GBitsa publication of

no. 45
Dec 2015

GBIF opens BID call for
proposals from Africa

The first call for proposals for the Biodiversity
Information for Development (BID) programme,
published in September, brought in 143 initial concept
notes for projects coordinated from 34 African countries.
A panel of experts has evaluated the concept notes andsuccessful applicants are being invited to prepare full
proposals by the end of February 2016.
The €900,000 funding assigned to this call will go
towards projects in sub-Saharan Africa that will:• Mobilize biodiversity data relating to protectedareas, threatened species, and invasive alien species• Use and extend best practices for digitizing natural
history collections and mobilizing other biodiversity
data• Apply biodiversity data in support of decisionmaking and research• Develop lasting national, regional or thematic
networks to support ongoing data sharing and reuse

NEWS UPDATESGBIF opens BID call for proposals fromAfricaPrivate sector holds key data tohelp preserve Gulf and West Asia
ecosystems
Winners named for first GBIF Ebbe
Nielsen Challenge
GBIF releases 2014 science review
Public consultation: GBIF invites
comments on data gap analysis guide .
Videos from New York biodiversity
informatics symposium online.2
22nd meeting of the GBIF Governing
Board held

NEW PARTICIPANTS.......................3
SECRETARIAT STAFF CHANGES......3
DATA PUBLISHING....4
GBIF COMMUNITY....4
GBIF DATA IN USE.....7
NEW DATA...... 8

Read moreNews release on the call

Private sector holds key data to help
preserve Gulf and West Asia ecosystems

A workshop held in Muscat, Oman, on 15-16 September
2015, brought together government regulators andenvironmental consultants in the Gulf Cooperation
Council (GCC) / West Asia region to discuss the benefitsof wider sharing of species data collected throughenvironmental impact assessments (EIAs).
Entitled ‘Unlocking biodiversity data from environmental
impact assessment’, the workshop was jointly organized
by GBIF, the United Nations Environment Programme– Regional Office for West Asia (UNEP-ROWA) and theMinistry of Environment and Climate Affairs (MECA),
Sultanate of Oman.

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GBits
The event is part of a GBIF-led project funded by
the Abu Dhabi Global Environmental Data Initiative(AGEDI) through the Eye on Earth Initiative. The
overall aim is to encourage the use of tools thatenable sharing and reuse of digitized data that EIAs
capture about the distribution of plants, animals
and other species.
The project has also enabled GBIF Secretariat
to engage governments and practitioners in aregion that until now does not include any GBIF
Participants. The Environment Agency of Abu Dhabi
has now set up a GBIF Integrated Publishing Toolkit(IPT) through which it intends to publish datasets
arising from EIAs.
Read moreNews release on the event (In English andArabic)Workshop documents and presentations

Winners named for first GBIF Ebbe
Nielsen Challenge

An expert jury awarded first prize in the inaugural2015 GBIF Ebbe Nielsen Challenge to a Belgiumbased trio known as Datafable for “GBIF dataset
metrics”, a browser extension that provides at-aglance insights about datasets available throughGBIF.org. Biologist Richard Pyle earned the second
prize for BioGUID.org, a web service that crosslinks
identifiers linked to data objects in the biodiversity
realm

GBIF releases 2014 science review

GBIF has released the 2014 Science Review,
documenting 350 scientific papers published in2014 that applied data drawn from across the GBIF
network. The Review also illustrates the range ofdata applications through selected summaries ofarticles of special interest for the scientific andpolicy communities.
Download2014 Science Review

Public consultation: GBIF invites
comments on data gap analysis guide

GBIF invites interested users to offer their input andfeedback on the Best Practice Guide for Data Gap
Analysis for Biodiversity Stakeholders.
The guide summarizes 16 actual exercises toanalyse gaps in accessible data and provides
an overview of principles to be considered when
designing a gap analysis. According to the authorsof the best practice guide, analysing gaps inavailable data helps prioritize data mobilization
activities and “informs policy- and decision-makers
on what pitfalls need to be avoided because of lackof adequate data.”
Feedback on the guide may be submitted via the
GBIF Community site by 1 February 2016.

Videos from New York biodiversity
informatics symposium online

Videos are now online from the symposium
and panel discussion, ‘Frontiers Of Biodiversity
Informatics and Modelling Species Distributions’, an
event convened by the Center for Biodiversity andConservation at the American Museum of Natural
History (CBC-AMNH) and GBIF and hosted at AMNH
in New York City on 4 November 2015.

