The IABIN Pollinators Thematic Network

5th Council Meeting of IABINPunta del Este, Uruguay

May 9, 2007

Michael Ruggiero, Laurie Adams, and Antonio Saraiva

About Pollinators

• > 80% of flowering plants are pollinated by animals.

• > 1/3 of the world's major food crops.

• $200 Billon annually in value for global agriculture.

• 10,000 bee, 500 bat, and 300 hummingbird species in the Americas

• There is growing evidence that pollinators are declining in the Americas and globally.

Kinds of Pollinators

INSECTS

• Bees• Beetles• Butterflies• Crickets• Flies• Midges• Mosquitoes• Moths• Wasps

REPTILES• Geckos • Skinks• Anoles• Lacertidae• Tegus and Whiptails

BIRDS• Hummingbirds• Sunbirds • Honeyeaters• Sugarbirds • Flowerpeckers • White-winged Doves

MAMMALS• Bats• Opossums and Marsupials• Monkeys and Lemurs• Rodents

PTN Vision

A Pollinators Thematic Network for the

Americas

which will facilitate integration of

information about pollinators

in an efficient retrieval system

PTN Goal

To develop a network of

linked and integrated databases among major data sources and IABIN members

that share critical content through a

common set of data standards and exchange protocols

PTN System Content

• Scientific and common names

• Experts• Specimens and

observations • Pollinator-plant

associations• Literature

PTN Data Standards

• Use existing standards

• Seek interoperability

PTN Activities andWork Plan

PTN Activities

• Activities began in Jul ‘06

• Joint IABIN/GBIF Workshop in Dec ‘06

• Communication– Periodic Conference Calls of Management Team– PTN Public Website (pollinators.iabin.net) in Nov ‘06– Portal (pollinators.incubadora.fapesp.br) in Jan ‘07

Joint IABIN/GBIF Workshop

More than 35 Experts on Pollinators and IT from the Americas and from

GBIF and FAO

PTN Group Portal

pollinators.incubadora.fapesp.br

pollinators.iabin.net

PTN Work Plan

• Information needs assessment

• Partnerships

• Coordination

• Network architecture and standards

• Gap analysis of content

Information Needs Assessment

INFORMATION NEEDS ASSESSMENT

Respondents Interest or Experience

0% 2% 4% 6% 8% 10% 12% 14% 16% 18% 20%

Agricultural

Apicultural

Botanical

Conservation

Ecological

Industry / Industrial

Legislation / Policy

Monitoring

Regulation

Research/Science

Taxonomic

Geographic Expertise

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35

Venezuela

Uruguay

United States

Suriname

Peru

Paraguay

Panama

Nicaragua

Mexico

Jamaica

Honduras

Haiti

Guyana

Guatemala

French Guiana

El Salvador

Ecuador

Cuba

Costa Rica

Colombia

Chile

Canada

Brazil

Bolivia

Belize

Bahamas

Argentina

Most Desired Content

0% 2% 4% 6% 8% 10% 12%

Bibliographies

GIS shape files / georeferenced data

Lists or registries of experts

Management plans (habitats)

Management plans (pollinators)

Maps (interactive species / habitat)

Maps (static species / habitat)

Pesticide use / affects / guidelines

Point data / field observations

Pollinator-plant association data

Publication collections

Species identification keys / guides

Species lists

Species profiles / fact sheets

Specimen collections

Taxonomies / taxonomic trees

Information Most Needed (Issues)

0 5 10 15 20

Pollinator distribution

Pollinator habitats

Population census data

Population ecology

Plant distribution

Plant-pollinator associations

Introduced species effects

Pesticide effects

Agricultural effects

Pollinator services

PARTNERSHIPS

• North American Pollinator Protection Campaign

• Brazilian Pollinator Initiative

• GBIF

• IPI: CBD & FAO

COORDINATION

IABIN GBIF

Goal Electronic pollinator information network for the Americas Facilitate availability of primary taxonomic content data for world’s pollinators and provide to global Pollinator Information Management System

Scope Western Hemisphere World

Primary Content

New World checklists of bees, hummingbirds, bats, and other important pollinating species

Specimens in major collections Pollinator experts Pollinator-plant associations Literature on pollinators Other data as available (e.g., geographic, genetic)

Global checklists of bees, hummingbirds, bats, and other important pollinating species

Specimen and observation data from major collections and monitoring programs

Uses of Data Scientists, resource managers, policy makers, students, farmers, public, others

Scientists, resource managers, policy makers, students, farmers, public, others

Currently Available Data

Complete checklists for New World bees (draft), hummingbirds, and bats (ca. 10,000 valid names)

