ID: 613 / 212

Category: Symposia

Track: Pending

Proposed Symposium Title: THE ROLE OF RESEARCH INFRASTRUCTURE TO ADVANCE BOTANICAL KNOWLEDGE AND RESEARCH

Abstract: International biodiversity informatics infrastructures provide a growing number of robust data and computing services to research. This is enabled by the continuous improvement of basic information technology; the development of efficient methods of data access and interoperability; and the specification and widespread implementation of standards. Botanists have rapidly adopted the harmonised and open access to specimen and observation data; the comprehensive digitisation and accessibility of taxonomic literature, and the standardised provision of checklists and e-floras. Through these developments, it is now possible to carry out taxonomical and ecological research largely virtually and with great effectiveness, and to make research results available for subsequent use, again in data services. Furthermore, these informatics developments are increasingly a bridging tool between disciplines, allowing data to be combined in novel and illuminating ways. However, the increasingly widespread use of data services also reveals deficits that should be addressed by future developments. For example, a number of essential data services still have only few mutual links and do not enable integrated, overarching data queries. Also largely unresolved is the overarching access to image data (e.g. from herbaria) for increasingly important data-intensive AI based analyses and diagnostic systems. In the symposium, data services of high importance for botanical research as well as virtual work processes will be presented. Gaps in the current biodiversity informatics landscape and possible future solutions will be discussed.

Speaker 1: Shelley James - Biodiversity Information Standards: enabling data infrastructure shelley.james@dbca.wa.gov.au

Speaker 2: Joe Miller - GBIF evolves to meet botanical research needs Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark, jmiller@gbif.org

Speaker 3: Elycia Wallis - Innovation leading to new ways of knowing in Australian botanical collections and the Atlas of Living Australia Ely.Wallis@csiro.au

Topics (Up to three): Bioinformatics

Topic 2: Global Change Ecology

Topic 3: Biogeography / Phylogeography

Justification: Biodiversity Informatics provides indispensable tools for botanical research as a whole and is thus relevant as a cross-cutting theme for the Botanical Congress. We plan to give a lot of space to the user perspective in the symposium and thus expect a high interest in participation as well as contributions and results that will stand out from the usual biodiversity informatics conferences. Access to data and informatics tools is a global issue of interest to the international audience of the Congress. It has the potential to redress inequalities in access to information and to accelerate the pace of research. Yet there are many challenges too, not just technical, but also from a socio-political point of view. We feel the Congress will benefit from such a symposium and it will be an opportunity for global infrastructures and their users to learn from each other.