IABIN Species and Specimens Thematic Network (SSTN)

IABIN Executive Committee/Coordinating Institution Meeting.

Tierras Enamoradas, Costa Rica. February 16-18, 2011

Erick Mata and María Mora, Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad, INBio

• Introduction

• Current Status of Systems, Standards,

and Tools

• Summary of Data Providers

• Sustainability of the SSTN

infrastructure and integration with

international initiatives

Contents

Introduction2006 - 2008: The SSTN executed all activities corresponding to

component 1 (interoperability and data access).

2009: INBio assumed the cost of maintaining and further enhancing developed tools.

2009 – 2010: Development of Component 3 tools: “A Decision Making System based on Conservation Categories and Biodiversity Uses” and “A Scenarios Modeling System for Development Action or Potential Threats to Biodiversity”

2010: INBio continued developing Ara but requested funding to maintain portal.

2011: INBio started developing the new version of Atta based on Ara and will continue supporting the current users of Ara.

2011: Data Portal maintenance and integration of species and specimen data to EOL and GBIF.

SSTN - Current Status of Systems, Standards, and Tools

Component 1: All activities were concluded in 2008: Plinian Core Standard, Ara software tool, and a Portal based on GBIF’s Data Portal

http://species.iabin.net/

Toolkit for the Establishment of Biodiversity Information Systems

It integrates two software tools:

Biodiversity Data Portal

Data Entry Tool (Ara)

Toolkit for the Establishment of Biodiversity Information Systems

1. Biodiversity Data Portal

• Based on the GBIF Customizable Portal, it integrates species and specimen data from heterogeneous databases (based on Darwin Core, Plinian Core, TAPIR, and DiGIR).

• The system manages information about countries, datasets, specimens, species records, taxonomic classification, and common names.

• It offers overview maps that present the specimen records distribution for each species or group of organisms, for each country, data provider, or dataset.

• The system is web-based, multilingual, and multiplatform.

It integrates two software tools:

Toolkit for the Establishment of Biodiversity Information Systems

2. Data Entry Tool (Ara)

• Allows the user to digitize, generate, manage, analyze, and share information on species (e.g., species descriptions, conservation, demography, taxonomic information, references, and distribution) and specimens (collections and observations).

• Includes the following sub-systems: Taxonomy (Species records, all required taxonomic hierarchy levels); Inventory (Gathering/observations, specimens/observations, identifications); Geographical Information (Localities); Multimedia (Images and Videos); Administration (Collections, Audiences, Institutions, People, Selection lists, among others); and Security.

• Manages integrated information from multiple biological collections.

• The Species Description Module could be customized according to different species standards or the group of fields that any given institution needs.

• The system is easy to install and use, web based, multilingual, and multiplatform.

• It is distributed under the GNU GPL v 3. license.

It integrates two software tools:

Toolkit for the Establishment of Biodiversity Information Systems

- Installed and in operation:

- Museo Entomológico de León (Nicaragua)

- Museo de Malacología de la Universidad de Panamá (Panamá)

- National Biodiversity Centre (Bután)

- In process:

- Faculty of Agronomy of the University of Abomey Calavi (FSA/UAC), Benin.

- INBio

Ara Users

Toolkit for the Establishment of Biodiversity Information Systems

SSTN Portal access statistics

Component 1:

E-learning Tool

SSTN - Current Status of Products, Standards and Tools

http://www.inbio.ac.cr/iabin/e-learning/

• Component 3: Two proposals approved and implemented: “A Decision Making System based on Conservation Categories” and “A Scenarios Modeling System for Development Action or Potential Threats to Biodiversity”.

SSTN - Current Status of Products, Standards and Tools

Summary of Data Publishers

Source: Jarvis Andy, Ramírez Julián, Reymondin Louis, Amariles Daniel, Tobón Hector, Camacho Jorge & Tello Jhon. (2011). Providing means for a better understanding of biodiversity: improving primary data and using it for threat assessment and in situ conservation planning in South America. CIAT Progress Report.

Data publishers- 20 specimen data publishers (28 resources).- 5 species data publishers.- About 3,900,000 specimen records.- About 5,000 species records• Component 2 grants in

process.• Pending to integrate

about 15 more data publishers (Red de Herbarios de Centro América) outside Component 2.

Sustainability of the SSTN Infrastructure

• CONICIT: $62,000, 2 years project. Improvements to modules: taxon, label printing, specimen transactions. INBio is developing the new version of Atta based on Ara.

• JRS Biodiversity Foundation. $182,000. 2 year project (in process). A Technological Package for the Implementation of the National Biodiversity Information System (NBIS) of Benin.

1. Additional funding to further develop Ara:

Sustainability of the SSTN Infrastructure and

Integration with International Initiatives

SSTN Data Portal GBIF Data PortalGBIF Mirror

Regional Data

(Americas)

SSTN New Specimens RecordsData Publishers

Every two months

2. Integrate Specimen Data to GBIF

SSTN Data Portal GBIF Data PortalGBIF Mirror

Regional Data (Americas)

Every two months

3. Integrate Species Information to EOL

EOL Data Portal

SSTN New Species RecordsData Publishers

Sustainability of the SSTN Infrastructure and

Integration with International Initiatives

Queries through URL

Achievements• A Data Portal was developed based on the Global Biodiversity

Information Facility (GBIF) Customizable Portal using international protocols and standards (the portal is available at http://ara.inbio.ac.cr/SSTN-IABIN/)

• More than 3,900,000 specimen records from 19 data publishers were integrated to the network. Additionally, more than 5,000 species records are available coming from 5 data publishers.

• Two regional workshops to train the trainers for managing the developed software were held in Heredia, Costa Rica (28 participants from 23 American countries).

• More than 600,000 specimen records were digitized form 30 biological collections of the American Continent.

• English and Spanish training materials were produced (some of them are at http://www.inbio.ac.cr/iabin/e-learning/)

Thank you!