> 500, 000 specimen records readily available for internet access Draft list of more than 150 pollinator experts Plant pollinator association data available in several databases Literature citations available in several data bases (also through UBIO

RSS feed)

Complete checklists for world bees (draft), hummingbirds, and bats (ca. 20,000 valid names)

> 500, 000 specimen records readily available for internet access

Location of Data

Checklists in ITIS, Species 2000 & ITIS Catalogue of Life, and GBIF ECAT; and personal databases

Specimens in Western Hemisphere and European collections Experts, plant-pollinator data, literature in personal lists and on Internet

Checklists in ITIS, Species 2000 & ITIS Catalogue of Life, and GBIF ECAT; and personal databases

Specimens in Western Hemisphere, European, Asian, Australian, and African collections

Future Data Needs

Images, genetics, environmental, pollinator parasites

Resources IABIN: 180K (06-08); IABIN content: 240K (07-08); U.S., Brazil, Mexico, Canada, Colombia governments; Bilateral agreements

GBIF Campaign (potential): 175K Euro (07); European Commission Framework (?); GBIF Participants (?); FAO (?)

Partnerships NGO’s, Industry, Institutions, etc., NGO’s, Industry, Institutions, etc.,

PTN ARCHITECTURE AND STANDARDS

PTN Architecture and Protocols

IABIN PTN Portal

Specimens in Collections

Tapir/DigirDwC

GBIF

SpeciesLink

IABIN – PTNSpecimen data

providers

IABIN – SSTN

IABIN specimen data host

Plant-pollinator relationship

SpeciesLink

IABIN-SSTN

GBIF

Tapir/Digir?schema?

WebBee

Species DataProviders

Checklist of collections/pollinating

species

LiteratureExperts

Database

Experts DB

Tapir/DigirDwC

WebBee

Experts Directory

• Adopt solution of NBII/I3N– PHP code / MySQL (local PTN database).

• Consider also compatibility with– TRED – Taxonomic Resources Expertise

Directory– PCDL – Pollinator Conservation Digital Library

(NAPPC)

Specimens in Major Collections

• Distributed architecture

– Data owner = data provider

– If necessary: PTN may host data

• Not on a permanent basis

• Build local capacity to host data in the future

• Regional servers / IABIN server

Specimens in Major Collections

• Data providers (potential)– speciesLink-enabled collections– GBIF data providers– PTN Partners: RFP on digitization– Data acquisition tool

• Encourage use of existing tools• speciesLink approach: CMS+wrapper

• Avoid duplicates (data “served” twice)

PTN Portal

• Portal– Customize GBIF solution: new version

available

– Collaboration with SSTN/InBIO who uses same tools

Plant-pollinator Relationships

• Strategy– The data can be retrieved from existing

systems.• Webbee, others …

Data Schema for Plant-pollinator Relationships

• Usual schemas are not adequate

• Direction: – Extension of an existing schema (DwC)– Suggest additional fields for Plinian Core – Beta-version (July ‘07)

PTN USE CASES

PTN Use Cases

Basic Use Cases for beta-version:

– Identification of individual specimens

– Construct species list for a specific region

– Search for information on the animal pollinators of a specific plant

– Search for information on pollinator experts

PTN Use Cases

Other Use Cases (based on survey results):

– Predictive modeling of pollinator distributions– Indicators and monitoring– Information about abundance (species richness and

rarity)– Get full searchable text of original literature– Plant and crop distributions and associated

economic value– Access Pollinator management techniques– List of dangers or threats to pollinators– Retrieve data from Weblabs

PTN Integration with Others

IABIN Thematic Networks

• Integration: • Species and Specimens: Digir-Tapir/DwC/PlC• Relationships: depends on a common schema• Experts: IABIN• Bibliography: none

Other Initiatives

• Integration with GBIF: • Species and Specimens: Digir-Tapir/DwC/PlC

– Ex. Species link

• SpeciesLink• Pollinator data from Brazil through PTN• Support from GBIF

GAP ANALYSIS OF CONTENT

Scientific and Common Names

• 10,000 bees– 5,000 completed

• 500 hummingbirds– Complete

• 300 bats– Complete

Experts

• > 100 identified

Specimen Records

• 82 Major collections of bee specimens for the Americas– 32 in South America– 30 in North America– 2 in Central America– 18 in Europe

• 2.8 Million bee specimens in the Americas– 0.8 Million databased– 2.0 Million not databased

Just Starting

• Pollinator-plant associations

• Literature

THANK YOUGRACIAS

OBRIGADOMERCI

DANK U

http://pollinators.iabin.net