NICOLAS NOÉ OF DATAFABLE

The recipients receiving first prize are Peter
Desmet, Bart Aelterman and Nicolas Noé, whose
entry earned the highest marks from among six
finalists to capture the €20,000 prize.
Read moreNews release22

The event represented the public face of a threeday working meeting for the GBIF Task Group on
Data Fitness for Use in Distribution Modelling, heldat the City College of New York. GBIF asked the task
group to assess the state of the art in the field, toconnect with the worldwide scientific and modelling
communities, and to share a vision of how GBIF
should support them in the coming decade.
Watch#GBIFfrontiers on Vimeo

Aug 2011

no. 45 Dec 2015

22nd meeting of the GBIF Governing
Board held
Representatives from 38 countries and six
international organizations attended the 22nd
meeting of the GBIF Governing Board (GB22) in
Antananarivo, Madagascar on 8 and 9 October
2015.

A two-day training event, organized in conjunction
with GB22, introduced the publishing of samplebased data to GBIF nodes’ staff. In addition to thetraining event, the week’s programme included a
two-day meeting of GBIF nodes, a half-day public
symposium to present achievements across the
GBIF network, and a full day national symposium
presenting the biodiversity of Madagascar.
In his video message at the opening of theGoverning Board meeting, Braulio Dias, Executive
Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity
expressed CBD’s full support for GBIF’s open
data infrastructure, which “enables research notpossible before and informs better decisions toconserve and sustainably use Earth’s biologicalresources.”
At the meeting, the Governing Board approved the
new GBIF Strategic Plan for 2017-21, a new financial
model to take GBIF through that period, and the
updated Work Programme for 2016.
Watch
Message from Braulio Dias, Executive 		
Secretary of CBD, on YouTube

NEW PARTICIPANTS
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)’s
entry into the GBIF community as an Associate
Participant brings the total number of national
members to 54, including 14 countries from Africa.
DRC is Africa’s second largest country by area, andis among 17 so-called ‘megadiverse’ countries thatcollectively harbour the majority of the world’s
species.
The Horn of Africa Regional Environment Centre
and Network (HoA-REC&N), an autonomous
institution under the Addis Ababa University, has
joined GBIF as Associate Participant.
The centre and network works on climate change
adaptation and mitigation, environmental
governance and ecosystem conservation in

the region, and promotes more than 40 higher
education, research and civil society organizations
in six east African countries: Djibouti, Ethiopia,
Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan and Sudan.
The West African nation of Guinea has become the38th Voting Participant in the GBIF network, having
joined as an Associate Participant in March 2005.
Since joining GBIF, Guinean staff have participatedin several training events, notably those organizedunder the SEP-CEPDEC initiative, which supported
the development of national biodiversity
information networks in Francophone countries andpromoted the engagement with GBIF.
Read moreNews update on Guinea’s membershipNews update on DRC’s membershipNews update on HoA-REC&N’s entry into
GBIF

SECRETARIAT STAFF CHANGESThe GBIF Secretariat informatics team has recruitedfour new staff members to help deliver high-quality
data publishing tools.
• Morten Hoefft is Danish, and has been hired
to help improve the navigation and future
development of GBIF.org. Morten is trained as
an architect and as a software developer. He
has previously worked with developing online
maps and on displaying geographical data.
• Matthew Blissett is from the UK and has adegree in computing. He comes to GBIF after six
years in the biodiversity informatics team at theRoyal Botanic Gardens, Kew, where he workedon the Plant List and Kew’s names backbone, as
well as with collections systems. As part of the
GBIF informatics team, Matt will be working on
the GBIF backbone taxonomy.
• Christian Gendreau is a software developerfrom Québec, Canada. Before joining GBIF, heworked with Canadensys for four years, andrefined the technology behind the database of
Vascular Plants of Canada (VASCAN). He also
developed a new set of components including
the Canadensys data explorer. Christian will befocusing on the technical side of data quality at
GBIF.

3

3

GBits• Alessio Checcucci is Italian and has worked assystem engineer and database administrator
in the last 20 years for various internationalorganizations in Italy, Spain, Germany, Chile,
Australia and the United Kingdom. Alessio
has been hired as system administrator and istasked with leading various aspects of system
operations, including installation, deployment,
monitoring and updates.
The Secretariat has seen three staff departures in2015 - Éamonn Ó Tuama, Senior Programme Officer
dealing with interoperability issues for biodiversity
data; Oliver Meyn, software developer; and CiprianVizitiu, system administrator. Additionally, systemadministrator Andrei Cenja’s last working day at
GBIF is 31 December 2015. We wish them all well forthe future.

Journal with just two clicks of the mouse.
Read morePensoft press release on Eurekalert
Pensoft blog post on streamlined metadata
conversion into manuscripts

GBIF COMMUNITY
Workshop in Luanda discusses
participation of Angola in GBIFDATA PUBLISHINGIPT v2.3 released

A new version of the GBIF Integrated Publishing
Toolkit (IPT), used to publish and share biodiversity
data through the GBIF network, is available fordownload.
This version, v2.3, supports the publishing ofsample-based datasets. The release notes provide
information on upgrading existing IPT installations,and on publishing sample-based data.
An updated version of the IPT User Manual is alsoavailable.

