Rescue old data before it’s too late

Griffin, Elizabeth

doi:10.1038/545267a

Cited by 9 publications

(6 citation statements)

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“…When researchers learn of once-neglected data that have been revived and transformed via modern insight, they themselves are more likely to recognize such hidden opportunities (Griffin 2017). The Romanian vegetation database is one of these projects that not only preserves historical data, but at the same time also offers the opportunity for various broader scientific purposes and activity that will benefit humankind.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Romanian Grassland Database (RGD): historical background, current status and future perspectives

Vassilev¹,

Ruprecht²,

Alexiu³

et al. 2018

phyto

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This report describes the Romanian Grassland Database (RGD), registered under EU-RO-008 in the Global Index of Vegetation-Plot Databases (GIVD). This collaborative initiative aims to collect all available vegetation-plot data (relevés) of grasslands and other open habitats from the territory of Romania to provide them for science, nationally and internationally, e.g. via the European Vegetation Archive (EVA) and the global database "sPlot". The database mainly contains vegetation-plots from not only wet, mesic, dry, saline, alpine and rocky grasslands, but also other vegetation types like heathlands, mires, ruderal, segetal, aquatic and cryptogam-dominated vegetation. Currently, 21,685 relevés have mainly been digitised from literature sources (90%), while the remainder comes from individual unpublished sources (10%). We report on the background and history of the RGD, explain its "Data Property and Governance Rules" under which data are contributed and retrieved, and outline how the RGD can contribute to research in the fields of vegetation ecology, macroecology and conservation.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Romanian Grassland Database (RGD): historical background, current status and future perspectives

Vassilev¹,

Ruprecht²,

Alexiu³

et al. 2018

phyto

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show abstract

“…To compensate for this issue, we suggest the utilization of historical literature, including NGO surveys, academic reports, and land use records from the past. There were several successful attempts to integrate and mine new information by using this historical information (Griffin, 2017;Kim, Joo & Do, 2018), and these practices would be beneficial to compensate for the results of the initial assessment.…”

Section: Recommendations For Wetland Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

The influence of surrounding land cover on wetland habitat conditions: a case study of inland wetlands in South Korea

Kim

Baek

et al. 2020

PeerJ

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Wetland ecosystems have been globally degraded and lost due to rapid urbanization and climate change. An assessment of national scale inventory, including wetland types and conditions, is urgently required to understand the big picture of endangered wetlands, such as where they are and how they look like. We analyzed the spatial patterns of each inland wetland type (brackish wetland was included) in South Korea and the relative importance of land cover categories on wetland conditions. The wetlands were grouped into four dominant types (riverine, lake, mountain, and human-made) according to their topography. Riverine wetlands constituted the largest area (71.3%). The relative ratio of wetlands in a well-conserved condition (i.e., “A” rank) was highest in riverine wetlands (23.8%), followed by mountain wetlands (22.1%). The higher proportion of grasslands was related to a better condition ranking, but the increasing bareland area had a negative impact on wetland conditions. We also found that wetlands located near wetland protected areas tend to be in a better condition compared to remote sites. Our results further support the importance of the condition of surrounding areas for wetland conservation.

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“…The majority of the historical data points were extracted from the notecards (Fig. 3) These cards were scanned, transcribed and formatted for data archiving by volunteer citizen scientists at the DSRC facilities, demonstrating the significant impact of citizen science contributions in natural history data rescue efforts and mitigating data risk factors (Griffin 2017, Brunet and Jones 2011, Mayernik et al 2020. Due to the size and scope of the DSRC's historical holdings, the digitisation process remains ongoing and, as historical occurrences become available, they will be added to the described dataset periodically.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vernal pool amphibian breeding ecology monitoring from 1931 to present: A harmonised historical and ongoing observational ecology dataset

Garretson

Napoli²,

Feldsine³

et al. 2020

BDJ

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For 88 years (1931-present), the Mohonk Preserve's Daniel Smiley Research Center has been collecting data on occupancy and reproductive success of amphibian species, as well as associated water quality of 11 vernal pools each spring (February to May). Though sampling effort has varied over the dataset range, the size of the dataset is unprecedented within the field of amphibian ecology. With more than 2,480 individual species sampling dates and more than 151,701 recorded individual occurrences of the nine amphibian species, the described dataset represents the longest and largest time-series of herpetological sampling with paired water quality data. We describe the novel publication of a paired dataset of amphibian occurrence with environmental indicators spanning nearly 90 years of data collection. As of February 2020, the dataset includes 2,480 sampling dates across eleven vernal pools and 151,701 unique occurrences of egg masses or individuals recorded across nine species of amphibian. The dataset also includes environmental conditions associated with the species occurrences with complete coverage for air temperature and precipitation records and partial coverage for a variety of other weather and water quality measures. Data collection has included species, egg mass and tadpole counts; weather conditions including precipitation, sky and wind codes; water quality measurements including water temperature and pH; and vernal pool assessment including depth and surface vegetation coverage. Collection of data was sporadic from 1931–1991, but data have been collected consistently from 1991 to present. We also began monitoring dissolved oxygen, nitrate concentrations and conductivity of the vernal pools using a YSI Sonde Professional Plus Instrument and turbidity using a turbidity tube in February 2018. The dataset (and periodic updates), as well as metadata in the EML format, are available in the Environmental Data Initiative Repository under package edi.398.

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Rescue old data before it’s too late

Abstract: If we don't act soon to preserve past records, invaluable knowledge will be lost, warns Elizabeth Griffin.

Cited by 9 publications

References 0 publications

The Romanian Grassland Database (RGD): historical background, current status and future perspectives

The Romanian Grassland Database (RGD): historical background, current status and future perspectives

The influence of surrounding land cover on wetland habitat conditions: a case study of inland wetlands in South Korea

Vernal pool amphibian breeding ecology monitoring from 1931 to present: A harmonised historical and ongoing observational ecology dataset

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