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The new GBIF Data Portal is an Internet gateway to more than 130 million data records provided by 200+ institutions scattered over 30+ countries around the world. The GBIF Data Portal is a single point-of-entry to these millions of data records (with more to come).
Using GBIF's new search engine, you can find where on the globe a species can be found, or get a list of species in your country or your back yard. The data retrieved can be instantly plotted on Google Earth.
The Data Portal is also a sophisticated tool for users to incorporate biodiversity data into their own websites, or download datasets for ecological studies.
When combined with environmental datasets (soil type, climate, elevation, etc.), GBIF data can be used in predicting species' response to climate change, choosing the best places to put protected areas, etc.
"This new Portal is one of the key tools GBIF has been working toward since its inception in 2001," said Dr. Nick King, currently CEO of the Endangered Wildlife Trust, and soon to become Executive Secretary of GBIF. "It will be extremely useful in improving decisions in support of sustainable development."
The launch event took place during the twelfth meeting of the Convention on Biological Diversity Conference of Parties' Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice, held at UNESCO headquarters in Paris.
Ahmed Djoghlaf, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, welcomed the launch of the new Portal. "The creation of this new Portal comes at a time when the Parties are enhancing their efforts to achieve the 2010 biodiversity target. This new Portal will make a significant contribution in building the capacity of countries -- including repatriation of data to countries of origin, and in promoting free exchange of biodiversity information among countries." See CBD press release.
Click on a language to see the PowerPoint introduction to the new Portal used at the launch event:
Improvements in functionality over the prototype data portal include:
- Users are able to search, directly from the home page, on taxon (species or higher), country or dataset. Maps returned are relatively fast to load (even for a plot of an entire kingdom) because they are plotted as record density in a 1 x 1 degree cell. It is possible to "drill down" within such a cell as far as 0.1 x 0.1 degree. At that point, clicking on a cell will bring up the original data record.
- Users can search on genera, families, etc., all the way up to kingdom at once, and plot multiple species on the same map.
- The new Portal includes a very advanced search function (called an Occurrence Search), can specify geographic region, country or bounding box, level of classification, and about 16 other things (by setting search filters), including time series (by month or by range of years).
- Several taxonomies are available. The user can choose among them.
- Users can plot data directly to Google Earth, either as record densities or as actual placemarks.
- Links to images of an organism in question are supplied (where available; this service will grow substantially over the coming months).
Now that the new data portal is available, GBIF encourages scientists and others to test it and to make use of GBIF-mediated data to contribute to important global issues such as:
- Biodiversity and Climate Change
- 2010 Indicators
- Global Strategy for Plant Conservation
- Pollinators
To stimulate increased use of the portal in addressing these global questions, GBIF will direct its seed-money program for 2007-2008 toward support of projects that will test the use of GBIF-mediated data and web services in enabling the contribution of scientifically-based evidence to decision-making on these issues.
The GBIF call for proposals that will outline the criteria for the 2007-2008 seed money awards will be circulated widely by the end of August 2007.
The GBIF Data Portal is capable of handling hundreds of millions of data records. With the launch of the Portal, the GBIF network of data providers is set to grow dramatically, from hundreds to thousands of institutions.
GBIF makes the Portal and its extensive capabilities and services, as well as software for data providers, freely available. Civil society, countries and organisations are invited to utilise GBIF's new Data Portal.
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