Fishing for data and sorting the catch: assessing the data quality, completeness and fitness for use of data in marine biogeographic databases

Abstract

Being able to assess the quality and level of completeness of data has become indispensable in marine biodiversity research, especially when dealing with large databases that typically compile data from a variety of sources. Very few integrated databases offer quality flags on the level of the individual record, making it hard for users to easily extract the data that are fit for their specific purposes. This article describes the different steps that were developed to analyse the quality and completeness of the distribution records within the European and international Ocean Biogeographic Information Systems (EurOBIS and OBIS). Records are checked on data format, completeness and validity of information, quality and detail of the used taxonomy and geographic indications and whether or not the record is a putative outlier. The corresponding quality control (QC) flags will not only help users with their data selection, they will also help the data management team and the data custodians to identify possible gaps and errors in the submitted data, providing scope to improve data quality. The results of these quality control procedures are as of now available on both the EurOBIS and OBIS databases. Through the Biology portal of the European Marine Observation and Data Network (EMODnet Biology), a subset of EurOBIS records—passing a specific combination of these QC steps—is offered to the users. In the future, EMODnet Biology will offer a wide range of filter options through its portal, allowing users to make specific selections themselves. Through LifeWatch, users can already upload their own data and check them against a selection of the here described quality control procedures.Database URL: www.eurobis.org (www.iobis.org; www.emodnet-biology.eu/)

Capturing threshold responses of marine benthos along gradients of natural and anthropogenic change

“…Moreover, the data would have been collected with a variety of sampling and observation methods, and its quality is not consistent, despite standard quality control measures that may be applied (e.g. Vandepitte et al, 2015). The long‐term trawling data, compiled from a variety of sources, might also have data quality and consistency issues (e.g.…”

Quantifying the value of user-level data cleaning for big data: A case study using mammal distribution models

“…Here, for example, we disposed half a million records, which consisted 50% of the database, in order to increase data quality. Thus, tools for easy yet advanced query of the data are as important as tools for detecting and correcting errors (Vandepitte et al, 2015). The results of our study stress the need for data validation and cleaning tools that incorporate customizable techniques, for example by developing an R package.…”

“…For example, data with low spatial resolution may be faulty when constructing high-resolution species distribution model (Hefley et al, 2014;Maldonado et al, 2015;Velásquez-Tibatá et al, 2015). Several studies that assess the quality of biodiversity data exist (Ballesteros-Mejia et al, 2013;García-Roselló et al, 2014;Mesibov, 2013;Otegui et al, 2013b;Vandepitte et al, 2015). Yet, studies that actually quantify the effect of data cleaning are scarce (e.g.…”

New Approaches to Marine Conservation Through the Scaling Up of Ecological Data

“…Values also vary in precision, with clear errors in distribution records reported (e.g., Robertson 2008). Some of these problems are addressed by the quality control procedures employed when adding data to OBIS (www.iobis.org/node/47), and the additional tests recently developed and implemented to automatically quality control marine biogeographic databases including OBIS (Vandepitte et al 2015). This will go some way to ensure data are adequately structured and complete where required, however the onus remains on the user to perform appropriate data control and manipulations when developing a dataset suitable for any specific analysis.…”