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Dr. Guy Baillargeon, agr. Biologiste | Biologiste Direction générale de la recherche | Research Branch Santé environnementale - Biodiversité | Environmental Health - Biodiversity Agriculture et Agroalimentaire Canada | Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada

guy.baillargeon@agr.gc.ca Téléphone | Telephone +1-613-759-1793 or 418-736-8479 Télécopieur | Facsimile +1-613-759-1970 Téléimprimeur | Teletypewriter 613-759-7470 Gouvernement du Canada | Government of Canada

Système canadien d'information sur la biodiversité | Canadian Biodiversity Information Facility www.scib.gc.ca | www.cbif.gc.ca

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Counts as of 15 Jan. 2009 from http://www.gbif.org/GBIF_org/participation

29 voting countries (contributing financially to GBIF) 20 associates countries and economies (no contribution to the budget) 39 international organizations

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http://www.gbif.org/ Main page screen capture, 16 Jan 2009

Note the GBIF UDDI Registry box on the third column, showing number of data servers (providers), datasets, and occurrence records

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http://data.gbif.org/ Screen capture of GBIF data portal main page, 16 Jan 2009

Access to GBIF-mediated data - Explore by name, country or dataset

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FBIP has been in existence since the middle 80’s Original purpose • to promote the care development and use of Canada’s national collections held in AAFC, CMN and CFS Evolved to encompass needs of Federal departments and agencies that need biodiversity data to meet their mandates

An inter-departmental organization that provides focus: • For higher level coordination, complementarity and coherence between Canadian biodiversity-based data, know-how and knowledge • That responds to the needs of Canadian policy makers, regulators, scientists, industry and civil society.

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FBIP currently has 9 Federal members - We want to have more • we need to include all Departments who are holders and creators of biodiversity data • we need all Departments and agencies who are net users of strategic biodiversity data

FBIP members cooperate based on an MOU sets out: what why we are working together

what we consider common responsibilities how we will cooperate what we will pay to work together how the common funds will be used eg: fees for GBIF membership. Specific projects

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The CBIF web portal is developed by AAFC on behalf of FBIP

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The BiOSC Gateway was a precursor of the GBIF portal It was indexing several biodiversity networks: Species Analyst, DiGIR, REMIB and EHNSIN See http://www.cbif.gc.ca/biosc_e.php for more details

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http://www.cbif.gc.ca/home_e.php Screen capture of English CBIF main page as of 16 Jan 2009 Compliant with Common Look and Feel version 1.0 (CLF1.0); will be replaced soon by a new design compliant with CLF2.0

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http://www.cbif.gc.ca/pls/itisca/taxaget?p_ifx=cbif Screen capture of main query page for the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) As of 16 Jan 2009

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http://www.cbif.gc.ca/pls/itisca/taxaget?p_ifx=scib&p_lang=fr http://www.scib.gc.ca/pls/itisca/taxaget?p_ifx=scib&p_lang=fr

Screen capture of French main query page for the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) As of 16 Jan 2009

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Multilingual versions of ITIS were developed by ITIS*Canada For accessing all online versions of ITIS see http://www.cbif.gc.ca/pls/itisca/itisurls?p_ifx=cbif

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As of 11-Dec-2008 data upload 482,560 scientific names 109,132 vernacular names ====== 591,692 names

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From http://www.itis.gov/itis_primer.html The Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) was established in the mid-1990’s as a cooperative project among several US federal agencies to improve and expand upon taxonomic data (known as the “NODC Taxonomic Code”) maintained by the National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). ITIS inherited approximately 210,000 scientific names with varying levels of data quality from the NODC data set. While many important taxonomic groups were not well represented (e.g., terrestrial insects), the rate of errors and omissions within represented taxonomic groups ranged from relatively low (e.g., few misspellings or occasional typographical errors) to rather high (e.g., many species names without authors or dates, or species assigned to wrong groups).

The ITIS mission is to create a scientifically credible database of taxonomic information, placing primary focus on taxa of interest to North America, with world treatments included, as available. Within this framework, the initial data content development and quality assurance strategy was to begin with the NODC data and proceed on two tracks: (1) adding new names or checklists with a high level of taxonomic credibility, and (2) reviewing and verifying the legacy NODC data, thereby bringing it to a minimal, or higher, standard of data quality. Pending review and improvement, the unverified legacy data have been retained in the ITIS database to meet the needs of ITIS partners and cooperators who use the names and their associated unique identifiers (Taxonomic Serial Numbers - TSNs) in specific applications. Since the 1996 import of the legacy dataset, ITIS has grown to nearly 483,000 scientific names, more than 77% of which have been verified in the literature, leaving about 106,000 names as unverified legacy data

From http://www.itis.gov/glossary.html Record Credibility Rating – (Populated for all records.) A rating determined by criteria established by the ITIS Taxonomic Work Group reflecting the level of review of the entire record’s data elements and the perceived level of accuracy of the record’s scientific name and associated attributes.