New plugin converts metadata into
scholarly manuscripts at the click of abuttonA new plugin to a workflow previously developed
by GBIF and Pensoft, and tested with datasets
shared through GBIF and DataONE, has streamlined
the conversion of metadata into a manuscript forscholarly publications.
GBIF has been working with Pensoft to promote
the data paper – a searchable metadata document
describing a particular dataset - as a means ofbringing credit and recognition to all those involved
in data publication. The new feature allows
publishers of datasets on either GBIF, DataONEor any other portal storing metadata in the sameformat, to create a manuscript and submit it tothe open access, peer-reviewed Biodiversity Data
4

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About 30 participants from Angolan museums,
universities and national environment, agriculture
and fisheries agencies attended a workshop on
biodiversity data sharing in Luanda, in September.
The event was organized by the Ministry of Scienceand Technology of Angola, in collaboration with
GBIF Portugal, and in association with the 4th
National Conference on Science and Technology.
In his opening speech, the National Director of
Scientific Research, Domingos Neto, discussed
the need for a data policy framework in Angola.
Representatives from five museums, universities
and research institutes, which together host morethan 100 thousand specimens, then presented theinstitutions’ collections and research.
Tim Hirsch from the GBIF Secretariat gave an
overview of the benefits of participation in GBIF,
and Rui Figueira, from GBIF Portugal, summarized
information about biodiversity in Angola available
through GBIF.org, and presented the guidelines forthe creation of a national node.
The workshop offered an opportunity for Angolan
researchers to discuss participation in GBIF, and thenext steps towards it.
Read moreNews update on GBIF Portugal’s website

Aug 2011

no. 45 Dec 2015

Six GBIF nodes meet on developing
national biodiversity data portals

Software developers from the GBIF nodes inArgentina, Brazil, France, Portugal, Spain andAustralia met at the Royal Botanical Garden in
Madrid, Spain in October, to move forward on
the development of national biodiversity portals
based on the Atlas of Living Australia (ALA) site.
The emphasis of the meeting was on developing
species and geospatial modules for the portals.

was hosted by Varos Petrosyn at the A.N. Severtsov
Institute of Ecology and Evolution at the Russian
Academy of Sciences.
The event is one of a number of recent activities tomobilize interest in GBIF in Russia. Interested dataholders and users in the country discuss various
aspects of GBIF-mediated data through the mailinglist gbif-in-russia@googlegroups.com.
Download
Presentations from the seminar
GBIF brochure in Russian

Malawi’s participation in GBIF
endorsed by national stakeholders
The meeting, organized by GBIF Spain, was thesecond of the CoopBioPlat working group, set up
to build a common platform to serve biodiversity
information at the national level. The working groupis funded by the European Commission.
At the meeting, progress was also made towards
the translation of key technical documentation andweb user-interface of the ALA portal into French,
Portuguese and Spanish. This activity is part of
the Encounter Bay project, which was one of six
projects to receive GBIF support in 2015.
Read more
Information on the CoopBioPlat working
group
Encounter Bay - ALA Node Portal 		internationalization project

Mobilizing a network to promote GBIF
in Russia

A seminar in Moscow in October helped build on
the growing interest among Russian researchers toprovide global access to their data through GBIF.
The 23 participants were mostly data holders andrepresented 17 academic institutions, universities,
nature reserves and NGOs from across the RussianFederation.
The seminar was organized by Natalya Ivanova andMaxim Shashkov - representatives of the Instituteof Mathematical Problems of Biology at the Russian
Academy of Sciences, creators and administratorsof the new website www.gbif.ru, which provides
GBIF-related information in Russian. The meeting

GBIF Malawi held a consultation with key national
stakeholder institutions to introduce and seek
commitment for the new node’s activities. Malawi
joined GBIF in February 2015.
The event included representatives from the
National Herbarium and Botanical Gardens ofMalawi, Forestry Research Institute of Malawi,
Museums of Malawi, Mulanje Mountain
Conservation Trust, University of Malawi Chancellor
College - Biology Department, Malawi Plant
Genetics Resource Centre, Environmental Affairs
Department, Fisheries Research Institute, African
Parks and the National Commission for Scienceand Technology (NCST), host institution of the GBIF
national node.
Participants in the meeting agreed that the NCST,
through its Department of Documentation andInformation Services, should host a national
biodiversity portal, and that signed agreementswith stakeholders would facilitate the publishing of
biodiversity data.
The meeting is an activity of the GBIF Malawi
advocacy action project, which received support
through the GBIF capacity enhancement support
programme for 2015.

