It is almost paradoxical that as more biodiversity data become widely available and interoperable... more It is almost paradoxical that as more biodiversity data become widely available and interoperable, the wail for missing, critical information becomes louder. The maturity of biodiversity data standards, coupled with increasingly sophisticated data mining techniques and ongoing literature markup and semantic indexing, allows even easier detection and quantification of potential gaps during meta-analyses—which might account for the perceived volume of data gaps. A straightforward consequence of identifying emerging gaps is the need to fill them, following the realization that, by missing adequate data expected to exist in biodiversity databases, conservation policies built on that knowledge may be flawed. One widely acknowledged avenue for gap filling is digitization of assets, be it straight data acquisition or (equally importantly) standardization and databasing of already-digital assets such as old files. But the capture of such data is often what permits further gaps to be discovered. Sufficient data volumes, and adequate data quality and fitness-for-use assessments, may allow for (a) the detection of patterns in the data hinting to gaps and (b) cross-referencing other sources, revealing discrepancies between expected and realized data. Thus, the hunt for biodiversity data produces gaps, and when these are hunted down with more data, new gaps emerge. We will show a few examples of this cycle both in literature and current research, and will provide a few general guidelines based on a forthcoming data gap analysis overview.
The establishment of protected areas is one of the main tools used for biodiversity conservation,... more The establishment of protected areas is one of the main tools used for biodiversity conservation, one of the components of environmental management. Although the theoretical framework for protected areas has been long known and discussed, there are few data about their practical effectiveness as a means to preserve biodiversity. Through the analysis of information from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), we have looked for any relationship between the protection status and the general species richness (i.e., number of all living species, taken as a surrogate for biodiversity) in the Spanish Pyrenees. We found that higher protection levels were associated to higher richness of non-endangered species. However, additional reliability tests have shown that for endangered species, the amount of currently available data may still be insufficient for effective management. To avoid this lack of reliability, enhancing public access to biodiversity data or improving sampling effort is mandatory.
Consistent with a warming climate, birds are shifting the timing of their migrations, but it rema... more Consistent with a warming climate, birds are shifting the timing of their migrations, but it remains unclear to what extent these shifts have kept pace with the changing environment. Because bird migration is primarily cued by annually consistent physiological responses to photoperiod, but conditions at their breeding grounds depend on annually variable climate, bird arrival and climate-driven spring events would diverge. We combined satellite and citizen science data to estimate rates of change in phenological interval between spring green-up and migratory arrival for 48 breeding passerine species across North America. Both arrival and green-up changed over time, usually in the same direction (earlier or later). Although birds adjusted their arrival dates, 9 of 48 species did not keep pace with rapidly changing green-up and across all species the interval between arrival and green-up increased by over half a day per year. As green-up became earlier in the east, arrival of eastern b...
ABSTRACT Background/Question/Methods Migratory birds, given their ability to move long distances,... more ABSTRACT Background/Question/Methods Migratory birds, given their ability to move long distances, might be expected to be among the most adaptable to climate change. However, birds must anticipate climatic conditions of their distant breeding grounds from their wintering grounds, which is complicated by greater climatic change at higher latitudes. While food emergence at the breeding grounds is driven by annually variable climate, birds are driven to migrate primarily instead by hormonal responses to light cues such as photoperiod, which is constant across years. The phenological mismatch hypothesis predicts that migratory bird populations have been unable to match their migratory arrival times to the timing of spring “green-up”, when food resources become plentiful. If so, we also test if suboptimal migration timing results in negative fitness consequences for individual bird species. We present a continental scale study testing the phenological mismatch hypothesis and resulting fitness consequences across arrival records (eBird) for 50 common North American bird species over 10 years. Improving on previous studies examining correlations to temperature, we instead use remotely sensed vegetation green-up (MODIS), a close proxy of resource availability, and we link our results to recruitment and reproduction estimates for each bird species (MAPS). Results/Conclusions We found that many migratory bird species advanced arrival at their breeding grounds in years with earlier vegetation green-up. However despite this advancement, many species still poorly synchronized arrival dates with green-up. Further, greater asynchrony was observed between green-up date and arrival date in years with earlier and more extreme green-up dates. Longer distance migrants also displayed greater asynchrony. Reduced recruitment and reproduction, but not survivorship, were strongly correlated with asynchrony between arrival and green-up dates. Our results generally support the phenological mismatch hypothesis, that climate change has resulted in asynchrony between phenology of birds and their food, and that this has resulted in negative fitness consequences. Birds arriving too early at breeding grounds likely experienced colder temperatures and arrived before peak resource abundance, whereas those arriving too late arrived after the resource peak and may have had to choose from less optimal nest sites. Migratory birds, particularly long distance migrants, appear to be susceptible to climate driven phenological mismatches.
