GBIF use of Taxonomic Names
Donald Hobern, (Programme Officer for Data Access and Database Interoperability), GBIF, Universitetsparken 15, 2100 København Ø, DenmarkThe Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) is an international project to make the world's primary data on biodiversity freely and universally available via the Internet. It aims therefore to make use of taxonomic name data in a wide variety of ways. These include at least the following:
- To provide access to authoritative nomenclatural and taxonomic data for all groups (and hence according to all of the codes)
- To support cross-referencing biodiversity data from different sources
- To exchange lists of taxa constructed for other purposes (e.g. red lists, regional checklists)
The GBIF architecture handles all classes of biodiversity data according to a simplified general 3-tier model: Data Providers make available Web Services each of which provide access to Biodiversity Data Records, which each include structured data associated with some taxon name. These records will be indexed centrally using the taxon name included in each record. This index will therefore include currently accepted names, synonyms and invalid names, including misspellings.
In addition to this index, GBIF will develop the Electronic Catalogue of Names of Known Organisms. This will provide the authoritative taxonomic structure for relating names hierarchically and via synonymy. It will be an openly-accessible service developed in collaboration with other groups. Within GBIF it will be used to improve the quality of user search results by associating data stored and indexed under related names.
These infrastructure components are being developed by the GBIF Secretariat and will be made available in an early form by the end of 2003.