Searching across hundreds of databases
Much ecological research relies on existing multispecies distribution datasets. Such datasets, however, can vary considerably in quality, extent, resolution or taxonomic coverage. We provide a framework for a spatially-explicit evaluation of geographical representation within large-scale species distribution datasets, using the comparison of an occurrence atlas with a range atlas dataset as a working example. Specifically, we compared occurrence maps for 3773 taxa from the widely-used Atlas Florae Europaeae (AFE) with digitised range maps for 2049 taxa of the lesser-known Atlas of North European Vascular Plants. We calculated the level of agreement at a 50-km spatial resolution using average latitudinal and longitudinal species range, and area of occupancy. Agreement in species distribution was calculated and mapped using Jaccard similarity index and a reduced major axis (RMA) regression analysis of species richness between the entire atlases (5221 taxa in total) and between co-occurring species (601 taxa). We found no difference in distribution ranges or in the area of occupancy frequency distribution, indicating that atlases were sufficiently overlapping for a valid comparison. The similarity index map showed high levels of agreement for central, western, and northern Europe. The RMA regression confirmed that geographical representation of AFE was low in areas with a sparse data recording history (e.g., Russia, Belarus and the Ukraine). For co-occurring species in south-eastern Europe, however, the Atlas of North European Vascular Plants showed remarkably higher richness estimations. Geographical representation of atlas data can be much more heterogeneous than often assumed. Level of agreement between datasets can be used to evaluate geographical representation within datasets. Merging atlases into a single dataset is worthwhile in spite of methodological differences, and helps to fill gaps in our knowledge of species distribution ranges. Species distribution dataset mergers, such as the one exemplified here, can serve as a baseline towards comprehensive species distribution datasets.
Pubmed ID: 24454840 RIS Download
Publication data is provided by the National Library of Medicine ® and PubMed ®. Data is retrieved from PubMed ® on a weekly schedule. For terms and conditions see the National Library of Medicine Terms and Conditions.
The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) was established by governments in 2001 to encourage free and open access to biodiversity data, via the Internet. Through a global network of countries and organizations, GBIF promotes and facilitates the mobilization, access, discovery and use of information about the occurrence of organisms over time and across the planet. GBIF provides three core services and products: # An information infrastructure an Internet-based index of a globally distributed network of interoperable databases that contain primary biodiversity data information on museum specimens, field observations of plants and animals in nature, and results from experiments so that data holders across the world can access and share them # Community-developed tools, standards and protocols the tools data providers need to format and share their data # Capacity-building the training, access to international experts and mentoring programs that national and regional institutions need to become part of a decentralized network of biodiversity information facilities. GBIF and its many partners work to mobilize the data, and to improve search mechanisms, data and metadata standards, web services, and the other components of an Internet-based information infrastructure for biodiversity. GBIF makes available data that are shared by hundreds of data publishers from around the world. These data are shared according to the GBIF Data Use Agreement, which includes the provision that users of any data accessed through or retrieved via the GBIF Portal will always give credit to the original data publishers. * Explore Species: Find data for a species or other group of organisms. Information on species and other groups of plants, animals, fungi and micro-organisms, including species occurrence records, as well as classifications and scientific and common names. * Explore Countries: Find data on the species recorded in a particular country, territory or island. Information on the species recorded in each country, including records shared by publishers from throughout the GBIF network. * Explore Datasets: Find data from a data publisher, dataset or data network. Information on the data publishers, datasets and data networks that share data through GBIF, including summary information on 10028 datasets from 419 data publishers.
View all literature mentionsAn end-to-end application allowing individual regional analysis of cortical thickness. This cross-platform tool can be run within Slicer3 as an external module, or directly as a command line. * Operating System: MacOS, Linux * Programming Language: C++ * Supported Data Format: ANALYZE, Nrrd, Other Format * build requires: Insight Toolkit
View all literature mentionsGeographical information system software produced by Esri.
View all literature mentionsThe SciCrunch Infrastructure was developed as a cooperative data platform to be used by diverse communities in making data more FAIR.
scicrunch.org