With the establishment of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) in 2001 as an inter... more With the establishment of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) in 2001 as an inter-governmental coordinating body, concerted efforts have been made during the past decade to establish a global research infrastructure to facilitate the publishing, discovery, and access to primary biodiversity data. The participants in GBIF have enabled the access to over 377 million records of such data as of August 2012. This is a remarkable achievement involving efforts at national, regional and global levels in multiple areas such as data digitization, standardization and exchange protocols. However concerns about the quality and ‘fitness for use’ of the data mobilized in particular for the scientific communities have grown over the years and must now be carefully considered in future developments. This paper is the first comprehensive assessment of the content mobilised so far through GBIF, as well as a reflexion on possible strategies to improve its ‘fitness for use’. The methodology builds on complementary approaches adopted by the GBIF Secretariat and the University of Navarra for the development of comprehensive content assessment methodologies. The outcome of this collaborative research demonstrates the immense value of the GBIF mobilized data and its potential for the scientific communities. Recommendations are provided to the GBIF community to improve the quality of the data published as well as priorities for future data mobilization.
Fitness-for-use refers to a scale of data quality that changes with the varying data accuracy, pr... more Fitness-for-use refers to a scale of data quality that changes with the varying data accuracy, precision and intended use. In the context of geospatial data, we can split fitness-for-use into two broad categories: 1. Are the geospatial data correct? 2. Are the geospatial data usable at the geographic scale of the question? The key discussion point in this white paper is what can be done prior to user access of data to enhance and better report the data’s fitness-for-use.
It is almost paradoxical that as more biodiversity data become widely available and interoperable... more It is almost paradoxical that as more biodiversity data become widely available and interoperable, the wail for missing, critical information becomes louder. The maturity of biodiversity data standards, coupled with increasingly sophisticated data mining techniques and ongoing literature markup and semantic indexing, allows even easier detection and quantification of potential gaps during meta-analyses—which might account for the perceived volume of data gaps. A straightforward consequence of identifying emerging gaps is the need to fill them, following the realization that, by missing adequate data expected to exist in biodiversity databases, conservation policies built on that knowledge may be flawed. One widely acknowledged avenue for gap filling is digitization of assets, be it straight data acquisition or (equally importantly) standardization and databasing of already-digital assets such as old files. But the capture of such data is often what permits further gaps to be discovered. Sufficient data volumes, and adequate data quality and fitness-for-use assessments, may allow for (a) the detection of patterns in the data hinting to gaps and (b) cross-referencing other sources, revealing discrepancies between expected and realized data. Thus, the hunt for biodiversity data produces gaps, and when these are hunted down with more data, new gaps emerge. We will show a few examples of this cycle both in literature and current research, and will provide a few general guidelines based on a forthcoming data gap analysis overview.
The establishment of protected areas is one of the main tools used for biodiversity conservation,... more The establishment of protected areas is one of the main tools used for biodiversity conservation, one of the components of environmental management. Although the theoretical framework for protected areas has been long known and discussed, there are few data about their practical effectiveness as a means to preserve biodiversity. Through the analysis of information from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), we have looked for any relationship between the protection status and the general species richness (i.e., number of all living species, taken as a surrogate for biodiversity) in the Spanish Pyrenees. We found that higher protection levels were associated to higher richness of non-endangered species. However, additional reliability tests have shown that for endangered species, the amount of currently available data may still be insufficient for effective management. To avoid this lack of reliability, enhancing public access to biodiversity data or improving sampling effort is mandatory.
Consistent with a warming climate, birds are shifting the timing of their migrations, but it rema... more Consistent with a warming climate, birds are shifting the timing of their migrations, but it remains unclear to what extent these shifts have kept pace with the changing environment. Because bird migration is primarily cued by annually consistent physiological responses to photoperiod, but conditions at their breeding grounds depend on annually variable climate, bird arrival and climate-driven spring events would diverge. We combined satellite and citizen science data to estimate rates of change in phenological interval between spring green-up and migratory arrival for 48 breeding passerine species across North America. Both arrival and green-up changed over time, usually in the same direction (earlier or later). Although birds adjusted their arrival dates, 9 of 48 species did not keep pace with rapidly changing green-up and across all species the interval between arrival and green-up increased by over half a day per year. As green-up became earlier in the east, arrival of eastern b...
