Biodiversity Informatics and Data Quality on a Global Scale

Exciting developments in biodiversity informatics, and particularly the growth of aggregated data networks such as ORNIS and VertNet, have stimulated new areas of research in ornithology and other disciplines that would not have been possible otherwise. In addition to aggregating data from across natural history collections, VertNet provides valuable tools and services for assessing and improving data quality through pre- and postdata publication workflows as well as through feedback mechanisms, and for providing usage statistics back to participating collections. Furthermore, VertNet's outreach to the collections community has resulted in national and international training in georeferencing and biodiversity informatics that has had a broad impact. Rapid access to high-quality data has made possible studies that explore large and complex datasets reflecting the global and temporal distributions of species. Specific examples include studies of niche evolution and speciation, risk assessment of invasive species, phenotypic evolution and the colonization of novel habitats, latitudinal gradients and evolutionary divergence, and biodiversity and conservation planning. These studies showcase the value of natural history collections, and highlight the need for ongoing support to protect and grow those collections and to enable efficient access to their data. The role of natural history collections in addressing challenges faced by society is more important than ever before. In the modern era of sharing data, collections hold exciting promise for future and emerging avenues of research that extend the value of specimens beyond what we have ever dreamed before.