GBits

no. 37 Nov 201320TH GBIF GOVERNING
BOARD MEETING, BERLIN� � � 2free and open access to biodiversity data

New GBIF portal attracts
over 150k visitors
Nearly 157,000 users visited the new global GBIF portal in
the two months following its launch in October.
The largest number of visitors came from the UnitedStates, followed by the United Kingdom, Spain, Mexico andGermany (see table).

GBIF to target data quality and fitness for use in
2014
New Governing Board Chair elected2013 GBIF Science Symposium held
Training and meeting aim to build stronger nodes

INTERNATIONAL POLICY� � � � 3
CBD highlights GBIF role in meeting biodiversity
targets
IPBES agrees assessments, data task force

DATA PUBLISHING � � � � � � � � � � 4
Collaboration aims at new journal option forbiodiversity data publishers
Report of Vocabulary Management task group
now available

NEW DATA � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 4
AntarcticFrance
Spain
NorwayColombia

AROUND THE NETWORK � � � � 5
UK wildlife mapping system gets an upgrade

The portal combines access to all the data shared throughthe GBIF network, with news and information about theGBIF community and uses of the data in research. It uses
a new system of real-time indexing that enables newdatasets to appear on the portal within hours or minutes ofbeing published by data holders.
Since the launch at the 20th meeting of the GBIF Governing
Board in Berlin, Germany on 9 October, users requested
9,659 data downloads, involving a total of 52.8 billion
records.

Ireland’s GBIF node launches 5-year strategic plan
Presentations from Taipei open data conference
available
Georeferencing learning content now online

OPPORTUNITIES � � � � � � � � � � � � 6
GBIF Secretariat seeks a Science Writer

UPCOMING EVENTS � � � � � � � � 6

A video showing the launch of the new portal is available at
http://vimeo.com/77782067.

To subscribe to the newsletter, please contact info@gbif.org

GBits20TH GBIF GOVERNING BOARD
MEETING, BERLINThe Governing Board also elected a new Chair of theGBIF Science Committee, Roderic Page, Professorof Taxonomy at the University of Glasgow, UnitedKingdom. He replaces Leonard Krishtalka.

GBIF to target data quality and fitness foruse in 2014

Read full story…

GBIF will directly address long-standing concerns
about the quality of biodiversity data publishedthrough the network, in its new work programme
agreed at the 20th meeting of the Governing Board(GB20).

2013 GBIF Science Symposium held
This year’s science symposium, entitled ‘GBIF at work
– advancing biodiversity science for a sustainablesociety’, was held on 9 October 2013, in association
with GB20.

Data quality and persistence, as well as priorities
for mobilizing new data, and improved information
resources, are among the major themes of theprogramme now available as a public document.

Speakers at the event presented several uses of data
made available through GBIF. The keynote speaker ofthe symposium, Miguel Bastos Araújo is winner of the2013 Ebbe Nielsen Prize.

The activities defined for 2014 are part of a threeyear work programme following the main imperativesof the GBIF Strategic Plan 2012-16: advancing thecontent, informatics and engagement underpinning
GBIF’s services to science and society.

Presentations from the symposium are now available
online and a video of Miguel Araújo’s presentation isat http://vimeo.com/78160183.

Read about some of the deliverables planned…

New Governing Board Chair elected
The GBIF Governing Board has elected Peter Schalk as
its new Chair.
Schalk is managing director of the ICT sector atNaturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden, Netherlands.
He is one of the founders of Species 2000, a project
to create a validated checklist of the world’s species,
the Catalogue of Life.
Following his election by Voting Participants, themember countries making a financial contribution toGBIF, Peter Schalk commented, “After more than adecade GBIF is a success. We should be aware of that,and be proud of that. Almost half a billion records are
made available for all to use. To build their science
on. To build environmental policies on. To build theplanet’s future on.
“GBIF serves millions of users and their numbers are
growing fast. However this success comes with aprice. More and more will come to depend on GBIF
services. That is a great responsibility.”
Schalk said that all those involved in GBIF mustensure the network’s services were reliable andsustainable, and this required a business plan thatworked.
Schalk replaces Joanne Daly, who completed her fouryear term as Chair in October.