Values:

• verified – standards met – All data elements in the record and the position of the scientific name in the hierarchy are perceived to be accurate and are supported by one or more credible references (e.g., publication, database, expert, data steward). • verified – minimum standards met – Data in the record are incomplete and/or contain accuracy, placement, or nomenclatural issues, or are from a non-peer reviewed source. Data issues can’t be resolved without detailed consultation with systematists and/or the pertinent literature. • unverified – Data in the record are of unknown quality (legacy data).

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http://www.sp2000.org/ Species 2000 • A federation of 52 taxonomic databases • Most of them “Global Species Databases” (GSDs)

The Species 2000 & ITIS Catalogue of Life http://www.catalogueoflife.org/info_about_col.php

• The Species 2000 & ITIS Catalogue of Life is planned to become a comprehensive catalogue of all known species of organisms on Earth by the year 2011. Rapid progress has been made recently and this, the eighth edition of the Annual Checklist, contains 1,105,589 species. Please note that this is probably just more than half of the world's known species. This means that for many groups it continues to be deficient, and users will notice that many species are still missing from the Catalogue. • The present Catalogue is compiled with sectors provided by 52 taxonomic databases from around the world. Many of these contain taxonomic data and opinions from extensive networks of specialists, so that the complete work contains contributions from more than 3,000 specialists from throughout the taxonomic profession.

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http://www.catalogueoflife.org/info_2008_checklist.php

The 2008 Annual Checklist contains contributions from 52 databases with information on 1,105,589 species and 86,426 infraspecific taxa, and also includes 720,040 synonyms and 461,182 common names covering the groups listed on the slide

LSIDs (Life Science Identifiers) were introduced in 2008. For details, see: http://www.catalogueoflife.org/info_lsid.php

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http://www.cbif.gc.ca/home_e.php Screen capture of English CBIF main page as of 16 Jan 2009 (compliant with Common Look and Feel 1.0) Second element in left column menu pointing to Species Access Canada

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CBIF Species Access Portal also support The Species Analyst (precursor of DiGIR developed by Dave Vieglais, based on Z39.50 library standard), but all Canadian servers have now upgraded to DiGIR.

NatureServer network contains a large number of records from Canada. Unfortunately, their georeferencing is not public

OBIS Canada datasets are served from the Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Rutgers University (USA) 1.  DFO Maritimes Research Vessel Trawl Surveys Fish Observations (OBIS Canada) 2.  Pacific Ocean Shelf Tracking (OBIS Canada) 3.  ECNASAP - East Coast North America Strategic Assessment (OBIS Canada) 4.  Atlantic Reference Centre (OBIS Canada) 5.  Canadian Museum of Nature - Fish Collection (OBIS Canada) 6.  Gwaii Haanas Invertebrates (OBIS Canada) 7.  Canada Maritimes Regional Cetacean Sightings (OBIS Canada) 8.  Davis Strait and Baffin Bay Zooplankton (OBIS Canada) 9.  Eastern Canada Benthic Macro Fauna (OBIS Canada) 10.  Gwaii Haanas Marine Plants (OBIS Canada) 11.  Electronic Atlas of Ichthyoplankton on the Scotian Shelf of North America (OBIS Canada) 12.  Resolute Passage Copepod Distribution (OBIS Canada) 13.  Bay of Fundy Species List (OBIS Canada) 14.  Atlantic Canada Conservation Data Centre (OBIS Canada) 15.  Nova Scotia Museum of Natural History - Marine Birds, Mammals, and Fishes (OBIS Canada) 16.  Grand Manan Basin Benthos (OBIS Canada) 17.  Marine Invertebrate Diversity Initiative (OBIS Canada)

PIROP database, initially served by Canadian EMAN DiGIR provider is now served from OBIS SeaMap at Duke University •  http://seamap.env.duke.edu/datasets/detail/280 •  http://seamap.env.duke.edu/datasets/detail/281

