bird censuses in more than 400
wetlands around the country.

Spain

Bird census at the beach of Doñana Natural Space
Publisher: Biological Station of Doñana (CSIC)
Total records: 888
Data from bird counts along a beach transect at the
Biological Station of Doñana.
Note: Sampling event dataset
Mammals in pellet samples
Publisher: University of Navarra, Museum of
Zoology
Total records: 73,574
Small mammal specimens, representing 36 species,
collected from owl pellets.

Sampling event plant observations from alpine
sheep grazing experiment.
Note: Sampling event dataset

BrioCAT: Bryophytes of Catalunya
Publisher: Banc de dades de biodiversitat deCatalunya
Total records: 33,318

RussiaBryophyte observations from the biodiversity databank of Catalonia.

Botanical collections of the Polar Alpine Botanical
GardenPublisher: Polar-Alpine Botanical Garden-Instituteof N.A. Avrorin KSC RAS
Total records: 37,352
Lichens, hepatics or liverworts and blue-green
algae (cyanoprocaryota) from the collections of the
Polar-Alpine Botanical Garden Institute.

SerbiaHoverflies in Serbia
Publisher: Department of Biology and Ecology,
Faculty of Sciences, University of Novi Sad, Serbia
Total records: 2,166
8

8

United States

Culture collection of algae
Publisher: Culture Collection of Algae at Universityof Texas at Austin
Total records: 2,813
Cultures of living algae from a collection initiatedin the 1920’s, composed of microscopic cells,
filaments or colonial algae from soil and freshwater.
LACM entomology collection
Publisher: Natural History Museum of Los Angeles
CountyTotal records: 184,364

Aug 2011

no. 46 Mar 2016

Collection of phorid flies, primarily from North andSouth America
Specimens from the Illinois State Museum
Publisher: Illinois State Museum
Total records: 28,784
Reptile and amphibian specimens, shark, lamprey
and bony fish, birds and mammals, including many
Midwestern species from the museum’s collections.
Afrotropical Mydidae
Publisher: National Museum of Natural History,
Smithsonian Institution
Total records: 1,754

EVENTS
Data publishing workshop 1
31 March - 1 April 2016, Tamatave, Madagascar
Data publishing workshop 2
4-5 April 2016, Mahajanga, Madagascar
8th European Nodes Meeting
19-21 April 2016, Lisbon, Portugal
20th meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific,
Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA 20)
25-30 April 2016, Montreal, Canada

Occurrence records of Afrotropical Mydas flies
compiled from collection data for inclusion in the
manual of Afrotropical Diptera.

ALA Science Symposium 201611-13 May 2016, Perth, Australia
2016 conference of the Society for the Preservationof Natural History Collections (SPNHC)
20-25 June 2016, Berlin, Germany

North American bumble bees
Publisher: ZooKeys
Total records: 10,211

2nd International Conference on Biodiversity
Biobanking
21-24 June 2016, Berlin, Germany

Data from a survey to document the status of bee
pollinators in 41 of the 50 US states.

Uzbekistan

Geophytes of the Fergana valley
Publisher: Academy of Sciences of the Republic of
Uzbekistan institute of the Gene Pool of Plants andAnimals
Total records: 1,201

23rd meeting of the GBIF Governing Board (GB23)
24-27 October, 2016, Brasilia, Brazil

Observations of 210 species of monocotyledonous
geophytes representing nine families from theFergana valley in eastern Uzbekistan.
Note: This is the first dataset published fromUzbekistan

GBIF Vision A world in which biodiversity information is freely and universallyavailable for science, society, and a sustainable future.
GBIF Secretariat
Universitetsparken 15
DK-2100 Copenhagen Ø
Denmark
http://www.gbif.org/

Tel    +45 35 32 14 70
Fax   +45 35 32 14 80
Email info@gbif.org
GBits Archive http://www.gbif.org/newsroom/newsletter
99