University of Glasgow

Roderic Page

D. Ross Robertson has published a paper entitled \"Global
biogeographical data bases on marine fishes: caveat emptor\"
([doi:10.1111/j.1472-4642.2008.00519.x](http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1472-4642.2008.00519.x) -
DOI is broken, you can get the article
[here](http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/121370069/abstract)).
The paper concludes:  

> Any biogeographical analysis of fish distributions that uses GIS data
> on marine fishes provided by FishBase and OBIS \'as is\' will be
> seriously compromised by the high incidence of species with
> large-scale geographical errors. A major revision of GIS data for (at
> least) marine fishes provided by FishBase, OBIS, GBIF and EoL is
> essential. **While the primary sources naturally bear responsibility
> for data quality, global online providers of aggregated data are also
> responsible for the content they serve, and cannot side-step the issue
> by simply including generalized disclaimers about data quality.**
> Those providers need to actively coordinate, organize and effect a
> revision of GIS data they serve, as revisions by individual users will
> inevitably lead to confused science (which version did you use?) and a
> tremendous expenditure of redundant effort. To begin with, it should
> be relatively easy for providers to segregate all data on pelagic
> larvae and adults of marine organisms that they serve online.
> Providers should also include the capacity for users to post readily
> accessible public comments about the accuracy of individual records
> and the overall quality of individual data bases. This would stimulate
> improvements in data quality, and generate \'selection pressures\'
> favouring the usage of better quality data bases, and the revision or
> elimination of poor-quality data bases. The services provided to the
> global science community by the interlinked group of online providers
> of biodiversity data are invaluable and should not be allowed to be
> discredited by a high incidence of known serious errors in GIS data
> among marine fishes, and, likely, other marine organisms. (**emphasis
> added**)

  
As I\'ve noted [elsewhere on this
blog](http://iphylo.blogspot.com/search?q=gbif), and as demonstrated by
Yesson et al.\'s paper on legume records in GBIF
([doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0001124](http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0001124))
(not cited by Robertson), there are major problems with geographical
information in public databases. I suspect there will be more papers
like this, which I hope will inspire database providers and aggregators
to take the issue seriously. (Thanks to David Patterson for spotting
this paper).


D. Ross Robertson has published a paper entitled "Global biogeographical data bases on marine fishes: caveat emptor" (doi:10.1111/j.1472-4642.2008.00519.x - DOI is broken, you can get the article here). The paper concludes:As I've noted elsewhere on this blog, and as demonstrated by Yesson et al.'s paper on legume records in GBIF (doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0001124) (not cited by Robertson), there are major problems with geographical information

Rogue Scholar Beiträge

Global biogeographical data bases on marine fishes: caveat emptor