OBIS Canada

“OBIS Canada” is the Canadian regional OBIS node and along with the Ocean Tracking Network thematic OBIS node represents Canada’s contribution to this global initiative. Fisheries and Oceans Canada supports OBIS by managing the OBIS Canada node and contributing datasets. OBIS Canada was recognized as a National Activity by the National Science Data Management Committee of Fisheries and Oceans Canada in 2010.

Data and Resources

Additional Info

Field Value
Source https://obis.org/node/7dfb2d90-9317-434d-8d4e-64adf324579a
Last Updated April 12, 2022, 07:57 (UTC)
Created April 6, 2022, 02:56 (UTC)
Country Canada
Data Management "Biodiversity data standards From the very beginning, OBIS has championed the use international standards for biogeographic data. Without agreement on the application of standards and protocols, OBIS would not have been able to build a large central database. OBIS uses the following standards: Darwin Core Ecological Metadata Language Darwin Core Archive and dataset structure Data publication and sharing OBIS nodes can accept any data files from its data sources or data providers, and they publish these data on their OBIS nodes IPT, which are harvested by central OBIS. The Integrated Publishing Toolkit (IPT) is developed and maintained by the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). GBIF maintains an IPT manual. See here for specific OBIS instructions: IPT OBIS data quality control procedures OBIS ignores records that do not meet a number of standards. For example, all species names need to be matched against an authoritative taxonomic register, such as the World Register of Marine Species. In addition, quality is checked against the OBIS required fields as well as against any impossible values. OBIS checks, rejects and reports the data quality back to the OBIS nodes, but never change records. The OBIS tier 2 nodes are responsible for the data quality and communicate errors back to the data providers. A number of QC tools are developed to help data providers and OBIS nodes: QC tool for species names QC tool for geography and data format"
Data Policy "Guidelines on the sharing and use of data in OBIS Adopted at SG-OBIS-IV (Feb 2015) and IODE-XXIII (March 2015). The OBIS data policy is based on the principles of timely, free and unrestricted access to biodiversity data for the benefit of science and society, as defined in the: IOC data exchange policy IOC guidelines on transfer of marine technology IODE objectives OBIS vision and mission Unless data are collected through activities funded by IOC/IODE, neither UNESCO, IOC, IODE, the OBIS Secretariat, nor its employees or contractors, own the data in OBIS and they take no responsibility for the quality of data or products based on OBIS, or the use or misuse that people may make of them nor can it control or limit the use of any data or products accessible through its website, other than through the use of a published Data Sharing and Use Terms and Conditions. Data sharing agreement The data providers retain all rights and responsibilities associated with the data they make available to OBIS via the OBIS nodes. The OBIS nodes warrant that they have made the necessary agreements with the original data providers that it can make the data available to OBIS data under the following Creative Commons licenses: CC-0 CC-BY CC-BY-NC CC-0 is the preferred one and CC-BY-NC the least preferred. The data providers are responsible for the completeness of the data and metadata profiles. When data is made available to OBIS, OBIS is granted permission to: Distribute the data via its data and information portal Build an integrated database, use the data for data quality control purposes, complement the data with other data such as climate variables and build value-added information products and services for science and decision-making Serve the data to other similar open-access networks such as GBIF in compliance with the terms and conditions for use set by the data providers. In pursuance of copyright compliance, OBIS endeavours to secure permission from rights holders to ingest their datasets. In the event that the inclusion of a dataset in OBIS is challenged on the basis of copyright infringement, OBIS will follow a take-down policy until there is resolution. Data use agreement The data in OBIS are freely available to everyone, following the principles of equitable access and benefit sharing and supporting capacity development and participation of all IOC Member States in global programmes. However, data users are expected to give attribution to the data providers (see Citations) and the use of data from OBIS should happen in the light of fair use, i.e.: Recognize that the OBIS portal holds the master copy of the integrated database and hence users should refrain from online redistribution of the OBIS database. Because the OBIS database is updated regularly (every so months) with new datasets and revisions of existing datasets, copies of the OBIS database will become out of date quickly. If you wish to build access web services on top of OBIS, please contact the OBIS secretariat. Respect the data providers, and provide helpful feedback on data quality. In the case you are a custodian of biogeographic data yourself you should take action to also publish these data through OBIS. Consider sponsoring or partnering with OBIS and its OBIS nodes in grant proposal writing. Creating a global database like OBIS cannot happen without the, often voluntary, contribution of many scientists and data managers all over the world. Several activities, such as the coordination, data aggregation, quality control, database and website maintenance require resources including manpower at national and international level. A list of sponsors can be found here"
Data Sharing Principle "OBIS harvests occurrence records from thousands of datasets and makes them available as a single integrated dataset. There are several ways to access OBIS data: The mapper allows users to visualize and inspect subsets of OBIS data. A variety of filters (taxonomic, geographic, time, data quality) is available and multiple layers can be combined in a single view. Layers can be downloaded as CSV files. Our R package provides direct access to the OBIS database from R. Both the mapper and the R package are based on the OBIS API which can be used by third party developers as well. Full exports (see below)."
Database Level National
FIAR No
Host Institute Bedford Institute of Oceanography
Opening Degree Open
Organizer Bedford Institute of Oceanography
Region Arctic
Source of Data Policy Own
Theme Ecology