22Training and meeting aim to build
stronger nodes
The GBIF Nodes Committee held its 12th global
meeting and associated activities from 4 to 7 October,prior to GB20.
The events started with a two-day interactive training
course, attended by 59 participants from 40 countries
and organizations. The course contents were basedon recommendations received from nodes in 2011
and 2012, and focussed on node management,
promotion of data use and on new tools developed
by GBIF.
The 12th meeting of the Nodes Committee, held on
6 and 7 October, helped in the sharing of experiences
on a number of key topics for nodes: addressing dataquality, nodes portal developments, development
plans for nodes and a collaborative communication
platform.
Feedback at the end of the events indicated thatparticipants were highly satisfied with the content,
the training methods and with interactions during
the course, and with the organization and topics
addressed in the nodes meeting.
A report on the training course is available at http://community.gbif.org/pg/file/read/38195/ and theevaluation from the meeting is at http://community.
gbif.org/pg/file/read/39963/evaluation-report-12thglobal-nodes-meeting.

Aug 2011no 37 Nov 2013

Dias referred to the ‘landmark’ conference organized
by GBIF last year in Copenhagen, leading to the GBIO
document. “I would like to suggest that we transform
this into a framework for a continuous partnership or
initiative to help the implementation of Aichi Target
19 [on enhancing and sharing biodiversity knowledge]
and benefiting implementation of all the othertargets,” Dias concluded.
Read full story…

IPBES agrees assessments, data task force
The new Integovernmental Science Policy Platform
on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) has
launched a series of thematic assessments aimed
at informing decision makers on a range of pressing
environmental issues, and a task force supporting thedata and information needs of the platform.
Hugo von Linstow, the GBIF Secretariat’s Deputy Director, retiredin December after 11 years in the post. Hugo was closely involvedin the setting up of GBIF in 2001 and the establishment of theSecretariat in Copenhagen in 2002. His experience will be greatly
missed by the GBIF community.

INTERNATIONAL POLICY
CBD highlights GBIF role in meeting
biodiversity targetsGovernment experts at the scientific advisory bodyfor the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) havestressed the need for more accessible data to achieve
the Aichi Targets for reducing biodiversity loss.
The Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical andTechnological Advice (SBSTTA), meeting in Montreal,
Canada in October, identified ‘more accessible,
affordable, comprehensive, reliable and comparable
information streams’ among the key needs related
to the implementation of the Strategic Plan for
Biodiversity 2011-20.
In its meeting report, SBSTTA called on the CBD
Executive Secretary Braulio Dias to work with GBIFand others to build capacity at regional and nationallevels for mobilization, management and analysis of
biodiversity data, information and knowledge.

The second plenary meeting of the Platform, heldat Antalya, Turkey, approved the first IPBES work
programme, covering the period 2014-18, with a total
budget of $43.5m and a range of activities spanningthe four functions of the new body: assessment,
capacity building, knowledge generation and policy
support tools.
Among the decisions of special relevance to the GBIF
community is the setting up of an IPBES task force
on knowledge and data, whose responsibilities will
include:• Developing a data and information management
plan that identifies the best means of addressing
the data and information needs of the Platform’swork programme;• Supporting the IPBES secretariat in overseeing
the management of the data, information andknowledge used in developing IPBES products toensure their long-term availability;• Identifying opportunities for increasing access toexisting data, information and knowledge so as toensure their availability to support the work of thePlatform;• Advising on data standards; and• Supporting IPBES bodies in reviewing knowledge
needs and gaps, and catalysing the generation ofnew knowledge and data.
Read full story...

In his opening statement to the meeting, Dias calledfor ‘continuous partnership’ to enhance access tobiodiversity data, following the framework of the
Global Biodiversity Informatics Outlook, coordinatedby GBIF.

33

GBitsDATA PUBLISHING(Naticidae), pyramid shells (Pyramidellidae) andmurex snails (Muricidae).

