The Atlas of Living AustraliaInfrastructure for biodiversity research

Donald HobernDonald.Hobern@csiro.auMelbourne, 29 July 2011

The Atlas is funded by the Australian Government under the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategyand further supported by the Super Science Initiative of the Education Investment Fund

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ALA - current investment

• Australian Government funding to June 2012– NCRIS 2006-2012: $8.2M– EIF Super Science 2009-2012: $30.0M– ALA partner in-kind contributions: $26.5M

• Mission– To develop an authoritative, freely accessible, distributed

and federated biodiversity data management system

• Partners• Government: – CSIRO – lead agent– Department of the Environment,

Water, Heritage and the Arts– Department of Agriculture, Fisheries

and Forestry• Universities:– Southern Cross University– University of Adelaide

• State museums:– Australian Museum– Museum and Art Gallery of the

Northern Territory– Museum Victoria– Queensland Museum– South Australian Museum– Tasmanian Museum and Art

Gallery– Western Australian Museum

• Representative bodies: – Council of Heads of Australasian

Herbaria– Council of Heads of Australian

Faunal Collections– Council of Heads of Australian

Entomological Collections– Council of Heads of Australian

Collections of Microorganisms– Council of Australasian Museum

Directors

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Basic concept

Metadata (source, methods, ownership, access, etc.)

Data (collections, field observations, literature, molecular, images, expert knowledge, etc.)

Metadata repository

Names and Classification

Distribution

Species Pages

Regional Atlas

Annotation Tools

Biosecurity Portal

Uses (biosecurity, land-use, climate change, crop development, resource management, materials, forensics, taxonomy, etc.)

Links to international

projects

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Building on the work of others

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International partners - GBIF

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International partners - EOL

China

Australia

Dutch

South Africa

Costa Rica

Mexico

Pan-Arab

Version 2Coming in Autumn

2011!

Version 2Coming in Autumn

2011!

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International partners - CoL

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International partners - BOLD

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CHALLENGES: DATA VALUES

Names & classifications

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What species occur in Australia?

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National species lists

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National species lists

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CHALLENGES: DATA VALUES

Specimens & observations

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Where is each species found?

NT

Gossypium sturtianum

Sturt's Desert Rose

SA

Swainsona formosaSturt Pea

WA

Anigozanthos manglesiiMangles'

Kangaroo Paw

TAS

Eucalyptus globulusBlue Gum

VIC

Epacris impressaCommon Heath

NSW

Telopea speciosissima

Waratah

ACT

Wahlenbergia gloriosa

Royal Bluebell

QLD

Vappodes phalaenopsis

Cooktown Orchid

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Botanical specimens

ScientificName: Derwentia derwentianaFamily: ScrophulariaceaeLocality: 0.4 km E of Coryah Gap...State: NSWDateCollected: 1998-12-12Latitude: -30.3Longitude: 150.1CoordinatePrecision: 200mCoordinateMethod: Paper mapTypeStatus: None

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Zoological specimens

ScientificName: Imbophorus pallidusFamily: PterophoridaeLocality: Stirling RangeState: WADateCollected: 1963-09-15Latitude: -34.3Longitude: 118.0CoordinatePrecision: 10000CoordinateMethod: Google EarthTypeStatus: Paratypus

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Field observations

ScientificName: Porela delineataFamily: LasiocampidaeLocality: Black MountainState: ACTDateCollected: 2010-09-20Latitude: -35.3Longitude: 149.1CoordinatePrecision: 10mCoordinateMethod: Yahoo! MapsTypeStatus: None

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Challenges: Data values

• Agreed standard data elements– ScientificName– DecimalLatitude– Decimal Longitude– CoordinatePrecision

• Standard data formats for values– New South Wales vs. NSW vs. N.S.W.– Australia vs. Australien vs. AU– 2008-05-15 vs. 05/15/2008 vs. 15 May 2008– Specimen vs. S vs. Voucher

• Scientific names– E.g. Platypus

• Ornithorhynchus anatinus • Ornithorhynchus paradoxus

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Challenges: Detecting errors

GBIF data for “Australia” intersecting Australian continent

GBIF data for “Australia” not intersecting Australian continent

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Standardised data

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Standardised data

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Standardised data

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Local information

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Collection:Queensland Herbarium

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Collection: Queensland Museum

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Environmental mapping

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Niche modelling

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Sensitive Data Service

• Sensitive geospatial data– Threatened species– Quarantine-sensitive species

• Registers of sensitive species– Conservation agencies– Biosecurity agencies– National and state-by-state

• Configurable rules– Suppress from public views– Reduce coordinate precision– Require additional metadata

• Timeline– Standalone tool to check data

(April 2011)– Integrated into data

integration (June 2011)

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CHALLENGES: DATA VALUES

Other species information

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Species page: Brolga

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Images

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Volunteer activity

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Volunteer activity

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Identification tools

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Identification tools

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Identification tools

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Identification tools

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Literature - BHL

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Literature: Keys

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Literature: Images

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Literature: Descriptions & Records

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Collaborative taxonomy

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Observers Data Input Personal Data Projects

Requests, fact sheets, presentations

Close loop between amateur observers and research needs

Citizen science

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Citizen science

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Citizen science

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Goal – contextual identification

Key to listed species

List of Acacia species in area

Links to aggregated species information

The Atlas of Living Australia Team – or some of it…

The Atlas is funded by the Australian Government under the National Collaborative Research

Infrastructure Strategyand further supported by the Super Science Initiative of the Education Investment Fund

The Atlas of Living Australia Participants

The Council of Heads of Australian Faunal Collections (CHAFC)

The Council of Heads of Australian Entomological Collections (CHAEC)

The Council of Heads of Australasian Collections of Microorganisms (CHACM)

The Council of Australasian Museum Directors (CAMD)