In this section you can find information about the SIBUy.

Why share biodiversity data?

In Uruguay, the lack of environmental information systems, particularly related to biodiversity, continues to be a necessity. In this sense, the lack of coordination between public and private institutions, both academic and management, is one of the greatest weaknesses. At the same time, not having a system that gathers information on biodiversity available in the country makes environmental evaluation processes and the identification of information gaps difficult.

In this context, SIBUy invites to publish, and therefore share, biodiversity data to facilitate biodiversity research and management, making the data available to society as a whole. A globally accepted standard format (Darwin Core) is used for data publication, offering free access and use according to the licenses established for each dataset. In all cases the collectors, generators, and custodians of the data receive the corresponding credit.

How can data contribute to decision-making?

The availability of information is critical for making science-based management decisions.Biodiversity data published through national portals and gbif.org have been used, for example, to model species distributions or identify sites with information gaps. This work helps to define where to conduct sampling efforts to complete species inventories and to define priority conservation sites.

In the News section you can learn more about how Uruguay’s biodiversity data have been used for research that contributes to the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity.

Which data can be shared?

At the moment the SIBUy data portal allows the publication of biological records that can come from various sources such as biological collections, species inventories for environmental assessments, camera trap monitoring, among others.

To publish the data structure you should follow the Darwin Core standard. Although this standard requires a significant amount of information to be associated with the record, which we recommend, it is also very valuable to share data even if it may be considered incomplete. For this purpose, a list of mandatory fields has been defined for the publication of data, the rest being optional.

What are biodiversity data standards?

The data and information available through SIBUy, GBIF.org and their associated services are the result of a network of organizations and individuals using a common language to describe, record and structure thousands of very diverse datasets. The use of common and globally accepted standards is the primary mechanism for integrating the hundreds of millions of primary biodiversity records in GBIF.

In the context of biodiversity, one of the most active groups in the development and maintenance of data standards worldwide is * Biodiversity Information Standards (Biodiversity Information Standards). As an affiliate of the International Union of Biological Science (International Union of Biological Sciences), this not-for-profit scientific and academic association focuses on the development of standards for the exchange of biodiversity data and information. Members of this community generally refer to this group as TDWG (pronounced tad-wig), in honor of its origins as the Taxonomic Databases Working Group.

Most widely used standards

Darwin Core

The Darwin Core (DwC) standard provides a stable, simple and flexible framework for collecting biodiversity data from different sources. Most datasets shared through GBIF.org are published using the Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A) format.

Plinian Core

The Plinian Core (PliC) standard is a standard for sharing information primarily at the species level. It was conceived as a way to publish species information and make it interoperable. By ‘species information’ we mean all kinds of properties and features related to taxa (of any rank), including descriptions, nomenclature, conservation status, management, natural history, etc. Therefore, the scope of Plinian Core goes beyond taxonomic descriptions.

EML

EML, or Ecological Metadata Language, is a metadata standard that collects information about ecological datasets in a series of modular and extensible XML documents. All dataset descriptions available through GBIF.org are based on ‘metadata’ - i.e., information about the data - and use the open source EML standard, which is managed and maintained by The Knowledge Network for Biocomplexity.

Each Darwin Core Archive includes as one of its components an EML file (written in XML format). This EML profile is known as GBIF Metadata Profile (GMP).

BioCASe / ABCD

The Biological Collection Access Service, commonly known as BioCASe, is an international network linking biological collections data from natural history museums, botanical/zoological gardens and research institutions. *BioCASe is based on the *Access to Biological Collections Data (ABCD) data exchange standard, which TDWG also manages.

How can I become a data publishing organization?

Institutions or organizations that want to publish their data through the Biodiversity Information System of Uruguay in GBIF.org, must complete a registration form. After approval from the Uruguay GBIF node, they will receive a user to publish their data through the IPT tool.

You can access the form HERE

For any questions you can send an email to biodiversidad@ambiente.gub.uy