Biological data: sources and considerations

1
Biological data sources and considerations

• Monica Papes

2
Sources of occurrence data

• Natural history museum collections (many in
  distributed databases)
• Literature citations (monographs, papers, etc)
• Surveys

Potential issues with NHM occurrence data

• Taxonomy
• Sample bias
• Locality description too vague, misspelled,
  unreadable handwriting, etc.

3
Georeferencing occurrence localities

• 1. Gazetteers
• - Paper based
• - Online databases

4

• Two examples
• GeoNet Names Server worldwide coverage
• http//gnpswww.nima.mil/geonames/GNS/index.jsp
• Alexandria Digital Library worldwide coverage
• http//middleware.alexandria.ucsb.edu/client/gaz/a
  dl/index.jsp

5
Georeferencing occurrence localities

• 1. Gazetteers
• - Paper based
• - Online databases
• 2. Maps
• - Paper based
• - Electronic (digitized)
• 3. Automated tools (e.g. BioGeoMancer,GEOLocate)

6

• http//www.biogeomancer.org/
• http//www.museum.tulane.edu/geolocate/default.asp
  x

7
How easy and accurate can georeferencing be?

• e.g.1 Lawrence
• e.g.2 Lawrence, Douglas Co, Kansas, USA
• e.g.3 5 km E of Lawrence, DG, KS, USA
• e.g.4 5 km SE of Lawrence, DG, KS, USA

8
Placing a confidence interval on georeferencing

• MaNIS Georeferencing Calculator
• http//dlp.cs.berkeley.edu/manis/GeorefCalculator/
  GeorefCalculator.html