A global data sharing and clearinghouse for marine biodiversity data through the Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS)

Sky Bristol & Abby Benson – USGS/OBIS-USAWard Appeltans & Pieter Provoost – IODE-OBISEduardo Klein – Universidad Simón Bolívar

October 27, 2016

• History and structure of OBIS• How OBIS operates and what it contributes• Applications of OBIS• ABNJ and capacity building

A short history of OBIS…

• 2000 - 2010: created as data repository and information dissemination system

for the Census of Marine Life

• 2009: adopted by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of

UNESCO, under the IODE programme (IOC Resolution XXV-4)

• 2011: secretariat moved from Rutgers University to Ostend, Belgium

AntOBISArctic OBIS

ArOBIS

OBIS Australia

OBIS Canada

Caribbean OBIS

OBIS China

IndOBIS

OBIS Japan

KOBIS

MedOBIS

PEGO-OBIS

OBIS Senegal

South Western Pacific OBIS

AfrOBISESPOBIS WSAOBIS

Black Sea OBISOBIS USA

Oceans Past

FishBase

OBIS SEAMAP

MicrOBIS

Seamounts Online

OBIS HAB

OTN EurOBIS

"To build and maintain a global alliance that collaborates with scientific communities to facilitate free and open access to, and application of, biodiversity and biogeographic data and information on marine life."

IOBIS

SG-OBIS

8 Task Teams

Science TT

Taxon. TT

Training TT

Data TT

Tech. TT

...

OBIS node I

OBIS node II

OBIS node III

Data providers

Data providers

Data providers

OBIS node III

Data providers

Data providers

OBIS node II

OBIS node III

Data providers

Data providers

IODE Committee

IOC Assembly

UNESCO General Conference

IOBISData ProvidersOBIS Nodes

OBIS contributes to universality and equity, providing open access to data repatriated from originating countries and institutions while maintaining data provenance to support traceable, trustworthy science

Capacity Development

Connecting People

Malaysia

KenyaSouthAfrica

Colombia

Venezuela

USA

Indonesia

Malaysia

TanzaniaData cleaningData formattingData publicationData accessData visualisationData analysis

Argentina

MexicoUkraine

Scientists from 73 countries used OBIS in research publications

Connections of >500 co-authored papers citing OBIS (Web of Science)

North Pacific regional EBSA workshop, Moscow, 25 Feb – 1 March 2013

OBIS contributions to the CBD EBSA process

In 2010, the CBD Conference of the Parties (COP, decision X/29, paragraph 36) asked IOC, through its OBIS, to provide scientific and technical support to the CBD secretariat in convening a series of regional workshops on EBSAs

OBIS – Supporting data system for the First World Ocean Assessment

Atlantic Herring(Clupea harengus)

Global distribution records showing first records appearing in North Atlantic after 2010. OBIS provides an important signal detection capability, indicating needs for further research and investigation.

From Tom Webbunpublished analysisShows the number of genbank sequences plotted against number of records in OBIS for approx. 80,000 species common to both databases. Darker blue indicates a higher intensity of points.

Indicates potential of future work for data association between biogeographic data and genetic data.

All OBIS records47,000,000

Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction7% of all OBIS records64% of ocean surface area

Records: 3,158,551Datasets: 620Contributing institutions: 225Species: 19,206Red List species: 2,075Only observed here: 3,543

all sampling locations47,000,000

> 200 m depth3,200,000

no depth information: 18,000,000

> 1000 m depth600,000

no depth information: 18,000,000

> 4000 m depth25,000

no depth information: 18,000,000

OBIS-USA Data Networkca 2016