Collaboration aims at new journal option
for biodiversity data publishers

FranceA new collaboration aims to increase the options
for researchers to gain visibility and recognition forbiodiversity datasets published through the GBIF
network.
GBIF is collaborating with the editors of ScientificData, the new open access, online journal fromNature Publishing Group due to launch in May 2014.
The journal introduces a new type of content called
the ‘data descriptor’, aimed at making scientificallyvaluable datasets more discoverable, interpretable
and reusable.
Data descriptors closely resemble the data paper
concept promoted by GBIF and Pensoft Publishers,
and the collaboration will develop similar methods
for authoring submissions to the new journal using
the standard formats for metadata recommended forsharing data through the GBIF network.
Read full story…

Report of Vocabulary Management task
group now available
The outcomes of the TDWG Vocabulary Management
Task Group (VoMaG), which was active during 20122013, are now available in a report.
GBIF played a lead role in convening and coordinating
the group and drew on work funded through theViBRANT, funded by the European Union. It provides
recommendations to Biodiversity Information
Standards (TDWG) on a number of topics relating tothe management of vocabularies/ontologies.
The outcomes were also presented in a dedicatedsymposium at the annual TDWG conference held inFlorence, Italy, in October.

NEW DATAAntarctic
The Antarctic Biodiversity Information Facility(ANTABIF) has published mollusc records gatheredin the Ross Sea off the coast of Antarctica in 2004.
Specimens were collected with a Rauschert dredge, atype of sampling gear comprising a metal frame andtwo nets. The published records relate to familiesof sea slugs, clams, mussels and snails including
Barrel bubble snails (Acteonidae), nutmeg snails(Cancellaridae), cap snails (Capulidae), moon snails
44The citizen science platform Diveboard has publishedover 15,000 records from the ‘electronic log books’
submitted by its community of nearly 100,000
registered divers. The dataset includes records ofspecies occurrences from dives in all the world’soceans, as well as many inland water bodies.
The data will be updated as divers contribute more
species observations, using GBIF’s new real-timeindexing system in which new or modified data can beseen on the portal within minutes or hours of being
entered by the data publisher. Diveboard is the firstnew dataset to be indexed using this system.
Read more about Diveboard…

Spain
The Sierra Nevada Global Change Observatory has
published nearly 8,000 records of plant life in theforests of the Sierra Nevada mountains near Granada
in southern Spain. The data are from an inventory
in 2004 that forms part of a long-term research
project that aims to identify the impacts of globalchange on the ecology of the area. The mountains
are considered to be among the richest in plantbiodiversity in the western Mediterranean region.
The Department of Microbiology and Ecology at
the University of Valencia has published 3,500georeferenced records of the Ostracod class ofcrustaceans, commonly known as seed shrimps.
The Oceanographic Centre of Gijón, a part of theSpanish Institute of Oceanography, has publishedover 700 records of sponges gathered during several
Spanish expeditions to the Antarctic. Samples werecollected using a variety of tools including dredges,trawls and fish traps.

NorwayThe University Museum of Bergen has published
72,000 records of insect and spider specimens fromits entomological collections. The published records
are all georeferenced, and relate to specimens
collected in Norway from 1987 until 2012.

Colombia
Colombia’s national network of bird observers (LaRed Nacional de Observadores de Aves de Colombia– RNOA) has published over 400,000 bird observation
records dating from 1948 to 2011. Data werecollected during various monitoring initiatives aroundthe country, and include sightings of endemic species
such as the endangered Cauca Guan (PenelopeAug 2011no 37 Nov 2013

perspicax), and the critically endangered Blue-billed
Curassow (Crax alberti) and Indigo-winged Parrot(Hapalopsittaca fuertesi). The data are now available
both through the GBIF global portal and throughColombia’s national data portal.

records and create maps of two or more species,
improved data security, and detailed information forproviders on data usage. New servers enable theGateway to cope with the growing volume of data andusage.

The Universidad del Valle published 2,300 records ofbirds observed in a human-disturbed environment
in the National Natural Park of Farallones de Cali, inthe western Andes. The observations were recordedin two localities – El Topacio and El Pato – between
August 2008 and July 2009. A total of 157 species ofbirds were observed, of which 12 were new species
for the area. Nine species recorded in El Topacio in
1978 were not spotted, and therefore consideredvulnerable or locally extinct, illustrating the negative
impact of habitat fragmentation on bird communities.

Use of the data is governed by the NBN Gateway
Terms and Conditions, to ensure that data providers
and recorders are credited for the data they share.

