Avibase
 | This article contains content that is written like an advertisement. (January 2022) |
Type of site | Taxonomic database |
|---|---|
| Available in | 105 languages |
| Created by | Denis Lepage |
| URL | avibase |
| Launched | 2003 |
| Current status | Active |
Avibase is an online
The website also offers checklists for more than 20,000 geographic regions of the world, species pages with taxonomic information and synonyms, and tools for observers to maintain their own sightings and obtain reports (e.g. map showing countries or eBird hotspots with the number of target species that are missing from one of their life list).
History and purpose
Avibase was created and is maintained by Denis Lepage, currently senior director, data science and technology at Birds Canada. The data contained in Avibase has been gathered starting around 1991.[11] The Avibase website was launched in June 2003 and has been hosted by Birds Canada (formerly Bird Studies Canada) since its inception.
Features
Taxonomic concepts. The database is organized primarily around a table of unique taxonomic concepts. Each concept represents a unique biological circumscription and has been assigned a unique alphanumeric ID called Avibase ID. Avibase IDs allow the tracking of congruent taxonomic concepts among publication sources. There are approximately 58,000 unique taxonomic concepts described in Avibase. These include concepts traditionally recognized as species and
Nomenclature data. Each scientific name is also described to include citation data and the name associated with the original description. Approximately 48,000 acts[clarification needed] have been recorded in Avibase, and various types of synonyms are also available.
Regional species checklists are available for more than 20,000 regions of the world. This includes all countries, territories and dependencies, and most regions defined in the GADM subnational layers such as provinces, states, prefectures, counties, departments, municipalities and districts (GADM levels 1 and 2), as well as over 2,500 islands. Regional checklists are available in several taxonomic formats and can also incorporate common names in a variety of languages. Data for regional checklists originates from a wide number of sources, such as the eBird EBD dataset and forums such as the Facebook Global Rare Bird Alert.
Common names and synonyms are available in 271 different languages and regional variants, and there are 21 languages that have a coverage greater than 85% of species with a known common name.
MyAvibase, launched in 2013, provides free tools for users who want to maintain their life lists and generate reports that are focused on finding target species that the observer has not yet seen (where to go, what to see, when to go, how long to visit), or general regional statistics (e.g. total number of species by country).
Notes
- ^ "The concept of 'potential taxa' in databases." Berendsohn WG (1995) Taxon 44: 207–212.
- ^ "Standard data model representation for taxonomic information." Kennedy J, Hyam R, Kukla R, Paterson T (2006). OMICS: A Journal of Integrative Biology 10: 220–230.
- ^ "Avibase – a Database System for Managing and Organizing Taxonomic Concepts.", Lepage, Denis, Gaurav Vaidya, and Robert Guralnick, ZooKeys, 420 (June 25, 2014): 117–35.
- ^ "Taxonomy for Humans or Computers? Cognitive Pragmatics for Big Data." Sterner, Beckett, and Nico M. Franz. 2017. Biological Theory 12 (2): 99–111.
- ^ To Increase Trust, Change the Social Design behind Aggregated Biodiversity Data. Franz, Nico M., and Beckett W. Sterner. 2018. Database 2018 (January).
- ^ "Controlling the Taxonomic Variable: Taxonomic Concept Resolution for a Southeastern United States Herbarium Portal." Franz, Nico, Edward Gilbert, Bertram Ludäscher, and Alan Weakley. 2016. Research Ideas and Outcomes 2 (September): e10610.
- ^ The eBird/Clements Checklist of Birds of the World: v2019 Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, S. M. Billerman, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2019.
- ^ Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International digital checklist of the birds of the world. Version 4. HBW and BirdLife International (Dec. 2019)
- ^ IOC World Bird List (v10.1) Gill F, D Donsker & P Rasmussen (Eds). 2020.
- ^ The Howard and Moore Complete Checklist of the Birds of the World, version 4.1 (Downloadable checklist) Archived 2020-06-03 at the Wayback Machine Christidis et al. 2018.
- ^ "Avibase - The World Bird Database". avibase.bsc-eoc.org.
References
- Mitch, Leslie (2004), "Where Eagles-and Sparrows-Dare", S2CID 220095931
- Lepage, Denis; Vaidya, Gaurav; Gulralnick, Robert (2014), "Avibase – a database system for managing and organizing taxonomic concepts", PMID 25061375
- What's in a name? Shifting meanings of biological names, Pensoft Publishers, 2014
- Remsen, David (2016), "The Use and Limits of Scientific Names in Biological Informatics", PMID 26877660
- Dickinson, Edward C. (2016), "Reinforcing the Foundations of Ornithological Nomenclature: Filling the Gaps in Sherborn's and Richmond's Historical Legacy of Bibliographic Exploration.", PMID 26877660
- Sterner, Beckett; Franz, Nico M. (2017), "Taxonomy for Humans or Computers? Cognitive Pragmatics for Big Data", S2CID 90423947
- Christidis, Les; Garnett, Stephen T. (2017), "Taxonomy anarchy hampers conservation", PMID 28569833
- Vaidya, Gaurav; Lepage, Denis; Gulralnick, Robert (2018), "The tempo and mode of the taxonomic correction process: How taxonomists have corrected and recorrected North American bird species over the last 127 years", PMID 29672539
External links
Avibase ID (P2026) (see uses)
