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[ ]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– “Personal Communication, Published Report, Unpublished Report (interpreted as Unknown)”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• Over 570,000 records• Books, journal articles, unpublished reports,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