scholarly journals Global priorities for an effective information basis of biodiversity distributions

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carsten Meyer ◽  
Holger Kreft ◽  
Robert P Guralnick ◽  
Walter Jetz
Keyword(s):  
Emerging Economies ◽  
Information Needs ◽  
Distribution Maps ◽  
Terrestrial Vertebrates ◽  
Biodiversity Knowledge ◽  
Accessible Information ◽  
United Nations Convention ◽  
The Tropics ◽  
Information Basis ◽  
Biodiversity Information

Severe gaps and biases in digital accessible information (DAI) of species distributions hamper prospects of safeguarding biodiversity and ecosystem services and reliably addressing central questions in ecology and evolution. Accordingly, governments have agreed on improving and sharing biodiversity knowledge by 2020 (United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity’s Aichi target 19). To achieve this target, gaps in DAI must be identified, and actions prioritized to address their root causes. We take terrestrial vertebrates, an iconic and comparatively well-studied group, as a model and present the first globally comprehensive assessment of patterns and drivers of gaps in DAI, based on an integration of 157 million validated point records with 21,170 expert-based distribution maps. We demonstrate that outside a few well-sampled regions, DAI provides a very limited and spatially highly biased inventory of actual biodiversity. Coarser spatial grains result in more complete inventories, but provide insufficient detail for conservation and resource management. Surprisingly, large emerging economies are particularly under-represented in global DAI, even more so than species-rich, developing countries in the tropics. Multi-model inference reveals that completeness is mainly limited by distance to researchers, locally available research funding, and political participation in data-sharing networks, rather than transportation infrastructure, or size and funding of Western data contributors as often assumed. Our study provides an empirical baseline to advance strategies of enhancing the global information basis of biodiversity. In particular, our results highlight the need for targeted data integration from non-Western data holders and intensified cooperation to more effectively address societal biodiversity information needs.

scholarly journals Global priorities for an effective information basis of biodiversity distributions

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carsten Meyer ◽  
Holger Kreft ◽  
Robert P Guralnick ◽  
Walter Jetz
Keyword(s):  
Emerging Economies ◽  
Information Needs ◽  
Distribution Maps ◽  
Terrestrial Vertebrates ◽  
Biodiversity Knowledge ◽  
Accessible Information ◽  
United Nations Convention ◽  
The Tropics ◽  
Information Basis ◽  
Biodiversity Information

Severe gaps and biases in digital accessible information (DAI) of species distributions hamper prospects of safeguarding biodiversity and ecosystem services and reliably addressing central questions in ecology and evolution. Accordingly, governments have agreed on improving and sharing biodiversity knowledge by 2020 (United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity’s Aichi target 19). To achieve this target, gaps in DAI must be identified, and actions prioritized to address their root causes. We take terrestrial vertebrates, an iconic and comparatively well-studied group, as a model and present the first globally comprehensive assessment of patterns and drivers of gaps in DAI, based on an integration of 157 million validated point records with 21,170 expert-based distribution maps. We demonstrate that outside a few well-sampled regions, DAI provides a very limited and spatially highly biased inventory of actual biodiversity. Coarser spatial grains result in more complete inventories, but provide insufficient detail for conservation and resource management. Surprisingly, large emerging economies are particularly under-represented in global DAI, even more so than species-rich, developing countries in the tropics. Multi-model inference reveals that completeness is mainly limited by distance to researchers, locally available research funding, and political participation in data-sharing networks, rather than transportation infrastructure, or size and funding of Western data contributors as often assumed. Our study provides an empirical baseline to advance strategies of enhancing the global information basis of biodiversity. In particular, our results highlight the need for targeted data integration from non-Western data holders and intensified cooperation to more effectively address societal biodiversity information needs.

