Retrieving useful information from connected specimen- and data collections
1. RETRIEVING USEFUL
INFORMATION
FROM CONNECTED
SPECIMEN- AND DATA
COLLECTIONS
Rutger Vos Conceptual design of future databases: sense and nonsense,
22 March 2012 how to proceed jointly?
2. Outline
NCB Naturalis
Collections of physical and digital objects
Examples of research and services
Linking specimens and data
Future developments
Conclusions
Specimen- and data collections, Rutger Vos
3. NCB Naturalis
Netherlands Centre for
Biodiversity and
national natural history
museum
37 million physical
objects
In the global top 5 of
natural history
museums
Specimen- and data collections, Rutger Vos
4. Biological specimen collections
Natural history
museums, which evolved
from cabinets of
curiosities, played an
important role in the
emergence of
professional biological
disciplines and research
programs. Particularly
in the 19th century,
scientists began to use
their natural history
collections as teaching
tools for advanced
students and the basis
for their own
morphological research.
Specimen- and data collections, Rutger Vos
5. Biological data
Research on biological
collections generates many kinds
of publicly available data
Global molecular databases
(NCBI)
Global biodiversity information
facility (*BIF)
Barcode of life data system
(BOLD)
Domain-specific databases (e.g.
TreeBASE)
Specimen- and data collections, Rutger Vos
6. Big data?
Large data sets of
various types:
NGS sequence data
GIS occurrence data
Digitization
Identification keys
Specimen- and data collections, Rutger Vos
7. NCB services and research
Research Services
Terrestrial and marine Advice customs on
zoology, geology and traded endangered
botany species
Fundamental and Identify birds from
applied research plane crashes
Significant NGS Identify hardwoods
applications Identify gemstones
Specimen- and data collections, Rutger Vos
8. Example: orchid genomics
NCB Naturalis and BGI scientists
are mapping the first fully
sequenced orchid genome
(Erycina pusilla)
Study of developmental genes
coding for floral shape,
symmetry, scent and senescence
Many genes found to have
horticultural applications
Specimen- and data collections, Rutger Vos
9. Example: DNA Barcoding TCM
Orchids long since used in
China and now also
increasingly popular in
Europe
Require identification to
ensure they do not contain:
legally protected wild species
other species than mentioned
on label (=adulteration)
life threatening poisons
in case of toxic substitutes
Specimen- and data collections, Rutger Vos
10. Example: the biodiversity crisis
1400 modeled species distributions
(red = loss; green = gain)
— =
2050 2010 2050-2010
Specimen- and data collections, Rutger Vos
11. Example: snake venom and medicine
NCB Naturalis scientists
are mapping the King
Cobra genome
Studying its evolution
in broader
comparative context
Many proteins in
venom might have
medical applications
Specimen- and data collections, Rutger Vos
12. Linking physical and digital objects
Physical objects are linked to
digital data along along
various axes:
Specimen identifiers
Georeferences
Classification
Characters
Literature
Specimen- and data collections, Rutger Vos
13. Links between data and specimens
Primary voucher identifier
is:
institution:collection:specimen
Several databases use
these for cross-referencing
Unfortunately not (yet,
universally) resolvable*
* http://iphylo.blogspot.com/
Specimen- and data collections, Rutger Vos
14. The future
Globally unique,
resolvable identifiers
Resolution results in
standards compliant
open data
Data discoverable to
all by its links to
other data
Specimen- and data collections, Rutger Vos
15. Conclusions
Stakeholders in neighbouring domains need to
identify where physical and digital objects can be
linked usefully
Stakeholders need to engage in community
processes for standards development and
adoption to enable data sharing
Complexity needs to be managed collaboratively
Specimen- and data collections, Rutger Vos
16. Acknowledgements
Thank you:
For your attention
To our gracious hosts today
To the organizers of this visit
謝謝!
Specimen- and data collections, Rutger Vos