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Four-tier architecture of DiversityMobile
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A majority of biodiversity research projects depend on field recording and ecology data. Therefore it is important to provide a seamless and transparent data flow from the field to the data storage systems and networks. Seamless in the sense, that data are available shortly after their gathering, transparent in the sense that the history of data op...
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Citations
The timely and geographical resolutions, as well as the quantity and taxon concepts of records on the occurrence of plants near national borders is often ambiguous. This is due to the regional focus and different approaches of the contributing national and regional databases and networks of the neighbouring countries. Careful data transformation between national data providers is essential for understanding distribution patterns and its dynamics for organisms in areas along the national borders. Sharing occurrence data through the international data aggregator Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) is also complicated and has to consider that the underlying taxonomic concept and geographic information system of each single GBIF dataset might be different. In addition, some regional data providers have a restrictive (non-cc) licensing policy which does not allow data publication via the GBIF network. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate new ways to make data fit for use for a better and comprehensive understanding of the Flora of the Bohemian Forest.
In this paper, we present a bilateral technical interoperability solution for vascular plant occurrence data for the area between the Czech Republic and Bavaria. We describe the initial state of data providers in both countries and the factual and technical challenges in finding a sustainable concept to establish mutual data sharing. The resulting solution for a functional infrastructure and an agreed data pipeline is described in a step-by-step approach. The new distributed infrastructure allows botanists and other stakeholders from both countries to work within the cross-border context of historical and current plants' distribution.
The MACN’s Collections Digitization Project began in 2008 as the first initiative of the kind for the institution. Its main purpose is to convert registers of specimens held in the museum from paper to digital format and to make the information available for the rest of the scientific community.
Biodiversity research brings together the many facets of biological environ-mental research. Its data management is characterized by integration and is particu-larly challenging due to the large volume and tremendous heterogeneity of the data. At the same time, it is particularly important: A lot of the data is not reproducible. Once it is gone, potential knowledge that could have been gained from it is irrevocably lost. In this paper, we describe challenges to biodiversity data management along the data life cycle and sketch the solution that is currently being developed within the GFBio project, a collaborative effort of nineteen German research institutions ranging from museums and archives to biodiversity researchers and computer scientists.