Studies on the origin, evolution, and distribution of the Gramineae. III. The tribes of the subfamily Eragrostoideae

1960 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 256 ◽  
Author(s):  
W Hartley ◽  
C Slater
Keyword(s):  
Wide Distribution ◽  
Western India ◽  
Distribution Maps ◽  
Winter Temperatures ◽  
Close Relationship ◽  
Hot Arid Climate ◽  
South West Africa ◽  
The Tropics ◽  
World Distribution ◽  
North Western

In further studies of grass distribution, maps are presented showing the world distribution of the Eragrosteae (sensu str.) and of the subfamily Eragrostoideae within which it is included. Both taxa show centres of high relative specific differentiation in inland Australia and in South West Africa, but in addition, the subfamily has centres of differentiation in the Sahara rekion, northern Mexico, and north-western India. The centres of differentiation are all in regions of hot, arid climate near the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. The close relationship between climate and distribution is most apparent in the case of the subfamily Eragrostoideae, species of which are relatively abundant in the grass flora of all arid regions with high winter temperatures and summer or non-seasonal rainfall incidence. The distributions of most of the other tribes and subtribes which have been included in the Eragrostoideae show a similar relationship to climate. Some apparent exceptions to this are discussed, and it is shown that the geographical evidence supports conclusions from recent cytotaxonomic and anatomical studies that the taxa concerned should be removed from the subfamily. The very wide distribution of the subfamily and of its constituent taxa, as well as the close relationship between the distribution pattern and climate, suggests that the subfamily is a very old one. Geographical and taxonomic evidence indicates that it may have originated in tropical or subtropical Africa at least as early as the Oligocene.

Capital flows to emerging economies: Minsky in the tropics

2010 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 663-683 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. R. Agosin ◽  
F. Huaita
Keyword(s):  
Emerging Economies ◽  
Capital Flows ◽  
The Tropics

scholarly journals Mobilizing Data from Taxonomic Literature for an Iconic Species (Dinosauria, Theropoda, Tyrannosaurus rex)

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeremy Miller ◽  
Yanell Braumuller ◽  
Puneet Kishor ◽  
David Shorthouse ◽  
Mariya Dimitrova ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Global Biodiversity Information Facility ◽  
Museum Exhibits ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Past ◽  
Biodiversity Knowledge ◽  
Informatics Infrastructure ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Biodiversity Information ◽  
Occurrence Records

A vast amount of biodiversity data is reported in the primary taxonomic literature. In the past, we have demonstrated the use of semantic enhancement to extract data from taxonomic literature and make it available to a network of databases (Miller et al. 2015). For technical reasons, semantic enhancement of taxonomic literature is most efficient when customized according to the format of a particular journal. This journal-based approach captures and disseminates data on whatever taxa happen to be published therein. But if we want to extract all treatments on a particular taxon of interest, these are likely to be spread across multiple journals. Fortunately, the GoldenGATE Imagine document editor (Sautter 2019) is flexible enough to parse most taxonomic literature. Tyrannosaurus rex is an iconic dinosaur with broad public appeal, as well as the subject of more than a century of scholarship. The Naturalis Biodiversity Center recently acquired a specimen that has become a major attraction in the public exhibit space. For most species on earth, the primary taxonomic literature contains nearly everything that is known about it. Every described species on earth is the subject of one or more taxonomic treatments. A taxon-based approach to semantic enhancement can mobilize all this knowledge using the network of databases and resources that comprise the modern biodiversity informatics infrastructure. When a particular species is of special interest, a taxon-based approach to semantic enhancement can be a powerful tool for scholarship and communication. In light of this, we resolved to semantically enhance all taxonomic treatments on T. rex. Our objective was to make these treatments and associated data available for the broad range of stakeholders who might have an interest in this animal, including professional paleontologists, the curious public, and museum exhibits and public communications personnel. Among the routine parsing and data sharing activities in the Plazi workflow (Agosti and Egloff 2009), taxonomic treatments, as well as cited figures, are deposited in the Biodiversity Literature Repository (BLR), and occurrence records are shared with the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). Treatment citations were enhanced with hyperlinks to the cited treatment on TreatmentBank, and specimen citations were linked to their entries on public facing collections databases. We used the OpenBiodiv biodiversity knowledge graph (Senderov et al. 2017) to discover other taxa mentioned together with T. rex, and to create a timeline of T. rex research to evaluate the impact of individual researchers and specimen repositories to T. rex research. We contributed treatment links to WikiData, and queried WikiData to discover identifiers to different platforms holding data about T. rex. We used bloodhound-tracker.net to disambiguate human agents, like collectors, identifiers, and authors. We evaluate the adequacy of the fields currently available to extract data from taxonomic treatments, and make recommendations for future standards.