ABSTRACT Background/Question/Methods Migratory birds, given their ability to move long distances,... more ABSTRACT Background/Question/Methods Migratory birds, given their ability to move long distances, might be expected to be among the most adaptable to climate change. However, birds must anticipate climatic conditions of their distant breeding grounds from their wintering grounds, which is complicated by greater climatic change at higher latitudes. While food emergence at the breeding grounds is driven by annually variable climate, birds are driven to migrate primarily instead by hormonal responses to light cues such as photoperiod, which is constant across years. The phenological mismatch hypothesis predicts that migratory bird populations have been unable to match their migratory arrival times to the timing of spring “green-up”, when food resources become plentiful. If so, we also test if suboptimal migration timing results in negative fitness consequences for individual bird species. We present a continental scale study testing the phenological mismatch hypothesis and resulting fitness consequences across arrival records (eBird) for 50 common North American bird species over 10 years. Improving on previous studies examining correlations to temperature, we instead use remotely sensed vegetation green-up (MODIS), a close proxy of resource availability, and we link our results to recruitment and reproduction estimates for each bird species (MAPS). Results/Conclusions We found that many migratory bird species advanced arrival at their breeding grounds in years with earlier vegetation green-up. However despite this advancement, many species still poorly synchronized arrival dates with green-up. Further, greater asynchrony was observed between green-up date and arrival date in years with earlier and more extreme green-up dates. Longer distance migrants also displayed greater asynchrony. Reduced recruitment and reproduction, but not survivorship, were strongly correlated with asynchrony between arrival and green-up dates. Our results generally support the phenological mismatch hypothesis, that climate change has resulted in asynchrony between phenology of birds and their food, and that this has resulted in negative fitness consequences. Birds arriving too early at breeding grounds likely experienced colder temperatures and arrived before peak resource abundance, whereas those arriving too late arrived after the resource peak and may have had to choose from less optimal nest sites. Migratory birds, particularly long distance migrants, appear to be susceptible to climate driven phenological mismatches.
With the establishment of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) in 2001 as an inter... more With the establishment of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) in 2001 as an inter-governmental coordinating body, concerted efforts have been made during the past decade to establish a global research infrastructure to facilitate the publishing, discovery, and access to primary biodiversity data. The participants in GBIF have enabled the access to over 377 million records of such data as of August 2012. This is a remarkable achievement involving efforts at national, regional and global levels in multiple areas such as data digitization, standardization and exchange protocols. However concerns about the quality and ‘fitness for use’ of the data mobilized in particular for the scientific communities have grown over the years and must now be carefully considered in future developments. This paper is the first comprehensive assessment of the content mobilised so far through GBIF, as well as a reflexion on possible strategies to improve its ‘fitness for use’. The methodology builds on complementary approaches adopted by the GBIF Secretariat and the University of Navarra for the development of comprehensive content assessment methodologies. The outcome of this collaborative research demonstrates the immense value of the GBIF mobilized data and its potential for the scientific communities. Recommendations are provided to the GBIF community to improve the quality of the data published as well as priorities for future data mobilization.
Fitness-for-use refers to a scale of data quality that changes with the varying data accuracy, pr... more Fitness-for-use refers to a scale of data quality that changes with the varying data accuracy, precision and intended use. In the context of geospatial data, we can split fitness-for-use into two broad categories: 1. Are the geospatial data correct? 2. Are the geospatial data usable at the geographic scale of the question? The key discussion point in this white paper is what can be done prior to user access of data to enhance and better report the data’s fitness-for-use.
Uploads
Papers by Javier Otegui
1. Are the geospatial data correct?
2. Are the geospatial data usable at the geographic scale of the question? The key discussion point in this white paper is what can be done prior to user access of data to enhance and better report the data’s fitness-for-use.
1. Are the geospatial data correct?
2. Are the geospatial data usable at the geographic scale of the question? The key discussion point in this white paper is what can be done prior to user access of data to enhance and better report the data’s fitness-for-use.