The history and impact of digitization and digital data mobilization on biodiversity research

Nelson, Gil; Ellis, Shari

doi:10.1098/rstb.2017.0391

Cited by 189 publications

(173 citation statements)

References 68 publications

(74 reference statements)

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“…choosing species for which there is appropriate coverage for hypothesis testing), for collecting preliminary data and for providing broader access to collections [25]. In this issue, Nelson & Ellis [69] detail the history of digitization, the research made possible by digitized collections and the biases in digital specimen data, including that few digitized records are available from Russia, India and the continent of Africa (though South Africa is an emerging leader in digitization).…”

Section: Next Generation Collections Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biological collections for understanding biodiversity in the Anthropocene

Meineke

Davies

Daru

et al. 2018

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

199

131

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Global change has become a central focus of modern biology. Yet, our knowledge of how anthropogenic drivers affect biodiversity and natural resources is limited by a lack of biological data spanning the Anthropocene. We propose that the hundreds of millions of plant, fungal and animal specimens deposited in natural history museums have the potential to transform the field of global change biology. We suggest that museum specimens are underused, particularly in ecological studies, given their capacity to reveal patterns that are not observable from other data sources. Increasingly, museum specimens are becoming mobilized online, providing unparalleled access to physiological, ecological and evolutionary data spanning decades and sometimes centuries. Here, we describe the diversity of collections data archived in museums and provide an overview of the diverse uses and applications of these data as discussed in the accompanying collection of papers within this theme issue. As these unparalleled resources are under threat owing to budget cuts and other institutional pressures, we aim to shed light on the unique discoveries that are possible in museums and, thus, the singular value of natural history collections in a period of rapid change. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Biological collections for understanding biodiversity in the Anthropocene’.

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Section: Next Generation Collections Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biological collections for understanding biodiversity in the Anthropocene

Meineke

Davies

Daru

et al. 2018

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

199

131

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“…Apart from the multiple advantages that digitising museum specimens has for educational, public engagement, and research purposes, as well as preventing potential damage to a collection and preserving multiple virtual copies of it (e.g., Cook et al, 2014;Antell, 2018;Nelson & Ellis, 2018), it has been recently shown how digitisation "mitigates some of the challenges associated to the dispersion of specimens" (Antell, 2018). In our particular case, the digitised photographs of the specimens, some of them showing the original Königsberg/Klebs collection numbers or tags, that had been recently made public online thanks to the "Fossil Insect Collaborative" digitisation project at the MCZ, triggered the contact between the authors of the present study and caused the subsequent developments.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Digitisation as a tool to promote transparency between collections: the case of the Baltic amber from the Königsberg collection at the Museum of Comparative Zoology

Fuente

Gehler²,

Farnum

et al. 2019

Spanish J. Palaeontol.

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“…scientific studies or surveys by ecological consultants), and increasingly through citizen science projects, all of which can consist of standardised surveys and/or opportunistic sightings (August et al 2015;Berry 1988;Pocock et al 2015). These data are frequently, but not always, collated locally by biological records centres (Nelson and Ellis 2018), and globally, into the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF-https://www.gbif.org/) (Robertson et al 2014). GBIF is the world's largest open-source biodiversity dataset, and currently holds nearly 1.4 billion records, comprised of over 49,000 individual datasets (as of December 2019).…”

Section: Using Wildlife-vehicle Collision Data To Inform About Speciementioning

confidence: 99%

The value of monitoring wildlife roadkill

2020

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The number of wildlife-vehicle collisions has an obvious value in estimating the direct effects of roads on wildlife, i.e. mortality due to vehicle collisions. Given the nature of the data-species identification and location-there is, however, much wider ecological knowledge that can be gained by monitoring wildlife roadkill. Here, we review the added value and opportunities provided by these data, through a series of case studies where such data have been instrumental in contributing to the advancement of knowledge in species distributions, population dynamics, and animal behaviour, as well as informing us about health of the species and of the environment. We propose that consistently, systematically, and extensively monitoring roadkill facilitates five critical areas of ecological study: (1) monitoring of roadkill numbers, (2) monitoring of population trends, (3) mapping of native and invasive species distributions, (4) animal behaviour, and (5) monitoring of contaminants and disease. The collection of such data also offers a valuable opportunity for members of the public to be directly involved in scientific data collection and research (citizen science). Through continuing to monitor wildlife roadkill, we can expand our knowledge across a wide range of ecological research areas, as well as facilitating investigations that aim to reduce both the direct and indirect effects of roads on wildlife populations.

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The history and impact of digitization and digital data mobilization on biodiversity research

Abstract: One contribution of 16 to a theme issue 'Biological collections for understanding biodiversity in the Anthropocene'.

Cited by 189 publications

References 68 publications

Biological collections for understanding biodiversity in the Anthropocene

Biological collections for understanding biodiversity in the Anthropocene

Digitisation as a tool to promote transparency between collections: the case of the Baltic amber from the Königsberg collection at the Museum of Comparative Zoology

The value of monitoring wildlife roadkill

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