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

Mon Oct 21 05:49:04 CDT 2013

Hi Mike,

GBIF is heavily dependent on the data provided by museums, and the progress of digitisation. For example, as far as I am aware there is no content from The Natural History Museum London in GBIF (at least, not  directly submitted by them). So, one of the largest (if not the largest) collections in the world is missing.

Digitisation among collections within a museum will also be uneven, vertebrates tend to be better covered than other groups, for example. There are all sorts of reasons for this, not least that (as far as I can tell) much of the original impetus for digitisation of animal collections came from vertebrate collections.

Of course, we all know this. The challenge is to figure out how to tackle the problem, and whether there are strategies or ways to prioritise that might make more useful data available more quickly.

Regards

Rod

On 21 Oct 2013, at 07:09, Michael Heads wrote:

> 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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---------------------------------------------------------
Roderic Page
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