Distribution models for species are increasingly used to summarize species’ geography in conservation analyses. These models use increasingly sophisticated modeling techniques, but often lack detailed examination of the quality of the biological occurrence data on which they are based. I…

Early informatics focused primarily on the application of technology and computer science to a specific domain; modern informatics has broadened to encompass human and knowledge dimensions. Application of technology is but one aspect of informatics. Understanding domain members’ issues, priorities,…

Abstract. - Kinds of occurrences (evidence of particular living organisms) can be grouped by common data and metadata characteristics that are determined by the way that the occurrence represents the organism. The creation of occurrence resources follows a pattern which…

Access to digitised specimen data is a vital means to distribute information and in turn create knowledge. Pooling the accessibility of specimen and observation data under common standards and harnessing the power of distributed datasets places more and more information…

Natural history collections represent a vast repository of biodiversity data of international significance. There is an imperative to capture the data through digitisation projects in order to expose the data to new and established users of biodiversity data. On the…

Natural science collections comprise a small component of a more extensive source of data on which questions about the natural world may be addressed. However, NHC data offer, when digitised, an exceptional resource: within collections lies the most extensive dataset…

A Content Needs Assessment (CNA) survey has been conducted in order to determine what GBIF-mediated data users may be using, what they would be using if available, and what they need in terms of primary biodiversity data records. The survey…

Ecological niche modeling has become a very popular tool in ecological and biogeographic studies across broad extents. The tool is used in hundreds of publications each year now, but some fundamental aspects of the approach have seen a fair amount…

Environmental models are increasingly being used as surrogates to determine plant and animal species’ distributions for a range of uses. This use of models has become an important part of the recent science that has become known as biodiversity informatics.…

Natural history collections are the authoritative source of knowledge about the identity, evolutionary relationships, and attributes of species with which we share this planet. As such, collections of research specimens play a central and critical role in the conservation and…