scholarly journals Storing, Maintaining and Mobilizing Botswana National Museum’s Entomology Digital Collections: The GBIF/BID Approach

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. e26328
Author(s):  
Boikhutso Lerato Rapalai
Keyword(s):  
National Museum ◽  
Global Biodiversity Information Facility ◽  
Digital Collections ◽  
Natural Heritage ◽  
Heritage Sites ◽  
Biodiversity Knowledge ◽  
Insect Biodiversity ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Global Biodiversity ◽  
Biodiversity Information

The Botswana National Museum is mandated to protect, preserve and promote Botswana’s cultural and natural heritage for sustainable utilization thereof by collecting, researching, conserving and exhibiting for public education and appreciation. The Entomology Section of the museum is aiming towards becoming the national center for entomology collections as well as contributing to the monitoring and enhancement of natural heritage sites in Botswana. The Botswana National Museum entomology collection was assembled over more than three decades by a succession of collectors, curators and technical officers. Specimens are carefully prepared and preserved, labelled with field data, sorted and safely stored. The collection is preserved as wet (ethanol preserved) or as dry pinned specimens in drawers. This collection is invaluable for reference, research, baseline data and educational purposes. As a way of mobilizing insect biodiversity data and making it available online for conservation efforts and decision making processes, in 2016 the Botswana National Museum collaborated with five other African states to implement the Biodiversity Information for Development (BID) and Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) funded African Insect Atlas’ Project (https://www.gbif.org/project/82632/african-insect-atlas). This collaborative project was initiated to move biodiversity knowledge out of select insect collections into the hands of a new generation of global biodiversity researchers interested in direct outcomes. To date, the Botswana National Museum has been instrumental through the efforts of this project in storing, maintaining and mobilizing insect digital collections and making the data available online through the GBIF Platform.

scholarly journals Global and national trends, gaps, and opportunities in documenting and monitoring species distributions

PLoS Biology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (8) ◽  
pp. e3001336
Author(s):  
Ruth Y. Oliver ◽  
Carsten Meyer ◽  
Ajay Ranipeta ◽  
Kevin Winner ◽  
Walter Jetz
Keyword(s):  
Species Distributions ◽  
Sufficient Evidence ◽  
Sharp Decline ◽  
Biodiversity Data ◽  
Terrestrial Vertebrates ◽  
Biodiversity Knowledge ◽  
The Face ◽  
Data Coverage ◽  
National Trends ◽  
Sampling Effectiveness

Conserving and managing biodiversity in the face of ongoing global change requires sufficient evidence to assess status and trends of species distributions. Here, we propose novel indicators of biodiversity data coverage and sampling effectiveness and analyze national trajectories in closing spatiotemporal knowledge gaps for terrestrial vertebrates (1950 to 2019). Despite a rapid rise in data coverage, particularly in the last 2 decades, strong geographic and taxonomic biases persist. For some taxa and regions, a tremendous growth in records failed to directly translate into newfound knowledge due to a sharp decline in sampling effectiveness. However, we found that a nation’s coverage was stronger for species for which it holds greater stewardship. As countries under the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework renew their commitments to an improved, rigorous biodiversity knowledge base, our findings highlight opportunities for international collaboration to close critical information gaps.

scholarly journals Content and Quality of Websites for Patients With Chronic Kidney Disease: An Environmental Scan

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 205435811986309 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle Smekal ◽  
Sarah Gil ◽  
Maoliosa Donald ◽  
Heather Beanlands ◽  
Sharon Straus ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Chronic Kidney Disease ◽  
Kidney Disease ◽  
Grade Level ◽  
Information Needs ◽  
The United States ◽  
Self Management ◽  
Accessible Information ◽  
Reading Grade Level ◽  
The Mean

