An ornithologist from Mexico and a marine biologist from Ireland are this year’s winners of the GBIF Young Researchers Award.

César Antonio Ríos-Muñoz and Conor Ryan, both PhD students, will each receive 4000 Euros to help fund research proposals making innovative use of data made available through the GBIF network.

Ríos-Muñoz aims to investigate the evolutionary processes leading to the current distribution of species in Mesoamerican lowland tropical forests.

Using species occurrence data published through GBIF, he will analyse current geographic distributions employing niche modelling techniques, and project them backwards to climate conditions thought to have existed during the Pleistocene era.

By comparing the results with estimates of past distribution based on mitochondrial DNA data, Ríos-Muñoz hopes to derive a better understanding of the role of past climate changes in creating today’s rich biodiversity.

Dr. Adolfo Navarro-Sigüenza, curator of birds at the zoological museum of Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, adviser to the research, said he was really proud that Ríos-Muñoz was chosen for the award.

“His work emphasises the value of GBIF’s data sets and should motivate all of us, data stakeholders, to improve the quality of information we make available to the public through GBIF’s portal,” said Dr. Navarro-Sigüenza.

“César’s work will yield results of great scientific value, and will generate a major contribution for the understanding of Mesoamerican biodiversity.”

Conor Ryan, a specialist in marine mammals at the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology, will use a database available through the GBIF data portal to test methods of identifying the prey of marine predators.

The database, operated by the Institute of Marine Sciences in Barcelona, catalogues otoliths, calcium carbonate deposits found in the inner ear of fish, whose shape is highly specific to each species. 

A programme attached to the database website uses pattern recognition software to provide automated identification of fish species from otolith images uploaded to the site. Currently, more than 800 species from around the world are included in the data published via GBIF.

Ryan’s research will test whether this technique can accurately be used to identify the diets of cetaceans and other predators, once the otoliths have passed through various stages of digestion.

Commenting on the choice of the two award winners, the Vice Chair of the GBIF Science Committee, Dr Mark Graham, said: “It is with great pleasure that we announce our decision to allocate this year’s GBIF Young Researchers Award to these two promising young scientists.

“Their proposals successfully embraced our criteria to see innovation and originality, a contribution to their respective fields of study, and the use of GBIF-enabled data.”