The university also published over 3,000 records ofants associated with orange crops on the Caribbean
coast of Colombia. Data come from a sampling studyof 38 orchards in four departments – administrative
units – in the region, and provide a glimpse into thediversity of ant species in fruit farms.

NBN, which acts as the GBIF node in the UK, is acollaboration of government agencies, researchorganizations, local record centres, conservation
charities and recording groups in the country.

AROUND THE NETWORK
UK wildlife mapping system gets anupgrade
The portal of the United Kingdom’s National
Biodiversity Network – the NBN Gateway – has been
upgraded for better performance and stability.
The portal provides access to almost 100 million
records, of which over 42 million are available
through GBIF.

The NBN Gateway delivers data compliant with
the European Union’s Infrastructure for Spatial
Information in Europe (INSPIRE). The INSPIRE
Directive aims to make it easier to access andcombine environmental spatial datasets held by
public authorities, to support environmental policy
and practice at a national and international level.

For more information, please contact Mandy
Henshell, NBN, support@nbn.org.uk.

Ireland’s GBIF node launches 5-year
strategic plan
The Irish Minister for Arts, Heritage & the Gaeltacht,
Jimmy Deenihan, has officially launched the Strategic
Plan 2013-2017 of the GBIF node in Ireland, theNational Biodiversity Data Centre. The plan sets
out the strategic objectives of the organization andpresents a detailed work programme for the next fiveyears.
The seven strategic objectives for the organization
overlap closely with those of GBIF – mobilizing
data, tracking change, informing decision-making,developing strategic partnerships, international
collaboration, communicating and strengthening therecording base.
The NBDC has also published a guide on producing
red lists of threatened species: Ireland’s Red Lists – anational standard.
The document is the first in a series of reportsplanned by the centre on ‘Developing national
biodiversity data standards and guidelines’.
The NBDC has presented its 2013 Distinguished
Recorder Award to Angus Tyner, for his outstanding
contribution to moth recording in Ireland.
Read more...

Among the enhancements are filtered data search, aninteractive map which allows users to query multiple
55

GBitsPresentations from Taipei open data
conference available
Slides from the 2013 International Conference onOpen Data in Biodiversity and Ecological Research can
now be accessed via the website of Taibif, GBIF’s nodein Chinese Taipei.
The conference, held from 20-22 November, attracted
over a hundred Taiwanese scientists, researchers andstudents and international experts. The event wasaccompanied by a training workshop on publishingchecklist and species occurrence data using the GBIF
Integrated Publishing Toolkit (IPT).

UPCOMING EVENTS
10th plenary session of GEO and Ministerial Summit
15-17 January 2014, Geneva, Switzerland
More information…
pro-iBiosphere workshops
10-13 February 2014, Berlin, Germany
More information…
Report of the October workshop…
EMODnet Biology Species Traits Vocabulary Workshop
12-13 February 2014, Paris, France
More information…

Georeferencing learning content now
onlinePresentations, videos and practical exercises ongeoreferencing, grouped into a downloadable
package, are now available via GBIF Spain’s virtualclassroom.
The material was put together for an online
workshop, organized by GBIF Spain in October 2013,
on using the software application GEOLocate forgeoreferencing natural history collection data.
Videos and presentations from previous workshops
held in 2009 and 2010 and recent screencasts werecompiled to develop the full training package.

OPPORTUNITIESGBIF Secretariat seeks a Science Writer
The GBIF Secretariat is seeking a dynamic Science
Writer, to help communicate the value of GBIF’s work
to key audiences.
The successful candidate must be an excellent writerand communicator in English (the primary language
used in GBIF), with at least five years’ experiencein journalism and/or public relations. Experiencein science communication will be an advantage.
The post is based in Copenhagen, Denmark, and arelocation package is available.
More information…
VISION OF GBIF: A world in which biodiversity
information is freely and universally available forscience, society, and a sustainable future.
GBIF Secretariat
Universitetsparken 15
DK-2100 Copenhagen ØDenmark
http://www.gbif.org/
66

MISSION OF GBIF: To be the foremost global
resource for biodiversity information, and engendersmart solutions for environmental and human wellbeing.
Tel: +45 35 32 14 70
Fax: +45 35 32 14 80
E-mail: info@gbif.org
GBits archive: http://www.gbif.org/newsroom/
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