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

[Michael Heads]

For obvious reasons, Lepidoptera are the best collected, best known insect
order, but outside North America, Europe, Australia and South Africa the
GBIF coverage is very poor (woeful for hyperdiverse Brazil, China etc.).
Nevertheless, the coverage for Congo (DRC) looks quite good. I guess this
is because the Belgian museums' records are in the database (not
surprising, given the very high standard of Belgian systematics). But why
aren't the other former colonial powers' records there? e.g. there is not a
single record for Sudan although it was well-collected by the Brits.
 Getting the records from just three or four key institutions would turn
this from an embarrassing disaster into an excellent tool. (Aiming to
include every record from every collection in the world is unrealistic and
unnecessary. This principle is well-known to anyone who has revised a group
- but do they have these sorts of people at GBIF?).

It's the same problem with the straight line boundary in Papilionidae at
the Canada/US border. I guess the data from the key collections
(Smithsonian?) are not in GBIF.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: <Tony.Rees at csiro.au>
Date: Mon, Oct 21, 2013 at 4:26 PM
Subject: Re: [Taxacom] What can Global Biodiversity Information Facility
(GBIF) do for you?
To: kinman at hotmail.com, mary.barkworth at usu.edu, taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu


Hi Ken and Mary, also Rod (and all),

Agreed, there are issues with the GBIF backbone taxonomy - to do with the
method of its creation ("semi-automated" and rebuilt from scratch from
incoming taxonomic resources more or less annually I believe), the level of
resourcing devoted to its scrutiny (perhaps) and the lack of a facility for
users to engage in spotting issues or reporting errors. Also there is the
question of whether GBIF should need to engage in this activity or whether
it can be outsourced to more taxonomically authoritative providers (I
suspect not, at the present time at least, to cover the "whole of life"
which is GBIF's remit). Some of these are big questions especially to do
with resourcing and method of construction; I guess Rod in his new role is
in a position to investigate further with relevant persons and report
back...

Regards - Tony


> -----Original Message-----
> From: taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu [mailto:taxacom-
> bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu] On Behalf Of Ken Kinman
> Sent: Monday, 21 October 2013 2:05 PM
> To: Mary Barkworth; taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
> Subject: Re: [Taxacom] What can Global Biodiversity Information
> Facility (GBIF) do for you?
>
> Hi Mary,
>
>
>
>       I agree with that minor point.  Alismaceae is an incorrect
> spelling (by someone who didn't know proper Latin).  But the major
> point is that it certainly is not incertae sedis, and it should be
> listed under Alismataceae by GBIF (not incertae sedis).  Incertae sedis
> should be reserved for taxa which are truly of uncertain placement----
> not a dumping ground for names like Alismaceae.  I'm a zoologist, not a
> botanist, and even I spotted that one immediately.
>
>
>
>                -------------------Ken
>
>
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> ------------------------
>
>
>
> > From: Mary.Barkworth at usu.edu
> > To: taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
> > CC: taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
> > Date: Mon, 21 Oct 2013 01:44:57 +0000
> > Subject: Re: [Taxacom] What can Global Biodiversity Information
> Facility (GBIF) do for you?
> >
> > Minor point but Alismaceae is not an alternative spelling in the
> sense that Poaceae and Gramineae are alternatives. It is an incorrect
> spelling. For convenience it could be treated as a synonym - just to
> take care of the records that use it - but it is simply a mispelling.
> > Mary
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Celebrating 26 years of Taxacom in 2013.



-- 
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.