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The GBIF Science Symposium was intended to showcase uses of GBIF data for a wide range of applications, and to raise ideas for GBIF to consider in planning its future work programmes. Accordingly, the symposium speakers were asked to address the following questions in their presentations:
- Discuss the value to society of primary species- and specimen-level biodiversity data that are openly shared. How can this value, when appreciated by funders and users, be used to generate a general model for sustaining such databases over the long term?
- Among the many environmental problems that the world faces, which are the ones that GBIF (given its particular mandate to serve primary scientific biodiversity data) should focus on as it develops its data portal?
- What are the projects / initiatives / organisations (outside of those with which GBIF already interacts) with which GBIF should form synergistic interactions? How could these interactions be used to leverage the investments of both parties?
- What are the needs of various types of users for data content, format, etc.? How should GBIF handle observational data (as opposed to data that are vouchered by specimens), including ecological and other data types?
The Symposium was moderated by Dr. Wouter Los, Chair of the GBIF Science Committee. The first session of the symposium was about the use of biodiversity data in discovery and prediction. Dr. Lene Lange talked about using biodiversity data, particularly about fungi, to discover useful enzymes that can be put to commercial use. An essential part of the discovery process is understanding the relationship between the organism and its environment. Species- and specimen-level databases are as important in the discovery process as are molecular databases such as Genbank and SwissProt. Merging species- and specimen-level data with GIS and climatic information allows Dr. A. Townsend Peterson to predict the spread of diseases such as West Nile virus, Chagas disease, leishmaniasis, dengue, hemorrhagic fevers and leprosy. Creative modeling and simulation using specimen and environmental data is helping to narrow down the range of possible mammalian vectors of the hemorrhagic fevers in Africa.
In a session on meeting the challenges of using and presenting biodiversity data for different types of users, Dr. Miguel Nakamura explained the very sophisticated model he is developing for determining ecological niches based on presence-only specimen data. His talk was followed by Dr. Erick Mata´s presentation of the means INBio in Costa Rica has employed to deliver biodiversity information to different kinds of users of those data. A "building-block" model allows the user to choose the level of information he or she desires, while still ensuring accuracy. The way in which the Centro de Referência em Informação Ambiental (CRIA) has built a Virtual Institute of Biodiversity for the state of São Paulo, Brazil was explained by Dr. Vanderlei Canhos. Using various tools of biodiversity informatics, CRIA has enabled collaborative research work among several institutions, developed an information system for geo-spatial analysis, and several tools for the analysis, synthesis and visualization of biodiversity information.
Dr. Thomas Lovejoy gave the Symposium's keynote address. He focused on the history and the future of GBIF, and its place in the process of conserving and sustainably using biodiversity. He talked about the vision of the members of the international working group that originally recommended that GBIF be established, especially that of Ebbe Nielsen, in whose honor the GBIF Governing Board established the Ebbe Nielsen Prize.
Following the keynote address, Dr. Christoph Häuser, Chair of the Governing Board, introduced the winner of the 2004 Ebbe Nielsen Prize, Johan Nilsson. The Prize was presented to Mr. Nilsson, who was accompanied by his family, by Drs. Häuser, Los and James Edwards, Executive Secretary of GBIF. Mr. Nilsson then gave his presentation and demonstration of the web services application he developed, Artportalen, that allows volunteer data recorders to enter observations of nature into databases via the Internet.
The third session of the Symposium began with a talk by Frank Howarth about the use of biodiversity data in natural resource and protected area management in New South Wales, Australia. His remarks included answers to some of the questions that had been posed to all the speakers, and he emphasized the importance of understanding the needs of resource managers and providing the data in such a way that they are easily utilized. The final presentation was by Dr. Exequiel Ezcurra, who spoke about the biodiversity and ecology of Baja California.
The Science Symposium concluded with most of the speakers participating in a panel, which engendered a lively discussion. Those who were present at the Symposium, who included Governing Board members, Node managers, and Science Subcommittee members, felt that the Symposium talks had provided many good ideas about how to use specimen and observational data in creative ways, as well as helping to focus their thoughts for the GBIF science planning meetings of the next two days.
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