Brazil workshop promotes publishingof sample-based data

A workshop held at the National Council for
Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq),
in Brasilia, trained 16 researchers from various
national programmes in the methodologies, tools
and standards used by the Brazilian Biodiversity
Information System (SiBBr) and GBIF for publishingbiodiversity data.
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GBits
The workshop centred around the publishing ofsample-based data collected through the Brazilian
Long Term Ecological Research Program (LTER/ PELD), an initiative created in 1996 to gather
information related to biodiversity conservationin Brazil. The LTER programme focuses on theestablishment of permanent research sites invarious Brazilian ecosystems, and the network
comprises 30 research sites currently. Researchers
from 15 of these were represented at the workshop.
Read moreNews release on the SiBBr website (In 		
Portuguese)

GBIF network members from five
African countries trained in ecologicalniche modelling.......

Uruguayan data technicians trained inpublishing tools
A data publishing workshop, jointly organized
by GBIF Uruguay, SiB Colombia, SiB Brazil andCanadensys, helped train 24 data technicians,
mostly from government, and from the nongovernmental sector and academia. Of these21 participants were from Uruguay and 3 from
Argentina, Chile and Cuba.

An objective of the workshop was to build capacity
for data publishing to the planned national
biodiversity portal for Uruguay and to GBIF. The
workshop also focussed on strengthening capacity
in assessing data quality.
The workshop was held from 30 November to
2 December 2015 in Montevideo, Uruguay, as
part of the 2015 capacity enhancement support
project towards setting up Uruguay’s data portal.
The training builds on the success and resources
developed by Colombia as part of their 2014
capacity enhancement project.

Workshop identifies actions forlimiting the spread of invasive species
in sub-Saharan Africa

Staff and collaborators of GBIF nodes in
Mauritania, Benin, Uganda, Kenya and South
Africa were trained in ecological niche modellingand generating data papers in a workshop
organized by the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT)in Johannesburg from 3 to 6 November 2015.
Participants were required to bring a dataset fromtheir country to use in practical exercises, andlearned to prepare datasets for analyses, use GIS
and MaxENT software, and to interpret and improvemodels.
The workshop is part of a project receiving support
through the GBIF capacity enhancement support
programme for 2015.
Course materials will be made available through the
EWT e-learning platform shortly.

6

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Representatives of ten organizations from four
countries – Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Senegal
and France – met in November in Nouakchott,
Mauritania, to discuss the establishment of acoordinated alert and response network on invasive
species in the sub-Saharan region. The workshop
also focussed on developing an inventory of exotic
and invasive species at the national and regional
levels.
Participants agreed that the most dramatic spread
observed in the region in the last few years areof aquatic and wetland plants – including watercabbage (Pistia stratiotes), kariba weed (Salvinia
molesta) and the common reed (Phragmites
australis).
The workshop participants made recommendations
for better understanding of the extent of the
spread of invasive species, and identified research
programmes and actions to limit their impact.
The event, an activity of a project supported by a2014 GBIF capacity enhancement programme grant,
was organized by Ecole Normale Supérieur, host of
the GBIF node in Mauritania.

Aug 2011

no. 45 Dec 2015

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.
Brummitt NA, Bachman S, Griffiths-Lee J et al.
(2015) Green plants in the red: a baseline global
assessment for the IUCN Sampled Red List Index forPlants. PloS ONE 10(8): e0135152.
Author countries: United Kingdom, South Africa
Research funding: The Rufford Foundation; theMAVA Foundation; Environment Agency of Abu
Dhabi

Pakistan and China modeled the bear’s ecologicalniche—testing it against data accessed through
GBIF, VertNet and other sources—and then looked
to refine the resulting measures of long-term
suitable habitat. Using data for artificial nighttime
lighting as a proxy for human occupancy, theresults account for human disturbance while
highlighting the most intact regions for long-term
conservation and protected area planning.

While global assessments of extinction risks forbirds, mammals, amphibians and other groups
are available to help guide their conservation, no
similar baseline has existed for plants, despite thefundamental role they play in the biosphere. The
IUCN Sampled Red List Index unveiled here offers
the first accurate view of how threatened plants
are around the world.
Drawing on specimen collections from the world’s
herbaria, including records accessed through
GBIF, the authors assessed a 7,000-species
sample from five major plant groups to represent
the world’s nearly 380,000 described plant
species. Upon reaching the conclusion that morethan one in five plants already faces the threatof extinction—a risk that is generally twice ashigh in the tropics—they encourage combining
actions to mitigate the climate change impacts notconsidered here with efforts to stem biodiversity
losses.
Escobar LE, Awan MN & Qiao H (2015)
Anthropogenic disturbance and habitat loss for the
red-listed Asiatic black bear (Ursus thibetanus):
Using ecological niche modeling and nighttime lightsatellite imagery. Biological Conservation 191: 400407.
Author countries: United States, Pakistan, China
Research funding: U.S. Armed Forces Health
Surveillance Branch; National Natural Sciences
Foundation of China
Despite its broad range across eastern Russia,
northern India and northeastern China, the Asiatic
black bear (Ursus thibetanus) is globally redlisted as vulnerable, and its declining population
faces rising conflict with humans over habitat andresources. A unique research team from the US,

