Abstract Detail

Enhancing Quality and Use of Herbarium Collection Data through Community Data Curation

Krimmel, Erica [1], Rejack, Nicholas [2], Mast, Austin [3].

Integrating human expertise and automated processes to enhance herbarium specimen data at the aggregate level.

Biodiversity data aggregators such as Integrated Digitized Collections (iDigBio) and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) provide centralized entry points for researchers to discover relevant collection-based data, including that curated by herbaria worldwide. Although these data are high quality, they frequently require additional wrangling, standardizing, and enhancement to be fit for use in specific research applications. Geography and taxonomy are two facets of herbarium collection data where standardizing and enhancing data at the aggregate level is effective and can provide increased efficiencies at scale. We provide an overview of iDigBio's automated data quality processes to exemplify an efficiency at scale for enhancing data related to higher geography and geospatial coordinates. These automated processes can be complimented by additional human review for instances where the data is particularly difficult to interpret. We discuss an example model for additional human review used in a recent project that created efficiencies for the coronavirus research community by producing an enhanced, research-ready data product for the world's specimens of horseshoe bats and their close relatives based on existing records published to iDigBio and GBIF. This project also provides an example model for community data curation of taxonomic information, again as a balance between processes that can be automated and those that require human assessment.

1 - iDigBio, Florida State University, 600 W College Ave, Tallahassee, FL, 32306, USA
2 - University of Florida, Advanced Computing and Information Systems Laboratory, 968 Center Drive , 339 Larsen Hall, Gainesville, FL, 32611 , USA
3 - Florida State University, Department Of Biological Science, 319 Stadium Drive, Tallahassee, FL, 32306, United States

Keywords:
digital data
herbarium
idigbio
aggregator.

Presentation Type: Colloquium Presentations
Session: C02, Enhancing Quality and Use of Herbarium Collection Data through Community Data Curation
Location: /
Date: Monday, July 19th, 2021
Time: 1:00 PM(EDT)
Number: C02003
Abstract ID:648
Candidate for Awards:None