Species and Specimen Thematic Network Report

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IABIN Species and Specimens Thematic Network
(SSTN)
Erick Mata and María Mora, Instituto Nacional
de Biodiversidad, INBio
IABIN Executive Committee/Coordinating
Institution Meeting. Tierras Enamoradas, Costa
Rica. February 16-18, 2011
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Contents

• Introduction
• Current Status of Systems, Standards, and Tools
• Summary of Data Providers
• Sustainability of the SSTN infrastructure and
  integration with international initiatives

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Introduction

• 2006 - 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.

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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 GBIFs Data Portal
http//species.iabin.net/
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Toolkit for the Establishment of Biodiversity
Information Systems
It integrates two software tools
Biodiversity Data Portal
Data Entry Tool (Ara)
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Toolkit for the Establishment of Biodiversity
Information Systems
It integrates two software tools

• 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.

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Toolkit for the Establishment of Biodiversity
Information Systems
It integrates two software tools

• 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/observatio
  ns, 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.

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Toolkit for the Establishment of Biodiversity
Information Systems
Ara Users

• 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

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Toolkit for the Establishment of Biodiversity
Information Systems
SSTN Portal access statistics
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Component 1 E-learning Tool
SSTN - Current Status of Products, Standards and
Tools
http//www.inbio.ac.cr/iabin/e-learning/
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SSTN - Current Status of Products, Standards and
Tools

• 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.

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Summary of Data Publishers
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.

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.
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Sustainability of the SSTN Infrastructure
1. Additional funding to further develop Ara

• 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.

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Sustainability of the SSTN Infrastructure
andIntegration with International Initiatives
2. Integrate Specimen Data to GBIF
GBIF Data Portal
GBIF Mirror
SSTN Data Portal
Every two months
Regional Data (Americas)
SSTN New Specimens Records Data Publishers
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Sustainability of the SSTN Infrastructure
andIntegration with International Initiatives
3. Integrate Species Information to EOL
SSTN Data Portal
GBIF Mirror
GBIF Data Portal
Every two months
Regional Data (Americas)
Queries through URL
EOL Data Portal
SSTN New Species Records Data Publishers
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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/)

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Thank you!