ASIAN BLACK BEAR (URSUS THIBETANUS). BY RUHOLAH AHMADI. CC BY
SA 3.0

Alimi TO, Fuller DO, Qualls WA et al. (2015)
Predicting potential ranges of primary malaria
vectors and malaria in northern South America
based on projected changes in climate, land coverand human population. Parasites & Vectors 8: 431.
Author countries: United States, Colombia, Brazil
Research funding: U.S. National Institutes of Health
Byers JE, Smith R, Pringle J et al. (2015) Invasion
expansion: time since introduction best predicts
global ranges of marine invaders. Scientific Reports
5: 12436.
Author countries: United States, Australia, New
ZealandResearch funding: Macquarie University; Universityof New South Wales; U.S. National Science
Foundation
van Kleunen M, Dawson W, Essl F et al. (2015).
Global exchange and accumulation of non-nativeplants. Nature 525(7567): 100-103.
Author countries: Germany, Australia, Czech
Republic, United States, Russia, New Zealand,
Spain, Colombia, Costa Rica, Switzerland, South7

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GBitsAfrica, Portugal, Belgium, Chile, India, Brazil,
Uruguay, Belize, Oman, Thailand, China, Saudi
Arabia, Netherlands
Research funding: Deutsche
Forschungsgemeinschaft; Austrian Climate andEnergy Fund; Czech Science Foundation; Czech
Academy of Sciences; Ministry of Science andCulture of Lower Saxony; VW-Foundation; Flora deGuinea Ecuatorial; King Saud University
Leiblein-Wild MC, Steinkamp J, Hickler T, etal. Modelling the potential distribution, net
primary production and phenology of common
ragweed with a physiological model. Journal of
Biogeography.
Author country: Germany
Research funding: Hesse Ministry of Higher
Education, Research, and the Arts
Magwé-Tindo J, Zapfack L & Sonké B. Diversityof wild yams (Dioscorea spp., Dioscoreaceae)
collected in continental Africa. Biodiversity andConservation.
Author country: Cameroon
Mendoza R, Luna S & Aguilera C (2015) Risk
assessment of the ornamental fish trade in Mexico:
analysis of freshwater species and effectivenessof the FISK (Fish Invasiveness Screening Kit).
Biological Invasions 17(12): 3491-3502.
Author country: Mexico
Research funding: Mexican National FisheriesInstitute, Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon
Meyer C, Kreft H, Guralnick RP & Jetz W. Global
priorities for an effective information basis of
biodiversity distributions. Nature Communications
6: 8221.
Author countries: Germany, United States
Research funding: Deutsche Bundesstiftung
Umwelt (DBU), German Academic Exchange
Service (DAAD), German Research Council (DFG),
NSF, Yale University, University of Göttingen.
Wagner N, Mingo V, Schulte U & Lötters S (2015)
Risk evaluation of pesticide use to protected
European reptile species. Biological Conservation
191: 667-673.
Author country: Germany
Research funding: German Research Foundation
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Ware C, Berge J, Jelmert A et al. Biologicalintroduction risks from shipping in a warming
Arctic. Journal of Applied Ecology.
Author countries: Norway, Australia, Denmark,
Switzerland, Russian Federation, Poland
Research funding: Tromsø University Museum,the University Centre on Svalbard, Svalbard
Environmental Protection Fund, the Fram Centre,
the Norwegian Polar Institute, the Norwegian
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Yañez-Arenas C ,Peterson AT, Rodríguez-Medina K& Barve N. Mapping current and future potential
snakebite risk in the new world. Climatic Change.
Author country: United States
Research funding: CONACYTNEW DATA
eBird update adds 58 million newobservations

With the addition of more than 58 million newobservations, the 2014 update to the eBird
Observational Dataset contains nearly 212 million
records encompassing 98% of the world’s known
bird species. This single update has pushed thetotal number of records available through GBIF.org
to above the 600 million mark.
Led by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology (CLO), eBird
engages more than a quarter million volunteer
birdwatchers to collect observations. VertNet,a collaborative U.S.-based project and GBIF
participant has again prepared and published aDarwin Core Archive version of the updated dataset.
Read moreNews release on eBird update

ANTARCTIC
Biodiversity of Antarctic intertidal communities
Publisher: Antarctic Biodiversity Information Facility(ANTABIF)
Total records: 3,902
Observations dating back to 1897, of 1,416
intertidal species/taxa from 229 locations, verified
using the World Register of Marine Species(WoRMS). Majority of the data come from publishedmanuscripts.

