GBIF.org surpasses 1 billion species occurrence records
Milestone achieved on 4 July 2018 represents a collective effort to share evidence of our planet’s biodiversity by more than 1,200 institutions in 123 countries—and more than 1 million researchers and citizen scientists worldwide.
GBIF.org topped 1 billion species occurrence records on 4 July 2018, thanks to a surge of datasets from the French National Inventory of Natural Heritage (l’Inventaire National du Patrimoine Naturel), which included this observation of a frilled anemone (Metridium dianthus) off Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, a French archipelago in the northwestern Atlantic. The record for this marine invertebrate animal is one of 150,097 gathered through BioObs (Base pour l’Inventaire des Observations Subaquatiques), a citizen science tool that enables divers to learn about the marine environment while contributing to a national inventory of underwater species.
GBIF’s global occurrence index provides an unequaled evidence base for informing scientific research and policy through its support of ‘big data’ analyses. On average, nearly two peer-reviewed research papers appear each day that rely on data accessed through GBIF.org. However, the findings are not limited to research and management topics but also address topics like food security or the monitoring of human diseases.
Recent and ongoing improvements to the network’s underlying technology platforms have produced a high-volume, near-real-time infrastructure prepared to build on GBIF.org’s rapid recent growth to deliver even greater and richer quantities of biodiversity information in the years to come.
Although reaching 1 billion records is a significant milestone, much work remains to be done, including expanding the partnerships needed to link sources of biodiversity data not yet connected through the GBIF network. To this end, GBIF.org provides a ready-made framework for helping countries and organizations to fill gaps and biases in geographic, temporal and taxonomic coverage of biodiversity information.
The use of standardized data formats and licenses on GBIF.org eliminate guesswork and uncertainty about the terms of both sharing and using open biodiversity data.
GBIF also continues to support and advocate for data papers as a tool for ensuring that researchers gain accepted academic credit for their work to collect, curate and share freely accessible, interoperable and reusable data.