[Taxacom] Fwd: Fwd: What can Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) do for you?

Fri Oct 18 09:51:40 CDT 2013

Projects such as GBIF indeed have great potential, but at present the data
quality is so uneven that it is often positively misleading.  A user can
readily be impressed with boasts about how many entries are in a database
and perform all sorts of grand metanalyses without realizing that much of
the data is unreliable, often enough to make the analyses untrustworthy.
The biggest problems seem to be the lack of support for doing the taxonomic
groundwork that is necessary to provide reliable data, lack of metrics for
data reliability, and failure to design the databases to allow for common
taxonomic problems (homonyms, misidentifications, incorrect spellings or
emendations, etc.)  Does GBIF itself need to fund taxonomy?  Probably
having some taxonomic experts on staff checking things would be advisable,
but it's not unreasonable to promote other programs as the primary funding
source for taxonomy.  Too often, however, databases have generated
resentment by "we've spent millions developing this system so that you can
volunteer to generate and enter data".

On Fri, Oct 18, 2013 at 6:05 AM, Mike Sadka <M.Sadka at nhm.ac.uk> wrote:

> > GBIF may not be wasting our time directly - you don't have to look at it
> -but presumably it is all paid for by us as taxpayers.
>
> I dare say - and eventually it will be really useful if not indispensable
> - so as a taxpayer I am very happy to see some of my hard-earned supporting
> GBIF.
>
> Cheerio, Mike
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu [mailto:
> taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu] On Behalf Of Michael Heads
> Sent: 18 October 2013 10:57
> To: taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
> Subject: [Taxacom] Fwd: Fwd: What can Global Biodiversity Information
> Facility (GBIF) do for you?
>
> As Rafael emphasized, the fact that localities of naturalised or even
> cultivated plants are not distinguished from natural ones is a serious
> problem. Also, with many birds, breeding records need to be distinguished,
> otherwise the maps will be much inferior to those in standard treatments
> such as Handbook of the birds of the world.
>
> I don't understand why the Canada/US border is still showing up so clearly
> in many groups (have a look at Papilionidae for example). Why are most US
> entomological collections still not incorporated?
>
> Mike: GBIF may not be wasting our time directly - you don't have to look
> at it -but presumably it is all paid for by us as taxpayers.
>
>
> On Fri, Oct 18, 2013 at 10:29 PM, Mike Sadka <M.Sadka at nhm.ac.uk> wrote:
>
> > But surely GBIF is a work in progress.
> >
> > I am reliably informed that Tropical was primitive and incomplete when
> > it started some decades ago, but is now an indispensable resource for
> > tropical plant biologists.
> >
> > Surely the idea of gathering specimen data worldwide into a single
> > location is a good one - and one that will facilitate good science in
> > a number of disciplines.
> >
> > But like science itself it takes time.  And of course the longer it
> > progresses the more complete and useful it will be.
> >
> > GBIF are not wasting anybody's time - you don't' have to go there if
> > you don't want to.  But one day those records that are currently stubs
> > will be populated and much more useful.
> >
> > Cheerio, Mike
> >
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu [mailto:
> > taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu] On Behalf Of Stephen Thorpe
> > Sent: 18 October 2013 00:13
> > To: Doug Yanega; taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
> > Subject: Re: [Taxacom] Fwd: What can Global Biodiversity Information
> > Facility (GBIF) do for you?
> >
> > >If the data points in GBIF show a strong bias taxonomically or
> > geographically, I don't think you could claim that's GBIF's fault<
> > They could perhaps be faulted for wasting everybody's time on all
> > those stub pages for 99% of all taxa that they don't have data about,
> > or gathering low grade data on these in the absence of anything better.
> >
> >
> >
> > ________________________________
> >  From: Doug Yanega <dyanega at ucr.edu>
> > To: taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
> > Sent: Friday, 18 October 2013 11:53 AM
> > Subject: Re: [Taxacom] Fwd: What can Global Biodiversity Information
> > Facility (GBIF) do for you?
> >
> >
> > On 10/17/13 3:30 PM, Rafaël Govaerts wrote:
> > > Dear Rod, What is a recurring issue is that no distinction is made
> > > in
> > GBIF between native, introduced and cultivated specimens. See e.g.
> > Magnolia grandiflora
> > > http://www.gbif.org/species/3153283
> > > This means that I need to check carefully each record, which takes a
> > > lot
> > of time. It also means I get regular emails saying GBIF says this
> > species is also in Jawa and when checking it, turns out to be from
> > Bogor botanic garden. So displaying those in a different way would
> > make my work easier and users less confused.
> > I strongly suspect this is not so much GBIF's responsibility as that
> > of the institutions supplying the data. I'm fairly certain that Darwin
> > Core standards include provisions for discriminating "alien"
> > distribution data, but not everyone is likely to apply such standards,
> > or they use a different data entry protocol, such as recording the
> > locality of origination rather than the locality of collection (as we
> > do for all our insect specimens reared in our quarantine facility - it
> > would be absurd if all these exotic species were georeferenced to
> southern California!).
> >
> > Also, Chuck Miller wrote:
> > > So Steve, is your answer to Rod's question "GBIF can do more to get
> > > more
> > data for me from outside North America, Europe and Australia"? Or a
> > different answer?
> > >
> > Even if there was a miscommunication here, it does highlight another
> > side of preceding issue: namely, GBIF cannot make data available that
> > no one has gathered and passed along. Unless GBIF is willing to fund
> > data gathering efforts (and target those efforts so as to "fill
> > gaps"), then the role of clearing house means they take what they are
> > given and display it, which are (mostly) the results of people's
> > externally-funded research grants. If the data points in GBIF show a
> > strong bias taxonomically or geographically, I don't think you could
> > claim that's GBIF's fault.
> >
> > Peace,
> >
> > --
> > Doug Yanega      Dept. of Entomology       Entomology Research Museum
> > Univ. of California, Riverside, CA 92521-0314     skype: dyanega
> > phone: (951) 827-4315 (disclaimer: opinions are mine, not UCR's)
> >               http://cache.ucr.edu/~heraty/yanega.html
> >    "There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness
> >          is the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82
> >
> >
> >
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>
> --
> Dunedin, New Zealand.
>
> My recent books:
>
> *Molecular panbiogeography of the tropics.* 2012.* *University of
> California Press, Berkeley.
>
> *Biogeography of Australasia:  A molecular analysis*. Available January
> 2014. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
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> Celebrating 26 years of Taxacom in 2013.
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> _______________________________________________
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> The Taxacom Archive back to 1992 may be searched with either of these
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> Celebrating 26 years of Taxacom in 2013.
>

-- 
Dr. David Campbell
Assistant Professor, Geology
Department of Natural Sciences
Gardner-Webb University
Boiling Springs NC 28017