Aug 2011

no. 45 Dec 2015

At sea observations during icebreaking expedition
Publisher: Antarctic Biodiversity Information Facility(ANTABIF)
Total records: 4,343
Observations of seabirds and marine mammals
during a 2013 icebreaking expedition. Data weregathered to establish their quantitative distribution.

ARCTIC
Circumpolar Seabird Monitoring Plan
Publisher: Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna
Total records: 3,439

sinensis). Native to the Pacific coasts of China andKorea, mitten crabs arrived in European waters in
the early 1900 and were first recorded in Belgium
in 1933. The species is believed to have been
introduced via ship’s ballast water and, possibly,
intentionally released to establish fisheries.

BENIN
National census of Lepidochelys olivacea
Publisher: GBIF Benin
Total records: 589
Observations of the olive ridley sea turtle along
Benin’s coast.
Ecology of teak plantations
Publisher: GBIF Benin
Total records: 2,416
Species recorded in 16 plots demarcated in private
teak (Tectona grandis) plantations in southern
Benin.

PUFFIN (FRATERCULA ARCTICA), ICELAND. BY RICHARD BARTZ. CC BY-SA
3.0

Observations of Arctic seabird species gatheredby the Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna tomonitor populations and to provide circumpolar
information on the species’ status to management
agencies of Arctic countries.

BELGIUM
Observations of invasive American bullfrog in
Flanders
Publisher: Research Institute for Nature and Forest(INBO)
Total records: 7,623
Occurrences of American bullfrog (Lithobates
catesbeiana) recorded during monitoring to manage
the alien invasive species’ populations. Issues withthe dataset can be reported via a Github link.
Chinese mitten crab occurrences in Flanders
Publisher: Research Institute for Nature and Forest(INBO)
Total records: 6,186
Observation records, dating back to early 2000,
of the alien species Chinese mitten crab (Eriocheir

Census of plant and animal species in sacred
forests of RAMSAR sites
Publisher: GBIF Benin
Total records: 837
Occurrences of plant and animal species recordedin November 2013, in sacred forests located in two
RAMSAR sites in southern Benin.

BIOFRESH
Data gathered as part of the EU-funded BioFreshproject for the conservation of freshwater
biodiversity.
Balkans

Freshwater fishes of the Western Balkans
Publisher: BioFresh
Total records: 10,007
Occurrence records of freshwater fish in Slovenia,
Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Montenegro andMacedonia, gathered from existing databases inregional and national institutes and from literature.
ItalyFreshwater fish of Italy
Publisher: BioFresh
Total records: 52,545
Fish observations from the last 20 years, compiled
from fisheries plans, administration databases andfrom studies in Italy.

99GBitsEuropean riparian ground beetles
Publisher: BioFresh
Total records: 7,950
Occurrence data records of Central European
ground beetles gathered from literature,unpublished collections and private data banks.

BRAZILFish biodiversity of the Vitória-Trindade Seamount
Chain
Publisher: Brazilian Marine Biodiversity Database
Total records: 531
Data acquired during three scientific diving
expeditions to the VTC seamounts and islands,
in the southwestern Atlantic, in 2009 and2011. Records from fishery surveys were later
incorporated into the database.
Tree diversity of Seu Nico forest
Publisher: Laboratory of Ecology and Evolution of
Plants, at Universidade Federal de Viçosa
Total records: 2,868
Observation records from a one-hectare plot with
2,868 trees in the Seu Nico forest of southeastern
Brazil, a species-rich old growth forest.

CANADA
Inventory and BioBlitz Records from rare Charitable
Research Reserve
Publisher: University of Guelph
Total records: 28,924
Observation records from a four-month inventory
and a BioBlitz in the 900+ acre rare Charitable
Research Reserve.
Bryophytes from the Marie-Victorin Herbarium
Publisher: Université de Montréal Biodiversity
CentreTotal records: 26,193
Dataset with the digitized half of the Marie-Victorin
Herbarium’s 50,000 + specimens of non-vascularplants.

COLOMBIA
Distribution of introduced gecko
Publisher: Instituto de Investigación de Recursos
Biológicos Alexander von Humboldt
Total records: 81
10

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Records of exotic Colombian specimens of thecommon house gecko (Hemidactylus frenatus).

