Drowning in data, thirsty for information and starved for understanding: A biodiversity information hub for cooperative environmental monitoring in South Africa
- Authors: MacFadyen, Sandra , Allsopp, Nicky , Altwegg, Res , Archibald, Sally , Botha, Judith , Bradshaw, Karen L , Carruthers, Jane , De Klerk, Helen , de Vos, Alta , Distiller, Greg , Foord, Stefan , Freitag-Ronaldson, Stefanie , Gibbs, Richard , Hamer, Michelle , Landi, Pietro , MacFayden, Duncan , Manuel, Jeffrey , Midgley, Guy , Moncrieff, Glenn , Munch, Zahn , Mutanga, Onisimo , Sershen , Nenguda, Rendani , Ngwenya, Mzabalazo , Parker, Daniel M , Peel, Mike , Power, John , Pretorius, Joachim , Ramdhani, Syd , Robertson, Mark P , Rushworth, Ian , Skowno, Andrew , Slingsby, Jasper , Turner, Andrew , Visser, Vernon , van Wageningen, Gerhard , Hui, Cang
- Date: 2022
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/415624 , vital:71271 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2022.109736"
- Description: The world is firmly cemented in a notitian age (Latin: notitia, meaning data) – drowning in data, yet thirsty for information and the synthesis of knowledge into understanding. As concerns over biodiversity declines escalate, the volume, diversity and speed at which new environmental and ecological data are generated has increased exponentially. Data availability primes the research and discovery engine driving biodiversity conservation. South Africa (SA) is poised to become a world leader in biodiversity conservation. However, continent-wide resource limitations hamper the establishment of inclusive technologies and robust platforms and tools for biodiversity informatics. In this perspectives piece, we bring together the opinions of 37 co-authors from 20 different departments, across 10 SA universities, 7 national and provincial conservation research agencies, and various institutes and private conservation, research and management bodies, to develop a way forward for biodiversity informatics in SA. We propose the development of a SA Biodiversity Informatics Hub and describe the essential components necessary for its design, implementation and sustainability. We emphasise the importance of developing a culture of cooperation, collaboration and interoperability among custodians of biodiversity data to establish operational workflows for data synthesis. However, our biggest challenges are misgivings around data sharing and multidisciplinary collaboration.
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- Date Issued: 2022
Snapshot Safari: A large-scale collaborative to monitor Africa's remarkable biodiversity
- Authors: Pardo, Lain E , Bombaci, Sara , Huebner, Sarah E , Somers, Michael J , Fritz, Herve , Downs, Colleen , Guthmann, Abby , Hetem, Robyn S , Keith, Mark , le Roux, Aliza , Mgqatsa, Nokubonga , Packer, Craig , Palmer, Meredith S , Parker, Daniel M , Peel, Mike , Slotow, Rob , Strauss, W. Maartin , Swanepoel, Lourens , Tambling, Craig , Tsie, Nairobi , Vermeulen, Mika , Willi, Marco , Jachowski, David S , Venter, Jan A
- Date: 2021
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/462669 , vital:76324 , xlink:href="http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/sajs.2021/8134"
- Description: Nature is experiencing degradation and extinction rates never recorded before in the history of Earth. Consequently, continuous large-scale monitoring programmes are critical, not only to provide insights into population trends but also to aid in understanding factors associated with altering population dynamics at various temporal and spatial scales. Continuous monitoring is important not only for tracking rare or threatened species but also to detect the increase of potentially invasive species4, and the trends in the populations of common species, which in some regions are declining even more rapidly than are rare species. The combination of citizen science and cutting-edge technologies has improved monitoring programmes. In this regard, camera traps have become a popular tool to engage with society while obtaining accurate scientific data. The importance of advances in technological monitoring has even been highlighted by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) through the proposed 'Digital Ecosystem framework', a complex distributed network or interconnected socio-technological system.
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- Date Issued: 2021