Informatics
Background
Biodiversity informatics, spanning genomic, specimen (including field notes, images, sounds etc.), phylogenetic and ecological knowledge is central to BiGCB and to the entire enterprise of organismal biology. Museums and field stations hold vast and diverse information on responses of species and ecosystems to past environment change, including rapid climate change. Examples at Berkeley range from detailed specimen-backed information on changes in species distribution and characteristics over time, a complete genetic inventory of a tropical island, to detailed information on demography of species, experimental manipulations of ecosystem processes and of environmental change at intensively studied field stations. Huge advances have been made over the past decade to develop the necessary information standards and sustainable IT architectures. Yet, much of the crucial information remains inaccessible because it is not yet digitized or because it is not readily retrievable via intuitive searches. Exposing this key information at field stations and in museums through a single portal will stimulate integrative analyses of biodiversity response to environmental change by researchers as Berkeley and elsewhere, and underpins the entire BiGCB effort.
The BNHM hold some 15M specimens, often with associated images, field notes etc., with between 95% (MVZ) and 10% (Essig) digitized and georeferenced. This is the time to achieve the goal of being the first major set of completely digitized and web-accessible museum collections in the world. The field stations have made solid progress in capturing metadata from ecological researchers, but important data on environmental change and species' responses remains undigitized and inaccessible. By linking the spatio-temporal data from museums with the detailed information on species and ecosystem dynamics and environmental change at the field stations we can develop a clearer picture of how biological systems respond to rapid environmental change from local to regional scales, and thus inform emerging strategies for adaptation to future change in climate and land-use.
Research Agenda
The overarching goal of the BiGCB Informatics component is to create and maintain an accessible self-sufficient information portal using new or existing infrastructures and technologies, that will unleash the potential of specimens and their associated ecological data locked within museums, field stations and research laboratories for the BiGCB and beyond.
This will be accomplished through the following objectives:
OBJECTIVE 1: To develop and implement a scaleable, standards-based, and cloud-based informatics architecture for efficient capture and sharing of museum and ecological data for the BiGCB and beyond.
OBJECTIVE 2: To link ecological data to historical museum records and use historical perspectives to drive predictive models of biological responses to future global change.
OBJECTIVE 3: To complete digitization for species pertinent to BiGCB's mission and research program
OBJECTIVE 4: To tap into existing, or develop new technologies that will allow for quick and efficient digitizing of (a) museum specimens of extinct and living species, (b) field notes, (c) photographs, (d) maps, and (e) climate & ecological data from UC-NRS.
OBJECTIVE 5: To develop a business plan that will make the portal sustainable.
Faculty Contacts
Group Leaders: Craig Moritz
Participating Faculty & Staff: