From Small to Big… Gail Kampmeier Illinois Natural History Survey University of Illinois [email protected].

From Small to Big…Gail KampmeierIllinois Natural History SurveyUniversity of [email protected]

How to Capitalize on Small ContributionsSmall Contributions to the

Big Dreams of Sharing Biodiversity

InformationSmall Contributions

Small Contributions

Small Contributions

Small Contributions

Small Contributions

Small Contributions

Small Contributions

Small Contributions

Small Contributions

Small ContributionsSmall Contributions

Small Contributions

Small Contributions

Small Contributions

Small Contributions

Small Contributions

Small Contributions

Small Contributions

Small Contributions

Small Contributions

Low-Hanging Fruit

Amidst the grand initiatives & prospects of quickly & easily gathering data from the big players and data providers, the needs of individual and small group contributors of biodiversity information have been neglected.

Beyond the Low-Hanging Fruit

Small contributors represent Taxon specialists

high quality data from current revisions

Producers of agricultural datasetsLongterm & purpose driven studies, but often a mixture of observations & voucher specimensOften ignored when thinking about "biodiversity"

Compilers of geographically-based floral & faunal inventoriesMany museum collections with lots of specimens & little support to digitize them

Once collections have an online presence, there is a greater chance of improving the collection through loans.

The Harvest:

Rich content that could be used for a variety of high quality analyses from the local to the global levels

Contributing towards informed decisions for sustainable use of our biotic resources

Consequences of climate change

Predicting threatened & endangered species

Predicting outbreaks of pests & invasions of new species

Mapping distributionsAid in producing monographsPlanning targeted expeditionsHypothesis testing

DistributionsTaxa - expectations

Ecosystems - changes in composition over time

Phylogenies

Promise for the Promise for the TaxonomistTaxonomist

Diptera Biodiversity Synthesis Center Meeting Survey

19/24 have specimen databases13/24 have Diptera specimen databases4/24 serve data to GBIF (now 5!)Many who do not serve data to GBIF hope to do so in the future, but most did not have a timeline or it was dependent upon their institutions.

Cultural Differences

Taxonomy is not a service culture but a hypothesis-driven science

Taxonomists do identifications as a service, but this is not a taxonomist's reason for beingSharing is not a top priorityAlthough strong incentives exist for sharing in grant proposal justification, professional penalties for delivering information prematurely or spending too much time on identifications can outweigh the incentivesFewer & fewer positions for taxonomists available

Sharing is GoodNeed to help support those with limited IT (information technology) resourcesNeed to work together so that information is entered once for reuse/sharing elsewhere

Biodiversity Information Standards developed by TDWG

Cultivate a culture of sharing of data for the common good

Taxonomic disciplineSociety

What this Symposium Addresses

How to mobilize mobilize contentcontent of smaller providers

What this Symposium Addresses

Challenges for infrastructure infrastructure developmentdevelopment & grassroots grassroots participationparticipation in global effortsglobal efforts

Be thinking about…

What innovative ways can we envision for encouraging more contributions from the yet untasted fruit at the top of the tree?