DENMARK
Vascular plants in Danish coastal meadows
Publisher: Department of Biology, University of
Copenhagen
Total records: 3,595
Vascular plant observations from a 1982-85 studyof vegetation in salt and brackish coastal meadowsin southeastern Denmark.
Citizen science data from surveys
Publisher: Danske-Dyr, Condidact
Total records: 15,311
Records from eight citizen science surveys ofladybirds (2013), spiders (2004, 2011, 2014),
snails (2012, 2015, 2006), amphibians (2007) andbutterflies (2005). The data provider – ConDidact –is a publisher of online educational material.

ESTONIA
PlutoF platform observations
Publisher: Natural History Museum, University of
Tartu
Total records: 741,967
Observation records from citizen science andresearch projects hosted by the PlutoF platform,
and verified on the PlutoF workbench by appointed
experts. The platform was created for ecologists
and taxonomists to manage their research data.
Citizen science observations with audio recordings
Publisher: Natural History Museum, University of
Tartu
Total records: 371
Audio records indicating species occurrencescollected by citizen scientists through the PlutoF
workbench – a web-based workbench for taxonomic
research – and connected mobile application Minu
loodusheli (My naturesound).
Collections of the Estonian Museum of Natural
History
Publisher: Natural History Museum, University of
Tartu
Total records: 212,157
Specimens, including type specimens, in theAug 2011

no. 45 Dec 2015

collections of the Estonian Museum of Natural
History. The museum contains nearly 260,000
specimens, which include around 90% of the plant,
beetle, butterfly and moth, bird and mammal
species found in Estonia.

FRANCE
Données flore des CBN agrégées par la FCBN
Publisher: SPN - Service du Patrimoine naturel,
Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Paris
Total records: 20,855,528
More than 20 million data records of theflora of France, held by the country’s elevennational botanical conservatories (CBN). These
conservatories were formed into a federation– Fédération des Conservatoires Botaniques
Nationaux (FCBN) – in 1999, and set about the taskof establishing an information system to sharevegetation data. The project was completed early
2014.
Data gathered are from field surveys, herbaria andliterature.
Marine biodiversity data from New Caledonia
Publisher: SPN - Service du Patrimoine naturel,
Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Paris
Total records: 4,791

GERMANY
Lepidoptera and Trichoptera of the Palatinate forest/ North Vosges
Publisher: University of Kaiserslautern
Total records: 3200
Butterflies and caddis flies observed insouthwestern Germany, in and around the UNESCO
biosphere reserve of the Palatinate forest / North
Vosges mountain range.

IRELAND
Lichen.ie data
Publisher: National Biodiversity Data Centre
Total records: 895
Records of lichens from different locations aroundthe country.
Cetacean sightings
Publisher: National Biodiversity Data Centre
Total records: 7,763
Three datasets from the Irish Whale and Dolphin
Group (IWDG) of whale observations by citizen
scientists, whale sightings from the Constant Effort
Sighting Scheme – a monitoring effort operated by
the IWDG and of cetacean strandings.

NETHERLANDS
Breeding Bird Monitoring Program
Publisher: Dutch Centre for Field Ornithology(Sovon)Total records: 94,696
Observations of breeding birds gathered duringmapping of bird territories in demarcated study
plots.

ANNIBAL REEF, NEW CALEDONIA. BY J BREW. CC BY SA 2.0

Underwater observations from the reefs andlagoons of New Caledonia, from LAGPLON, an
information system on marine biodiversity of thearea, set up by the French research agency, Institut
de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD).

European Invertebrate Survey - Orthoptera
observations
Publisher: European Invertebrate Survey (EIS) - The
Netherlands
Total records: 68,939
Orthoptera (grasshoppers, groundhoppers,
crickets, bushcrickets), earwig and cockroachobservations from the Netherlands, from 18002002.
Migration of Pacific golden plovers through northeastern Mongolia
Publisher: Working Group International Waterbird
and Wetland Research (WIWO) - Netherlands
1111GBitsTotal records: 12,808

Total records: 3,669

Records from a 16-day monitoring expedition in
May 2005 of Pacific golden plovers through the
Mongol-Daguur Strictly Protected Area in northeastern Mongolia.

Vascular plant observations from salt meadows insouthern Norway.

Great Grey Shrike Count
Publisher: Waarneming.nl
Total records: 13,559
Eight datasets with observation records fromannual great grey shrike counts in the Netherlands.
Data were gathered by citizen scientists between
2007 and 2015 during winter surveys organized by
Waarneming.nl to monitor the species’ populationsin the country.

The avian collection at the Natural History Museum,
Oslo, Norway
Publisher: Natural History Museum, University ofOslo
Total records: 110,660
Preserved specimens, eggshells, sperm and DNA
of birds from the collections of the Natural History
Museum in Oslo. The specimens and eggshells arepart of historical collections going back to the 17thand 18th centuries, respectively.

