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Digital Accessible Knowledge of the Birds of India:Characterizing Gaps in Time and Space


Affiliations
1 Biodiversity Institute, The University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas 66045, United States
2 Department of Endangered Species Management, Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun 248 001, India
3 UNESCO Category 2 Centre, Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun 248 001, India
4 Protected Area Network, WL Management and Conservation Education Department, Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun 248 001, India
 

This paper evaluates Digital Accessible Knowledge on occurrence of Indian bird species. More than 2 million primary occurrence records from across India were obtained from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility and eBird. These were processed into maps of inventory completeness across the country both prior to 1980 and after 2000, in an attempt to develop evaluations of faunal change resulting from global climate change. We found good coverage of the country by well-inventoried areas after 2000, but almost no coverage prior to 1980. As such, in before-and-after comparisons documenting effects of global change on Indian birds, the ‘after’ is well documented, but the ‘before’ is lacking. This significant information gap points to the need for digital capture and open sharing of historical information regarding Indian bird species’ occurrences; this information will derive in large part from natural history museum specimens, particularly in India and Great Britain, and potentially from older observational data sources and the literature.

Keywords

Birds, Digital Accessible Knowledge, Global Change, India, Primary Biodiversity Data.
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  • Digital Accessible Knowledge of the Birds of India:Characterizing Gaps in Time and Space

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Authors

A. Townsend Peterson
Biodiversity Institute, The University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas 66045, United States
R. Suresh Kumar
Department of Endangered Species Management, Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun 248 001, India
Manoj V. Nair
UNESCO Category 2 Centre, Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun 248 001, India
Gautam Talukdar
Protected Area Network, WL Management and Conservation Education Department, Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun 248 001, India

Abstract


This paper evaluates Digital Accessible Knowledge on occurrence of Indian bird species. More than 2 million primary occurrence records from across India were obtained from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility and eBird. These were processed into maps of inventory completeness across the country both prior to 1980 and after 2000, in an attempt to develop evaluations of faunal change resulting from global climate change. We found good coverage of the country by well-inventoried areas after 2000, but almost no coverage prior to 1980. As such, in before-and-after comparisons documenting effects of global change on Indian birds, the ‘after’ is well documented, but the ‘before’ is lacking. This significant information gap points to the need for digital capture and open sharing of historical information regarding Indian bird species’ occurrences; this information will derive in large part from natural history museum specimens, particularly in India and Great Britain, and potentially from older observational data sources and the literature.

Keywords


Birds, Digital Accessible Knowledge, Global Change, India, Primary Biodiversity Data.

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.18520/cs%2Fv115%2Fi1%2F35-42