[ ]Where Did Those GBIF Occurrences Come From?Providing Digital Access to NatureServe's Reference Database: Report on a Project in the Early Stages of Design

TDWG 2011 Annual ConferenceNew Orleans, LA

Donna J Reynolds Robert A Morris

Filtered Push ProjectHarvard University

NatureServe Data on GBIF

• 759,500+ NatureServe network occurrence records provided to GBIF– Basis of record?

– “Personal Communication, Published Report, Unpublished Report (interpreted as Unknown)”

• About 540,000 (70%) of them are linked to a citation in NatureServe’s central database. Examples:– Knisley, C. Barry. 2005. Monitoring Cicindela puritana and C. dorsalis dorsalis in

Maryland, 2004. Final Report submitted to MD Natural Heritage Program.– Davidson, B. 2002. Field survey form for Botrychium montanum.– Eid, Nancy. Sent in letter about rare plants on Onion Peak, 1998.

• 35-year history

• 61 member programs in the U.S. and Canada, and one or more associated institutions in 13 LAC countries

• Locally collected data from U.S. and Canada aggregated into a central database

• A common data management software (Biotics 4)

Data from NatureServe Network

Biotics Conceptual Data Model

Element Occurrence (EO)An element at a specific

location; generally a delineated species

population or ecological community stand

SiteA land unit of

ecological, scientific, or conservation

interest

Managed AreaA protected land unit

• Concept name• Global,

national, state/ province name

• Synonyms

Mapping and ranking guidance

May be contained within

Mapped asOccur within

• Lineage tracking

• Community structure

• Standard / non-standard relationships

Scientific NameNomenclature

Information

ClassificationTaxonomic Information

Taxonomy

Location

Tracking

Distribution Information

Ranking

Status Information

Characterization

Natural History Information

Organism or Community

Data captured at multiple geographic levels(Global, National, State/Provincial, Local)

Element ManagementCurrent management

techniques and programs applied to the element

EO SpecificationsCriteria used to define an EO and rate its viability

Element GroupA number of elements

with common EO specifications or

management information

Stewardship

ReferenceAn information

source (e.g., literature

citation, field notes,

specimen, map, image, web

site)

Observations

Reference File

• Over 570,000 records• Books, journal articles, unpublished reports,

field forms, specimens, personal communications, maps, websites, images

• Less than 25% represent published sources (books, articles, etc.)

• Most of the “gray literature” is still on paper in natural heritage program offices

The Project Proposal

Evaluate the usefulness and feasibility of exposing metadata

and selected attributes from NatureServe’s reference database

on the web

Goals

• Contribute to improving access to gray literature by ‘publicizing’ its existence– Occurrence references

– Documentation on conservation status, local phenology, ecosystem composition and changes over time, etc.

• Ultimately, provide digital access to nonsensitive unpublished literature

Challenges

• NatureServe is not the owner of the dataCurrent data sharing agreements with our affiliated

programs that specify how data may be used do not address the reference data

• Reference records may contain sensitive information (e.g., notes about the location of an endangered species)Can this concern can be addressed simply by excluding

certain attributes?

• Resources! Seeking partners interested in the same goals