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Species Access Canada

Number of collection resources hosted by Data Provider, sorted by decreasing number of total number of records (a record being a specimen or an individual observation)

Data shown on slide is from 19 Jan. 2007 to match breakdown by taxonomic group on next slide

Current data (counts as of 15 Jan 2009) are very similar; some of the data previously served by EMAN is now served by OBIS SeaMap, explaining the big drop in number of records served by the EMAN server

Source: http://www.gbif.org/DataProviders/resourceslist?sortby=category Bird Studies Canada 929,329

Royal Ontario Museum 435,646

CBIF 389,122

Canadian Museum of Nature 274,772

University of Alberta 61,237

Nearctic Spider Database 30,675

New Brunswick Museum 10,197

EMAN Provider 7,401

2,138,379

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Species Access Canada

Number of collection resources hosted by Taxonomic Group, sorted by decreasing number of total number of records (a record being a specimen or an individual observation)

Counts as of 19 Jan. 2007 Derived from http://www.gbif.org/DataProviders/providerslist?sortby=category, combined with individual metadata records from UDDI registry

See notes below previous slide for more current counts by server

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http://data.gbif.org/countries/CA as of 14 Jan 2009

Specimens or observations collected in Canada are totalling over 5.6 million records A large proportion of records of Canadian origin are served by servers located outside Canada

This is a unique situation amongst developed countries that are members of GBIF. Most countries (except megadiverse countries like Mexico, India, South Africa) are usually serving 80% or more of the records collected in their countries

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Number of records (specimens or observations) collected in Canada by GBIF provider Source: http://data.gbif.org/countries/datasharing?view=full&host=all&country=all as of Jan 15, 2009 - Transformed!

Canada is serving only 22% of the Canadian records known by GBIF Foreign countries and international organization are serving 88% of the Canadian records known to GBIF. 65% of the Canadian records known to GBIF are served by US data providers!

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http://www.cbif.gc.ca/portal/digir-toc.php Table of contents for Species Access Canada, as of 16 Jan 2009

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Based only on specimens from the Canadian National Collection (CNC) in Ottawa

Does not necessarily reflects complete historic distribution

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Set of online tools optmized for use in Canada • Connecting to Canadian Topographic Map system and to Canadian gazetteer

Set of online tools optimized for use at the global scale • Connecting to world mapping service in the Netherlands • Direct access to GBIF-mediated data

Web Map Services (WMS) • Real time programmatic access from other web sites

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Embryonic species page section http://www.cbif.gc.ca/spp_pages/index_e.php

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One example of products found in SpeciesBank area

The Moths of Canada – Table of contents http://www.cbif.gc.ca/spp_pages/misc_moths/phps/mothindex_e.php

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SpeciesBank– Image library example http://www.cbif.gc.ca/spp_pages/misc_moths/jpgs/image_e.php?image[]=107853.jpg%2CHemaris+thysbe

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Common Look and Feel for the Internet 2.0 – mandatory for all federal gov. web sites http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/clf2-nsi2/index-eng.asp

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www.cbif.gc.ca | www.scib.gc.ca Upcoming CLF2.0 compliant splash page

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CBIF main page – French – upcoming CLF2.0 compliant design

This new CLF2.0 compliant design was due to go online by 31 Dec. 2008; will be online by March 31st, 2009

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CBIF – upcoming CLF2-compliant English main page - top

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CBIF – upcoming CLF2-compliant main page - bottom

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ITIS*Canada - upcoming CLF2-compliant query page in English

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ITIS*Canada – Sinapis arvensis - upcoming CLF2-compliant results page in English - top

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ITIS*Canada – Sinapis arvensis - upcoming CLF2-compliant results page in English - bottom

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Canadian Poisonous Plants Information System - upcoming CLF2-compliant Table of contents - in French

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Canadian Poisonous Plants Information System - upcoming CLF2-compliant Table of contents - in English

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We need to go beyond plotting dots on maps, and develop geospatial analytical applications capable of modelling species past, present and future distributions in a changing environment.

CGDI – Canadian Geospatial Data Infrastructure http://cgdi.gc.ca

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How can we get around this problem? Point distribution records combined with GCMs can give prediction of species’ bioclimate

Overlaying models for multiple species – modelled species richness

Such modelled richness can be used in systematic conservation planning http://www.nesc.ac.uk/action/esi/download.cfm?index=2550 ----- Call for Expression of Interest in participating in a working group to develop a modeling tools as part of AAFC National Land and Water Information Service (NLWIS)

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