SPAIN
NORWAYThe first two datasets described below are among
the earliest examples of datasets published using
the new sample event data standard enabled in the
new IPT.
Lepidurus arcticus survey Northeast Greenland
2013
Publisher: NTNU University Museum
Total records: 16
A sampling dataset of tadpole shrimp (Lepidurus
arcticus) observations from ponds and lakes of theZackenberg area in northeast Greenland, from Julyand August 2013.
Lowland lakeshore vegetation in Nord-Trøndelag
Publisher: NTNU University Museum
Total records: 782
A sampling dataset with 391 plant observations
from vegetation plots in six protected areas in the
Nord- Trøndelag county of Norway.
Database of tagged fish
Publisher: Norwegian Institute for Nature Research
Total records: 32,762

Neotropicmyxo - A database of Myxomycetes fromthe Neotropics
Publisher: Real Jardín Botánico (CSIC)
Total records: 43,066
Occurrences of slime moulds from the Neotropics,
ranging from Mexico to Tierra del Fuego in
Argentina and Chile. Data come from literature,
herbaria and collections.
Free-living nematode species Lake Varano,southern Italy
Publisher: Natural History Museum of Barcelona
Total records: 284
Data, including those relating to 40 species new
to the southern Adriatic, from the first study to
document roundworms or nematodes in Lake
Varano.

SWEDEN
Porpoises
Publisher: Swedish Museum of Natural History
Total records: 2,188
Citizen observations of harbour porpoises,
published after verification by the Swedish Museumof Natural History.

Occurrence records from the national database oftagged salmonids - Atlantic salmon, brown trout
and Arctic char.

Collections of the Swedish Museum of Natural
History
Publisher: Swedish Museum of Natural History
Total records: 218,982

ARKO strandeng
Publisher:
Norwegian Institute for Nature Research
12

Fish specimens; insect, arachnid and myriapod
specimens and Cenozoic vertebrate and Palaeozoic

12Aug 2011

no. 45 Dec 2015

invertebrate specimens from the collections of theSwedish Museum of Natural History.

Swiss botanist Edmond Boissier’s Flora Orientalis.
The latter three collections are ‘closed herbaria’,
whose collections are never loaned.

Swedish Malaise Trap Project collection inventory
Publisher: Swedish Museum of Natural History
Total records: 99,083

UNITED STATES

Records of insects caught in malaise traps – tentlike structures used to trap flying insects – aspart of the Swedish Malaise Trap Project, whichaims to identify the 80 million insect specimens
obtained between 2003 and 2006. The project has
discovered more than 500 undescribed species,
as well as species that have not been previously
recorded in Sweden.
Axel W. Erikssons African bird collection at
Vänersborg Museum
Publisher: GBIF-Sweden
Total records: 1,000
Bird specimens collected by Swedish ornithologist
Axel W. Eriksson between 1867 and 1887 insouthwestern Africa, an area which includes
Namibia, Angola, South Africa and Botswana today.

Big Island Invasive Species Committee - Pest
Reports - 2005-2010
Publisher: United States Geological Survey
Total records: 9,264
Observations of invasive plants recorded by the
Big Island Invasive Species Committee, through the
Hawaii Invasive Species Council’s reporting system.
Changing Arctic Ecosystems – Alaskan birds
Publisher: United States Geological Survey
Total records: 3,377
Bird observation data gathered through the USGS’
Changing Arctic Ecosystems initiative, establishedto provide scientific information on ecosystem
responses to climate change. Data were collectedby USGS Alaska Science Center, which monitors
bird populations in several sites identified as
representative of Alaska’s ecosystems.

SWITZERLAND
Collections of the Geneva Herbarium
Publisher: Conservatoire et Jardin botaniques de laVille de Genève - G
Total records: 252, 889
Plant specimens from the general collectionof the Geneva Hebarium, specimens used forthe preparation of Prodromus – the 17-volume
treatise on botany, intended to be a summary of
all known seed plants, started by De Candolle in
1824; European plant specimens from the Burnat
Herbarium and specimens from a herbarium
reconstituted in the 1960’s based on citations in

Native Bee Inventory and Monitoring Lab
Publisher: United States Geological Survey
Total records: 266,346
Two datasets with specimen-based bee, insect andwasp occurrence records, one from Canada, Mexicoand the United States (including U.S. territories
and outlying islands), and the other representing
baseline bee species occurrences from Armenia,
Bahamas, Belgium, Bhutan, Bolivia, Chile, Cuba,
Dominican Republic, Ghana, and Israel.

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

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Email info@gbif.org
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