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Edward Vanden Berghe
Ocean Biogeographic Information System
Professional Profile
Dr Edward Vanden Berghe is currently the Executive Director of the Ocean Biogeographic
Information System (OBIS), based at Rutgers University, New Jersey. Before joining OBIS, he
was the manager of the Flanders Marine Data- and Information Centre, based at the Flanders
Marine Institute in Oostende, Belgium. He has been involved in several data integration
exercises, and through these activities came to appreciate the important role of metadata, and of
data repositories. He is member of several working groups on data and information management
in the framework of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO and of the
International Council for the Exploration of the Seas.
GRL2020 Position Paper: Biodiversity Informatics and Libraries
Often marine biological data are the result of projects with a limited temporal and spatial
cover (Floen et al. 1993). Taken in isolation, datasets resulting from these projects are only
of limited use in the interpretation of large scale phenomena. More specifically, they fail to
inform on a scale commensurate with the problems of global change mankind is confronted
with (Costello and Vanden Berghe, 2006). Individual studies are restricted in the amount of
data they can generate; but by combining the results from many studies, massive databases
can be created, that make possible analyses on a different scale (Grassle, 2000). Such data
never have been of greater importance considering the recent observation of major shifts of
marine species due to global change. More and more, vast thematic databases are being
created, made possible by advances in computer technology. The Ocean Biogeographic
Information System (OBIS), the data integration component of the Census of Marine Life
(CoML), assesses and explains the diversity and distribution of marine life through a
network of linked databases (Grassle, 2000). Other examples, on the European scale, are
some of the activities of the EU Network of Excellence ‘Marine Biodiversity and
Ecosystem Functioning (MarBEF), where thematic databases have been compiled and the
resulting integrated database been used to do communal analysis (Vanden Berghe et al. in
prep; Vandepitte et al. 2007), or the analysis of North Sea fauna by a working group of the
International Council for the Exploration of the Seas (Rees et al., 2007).
Re-use of data is to be encouraged. Most data collection is paid for directly or indirectly by
public funds with the intent that they ultimately benefit society through research,
development and resource management. The failure to publish raw data undermines
science, including the management of natural resources, by impeding independent analysis,
as well as reuse and combination of different datasets. The calls by international scientific
organisations such as the IOC and ICSU (International Council for Science 2004) to make
data publicly available are being ignored by too many scientists (Costello and Vanden
Berghe, 2006).
One way of stimulating scientists to make data publicly available is to treat the sharing of
data as a publication. Just as it is beneficial for a scientist’s career to publish many papers in
peer-reviewed journals, it should be beneficial to ‘publish’ data. Just like we have a peerreview process to watch over the quality of materials published in journals, we should have
a peer-review mechanism for data. Just like we have indexing systems for journals and
other publications, we should have metadata systems that make published data
discoverable. We need the equivalent of the ‘citation index’ for data publications, so that
managers at scientific institutes can assess the performance of the researchers in their
institute. We need a culture where people see it as a sign of quality to have a long list of
data citations at the end of their paper, just like with references to other publications.
Modern-day libraries are well-equipped to support all these needs. They are able to deal
with electronic information. They have a long tradition of indexing and cross-referencing
that they can bring to bear on data publications. They have served since time immemorial as
repositories for paper publications, and should be able to serve as repositories for digital
datasets.
Many, if not all of the elements of the solution are available already. The challenge now is
to convince data custodians to make use of this infrastructure to share data.
References
Costello, M.J.; Vanden Berghe, E. (2006). ‘Ocean biodiversity informatics’: a new era in
marine biology research and management. Mar. Ecol. Progr. Ser. 316: 203-214.
Floen S., H. Gjøsæter, R. Korneliussen, H. Sagen, P. Thorvaldsen & V. Wennevik (1993).
An integrated database for marine research. ICES C.M., 1993(D:23 Sess.T.). 1-10 pp.
Grassle, J.F. (2000). The Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS): an on-line,
worldwide atlas for accessing, modeling and mapping marine biological data in a
multidimensional geographic context. Oceanography 13(3): 5-9.
Rees, H.L.; Eggleton, J.D.; Rachor, E.; Vanden Berghe, E. (Ed.). (2007). Structure and
dynamics of the North Sea benthos. ICES Cooperative Research Report, 288. ICES:
Copenhagen, Denmark. ISBN 87-7482-058-3. iii, 258 + annexes pp.
Vanden Berghe, E.; Claus, S.; Arvanitidis, C.; Sommerfield, P. and 75 others (in prep).
Description of an integrated database on benthic invertebrates of European continental
shelves: a tool for large-scale analysis across Europe. Mar. Ecol. Progr. Ser.
Vandepitte, L.; Vanaverbeke, J.; Vanden Berghe, E.; Bezerra, T.C. (2007). Developing an
integrated database to perform joint analyses: MANUELA (Meiobenthic and Nematode
biodiversity Unravelling Ecological and Latitudinal Aspects), in: (2007). Thirteenth
International Meiofauna Conference (THIRIMCO) July 29 - August 3, 2007, Recife, Brazil:
Abstract book.