Background: Although numerous websites for patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) are available, little is known about their content and quality. Objective: To evaluate the quality of CKD websites, and the degree to which they align with information needs identified by patients with CKD. Methods: We identified websites by entering “chronic kidney disease” in 3 search engines: Google.com (with regional variants for Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States), Bing.com, and Yahoo.com. We included the first 50 unique English-language sites from each search. We evaluated website content using a 30-point scale comprising 8 priority content domains identified by patients with CKD ( understanding CKD, diet, symptoms, medications, mental/physical health, finances, travel, and work/school). We used standardized tools to evaluate usability, reliability, and readability (DISCERN, HONcode, LIDA, Reading Ease, and Reading Grade Level). Two reviewers independently conducted the search, screen, and evaluation. Results: Of the 2093 websites identified, 115 were included. Overall, sites covered a mean (SD) of 29% (17.8) of the CKD content areas. The proportion of sites covering content related to understanding CKD, symptoms, and diet was highest (97%, 80%, and 72%, respectively). The proportion of sites covering travel, finances, and work/school content was lowest (22%, 12%, and 12%, respectively). The mean (SD) scores for DISCERN, LIDA and HONcode were 68% (14.6), 71% (14.4), and 75% (17.2), respectively, considered above average for usability and reliability. The mean (SD) Reading Grade Level was 10.6 (2.8) and Reading Ease was 49.8 (14.4), suggesting poor readability. Conclusions: Although many CKD web sites were of reasonable quality, their readability was poor. Furthermore, most sites covered less than 30% of the content patients identified as important for CKD self-management. These results will inform content gaps in internet-accessible information on CKD self-management that should be addressed by future eHealth web-based tools.

Women Artisans' Information Needs, Sources and Seeking Behaviour and the Implication for Empowerment in a Semi-Urban Area in Nigeria

2014 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 47-63
Author(s):  
M.C. Nwosu ◽  
K.N. Igwe ◽  
N.A. Emezie
Keyword(s):  
Urban Area ◽  
Information Seeking ◽  
Information Needs ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Accessible Information ◽  
Information Accessibility ◽  
Community Information ◽  
Seeking Behavior ◽  
Good Number

This study examined the information needs, sources, information-seeking behavior of women artisans and the implications for empowerment in Offa, a semi-urban area in Kwara State of Nigeria. Survey research method was adopted with questionnaire as tool for data collection, involving 210 women artisans. Findings revealed that women artisans have information needs related to their work, but with information accessibility challenges due to unavailability of accessible information sources like libraries, as well as absence of empowerment programmes from government. It further revealed that the major sources of information for most women artisans were verbal or face-to-face mode of communications. The paper concludes that women constitute a vital asset of Nigeria and are a resourceful group with a good number practicing artisanship. Therefore, there is need to develop the information consciousness of the women artisans by the provision of efficient, effective and reliable formal information delivery mechanisms to them, such as community information centres.

scholarly journals A revision of the Morelloid Clade of Solanum L. (Solanaceae) in North and Central America and the Caribbean

PhytoKeys ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 123 ◽  
pp. 1-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra Knapp ◽  
Gloria E. Barboza ◽  
Lynn Bohs ◽  
Tiina Särkinen
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
South America ◽  
Central America ◽  
Morphological Variation ◽  
Distribution Maps ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Caribbean ◽  
Conservation Assessments ◽  
The Tropics ◽  
Black Nightshades

The Morelloid Clade, also known as the black nightshades or “Maurella” (Morella), is one of the 10 major clades within the mega-diverse genusSolanumL. The clade is most species rich in the central to southern Andes, but species occur around the tropics and subtropics, some extending well into the temperate zone. Plants of the group are herbaceous or short-lived perennials, with small white or purplish white flowers, and small juicy berries. Due to the complex morphological variation and weedy nature of these plants, coupled with the large number of published synonyms (especially for European taxa), our understanding of species limits and diversity in the Morelloid Clade has lagged behind that of other major groups inSolanum. Here we provide the second in a three-part series of revisions of the morelloid solanums treating the species occurring in North and Central America and the Caribbean (for the Old World see “PhytoKeys 106”, the third part will treat species of South America). Synonymy, morphological descriptions, distribution maps, and common names and uses are provided for all 18 species occurring in this region. We treat 10 of these species as native, and eight as putatively naturalised, introduced and/or invasive in the region. We provide complete descriptions with nomenclatural details, including lecto- and neotypifications, for all species. Keys to all species occurring in the whole region and for each area within it (i.e., North America, Central America and Mexico, and the islands of the Caribbean), illustrations to aid identification both in herbaria and in the field, and distribution maps are provided. Preliminary conservation assessments are provided for all species. Details of all specimens examined are provided in three Supplementary materials sections.

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