Donald, Hobern, the Director of the Atlas of Living of Living Australia presented a talk entitled, "Building the Atlas of Living Australia" The Atlas of Living Australia (ALA) is a partnership between Australian natural history collections and biodiversity research groups. It is developing systems to provide integrated access to all classes of biodiversity data (including names and classification, geospatial data, images, sequences, literature, identification tools and species interactions). The central component will be an information repository which catalogues all data sources and makes them available to support research, policy and education.

1. The Environment Institute
Where ideas grow
Donald Hobern
Building the Atlas of Living Australia

2. Biodiversity information
Root rot Banksia jewel beetle New Holland Honeyeater
Phytophthora cinnamomi Cyrioides imperialis (Phylidonyris novaehollandiae)
Feeds upon
nectar
Pathogen of
Larvae mine
stems
Pollinates
Banksia serrata L.f.
= Isostylis serrata (L.f.) Britten Biology and
ecology
Identified as
= Sirmuellera serrata (L.f.) Kuntze
Old Man Banksia
Saw Banksia
Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Magnoliophyta Molecular
Family: Proteaceae biology Literature
Distribution
Subfamily: Grevilleoideae
Tribe: Banksieae
Subtribe: Banksiinae
Genus: Banksia L.f.
Atlas of Living Australia - sharing biodiversity knowledge

3. Biodiversity information
Huntsman spider Tagasaste (tree lucerne)
Braconidae - ? Chaoilta sp. Chamaecytisus palmensis
Holconia montana
Parasitises Feeds upon
Preys upon
Uresiphita ornithopteralis (Guenée, 1854)
= Mecyna ornithopteralis Guenée, 1854 Biology and
ecology
Identified as
English: tree lucerne moth
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta Fact sheets
Order: Lepidoptera
Molecular
Family: Crambidae Locality: Reid, ACT
biology
Subfamily: Pyraustinae GPS: 35.280S 149.138E
Tribe: Pyraustini Date: 1 January 2008
Genus: Uresiphita Hübner, 1825
Distribution
Atlas of Living Australia - sharing biodiversity knowledge

4. The Atlas of Living Australia (ALA)
• Government-funded (NCRIS) project to June 2011
• Mission:
– To develop an authoritative, freely accessible,
distributed and federated biodiversity data
management system that links Australia’s biological
knowledge with its scientific reference collections and
other custodians of biological information
– To share biodiversity knowledge to shape our future
• Key data types:
– Specimens and Observations
– Names and Classifications
– Descriptions and diagnostic keys
– Images and other multimedia
– Molecular sequences
Atlas of Living Australia - sharing biodiversity knowledge

5. The Atlas of Living Australia (ALA)
• Funding
– $8.2M for ALA from NCRIS in 2006-2011
– $26.5M in-kind from ALA partners
– $30M for ALA from EIF in 2009-2012
• Partnership
– Government:
• CSIRO
• Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts
• Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry
– State museums:
• Australian Museum
• Museum Victoria
• Queensland Museum
• Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery
– Representative bodies:
• Council of Heads of Australasian Herbaria
• Council of Heads of Australian Faunal Collections
• Council of Heads of Australian Entomological Collections
• Council of Heads of Australian Collections of Microorganisms
• Council of Australian Museum Directors
– Universities:
• Southern Cross University
• University of Adelaide
Atlas of Living Australia - sharing biodiversity knowledge

6. Implementation
Uses (biosecurity, land-use, climate change, crop development, resource management, materials, forensics, taxonomy, etc.)
Regional Species Biosecurity
Atlas Pages Portal
Annotation
Tools
Metadata Names and
Distribution
Links to repository Classification
international
projects
Metadata (source, methods, ownership, access, etc.)
Data (collections, field observations, literature, molecular, images, expert knowledge, etc.)
Atlas of Living Australia - sharing biodiversity knowledge

7. Delivery
• Principles
– Open access to biodiversity information
– Link users to original data providers
– Support applied use of data
– Adopt and promote international data standards
– Develop open source software components
• Implementation
– User needs analysis – online report (December 2008)
– Geospatial data portal (GBIF code) (beta, June 2009)
– Taxonomic checklist services (beta, June 2009)
– Biodiversity information explorer (December 2009)
– Image, sequence, literature repositories (2010)
– Pest factsheets and regional atlas (2011)
– Citizen science portal (2011)
Atlas of Living Australia - sharing biodiversity knowledge

8. Project components
Biodiversity
Data Dissemination
Citizen Pest
Conservation
Australian National
Web Services Information Science Information
and User Portal
Explorer Portal Portal Regional
Interfaces
Geospatial Data
Atlas
Management
Completed
Checklists
National
Checklists User Quality
(AFD, APC,
etc.)
Ontologies
and
Vocabularies
Data Integration
Metadata
Repository
Authentication
and Identity
Management
Annotation
Services
Control and
Sensitive
Data Tools
GIS Tools
Legislative
and Thematic
Lists
Directory of
Descriptive
Data
(IdentifyLife)
Rich Data Stores
Species
Interactions
Images
(MorphBank)
Sequences
(BOLD)
Digital
Literature
(BHL)
Directory of
Environmental
Layers
Taxonomic
Expertise
Community
Editing and Field Capture
Collection Data
Accession
Digitisation Database
Integrated Data Sets
AVH APPD
Geospatial
and Imaging Integration Data Cache
Workflow
Tools
of Metadata
Management
Processing
Support Wrappers OZCAM
OBIS
AMRiN
ALA Project Office
Atlas of Living Australia - sharing biodiversity knowledge

9. Australian national checklists
• Names and classification of all
Australian organisms
– National checklists
– All groups of organisms
– Accepted names and
synonyms
– Common names
– Informal and morphospecies
names
– Legislative and thematic lists
(red lists, invasive, etc.)
– Collaborative editing tools
– Tools to support use of lists
Atlas of Living Australia - sharing biodiversity knowledge

10. Geospatial data management
• Geospatial Information Systems
– Partnership
• Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network
• Intgrated Marine Observing System
– Interoperable tools
• Data caches
• Environmental layers
• Mapping tools
• Analysis frameworks
– Data from all sources
• Collections
• Ecological field work
• Amateur observations
– Report species by region
• Local government area
• Water catchment
• Bioregion
Atlas of Living Australia - sharing biodiversity knowledge

11. Collection data management
• Accession and curation of specimens
– Whole collection community
• Herbaria
• Faunal/entomological collections
• Microbial collections
– Investment areas
• Field capture of metadata
• Imaging systems
• Databasing software
• Web hosting for data
– Enhance and support existing
networks
• Australia’s Virtual Herbarium ScientificName: Imbophorus pallidus
• Online Zoological Collection of Family: Pterophoridae
Australian Museums
Locality: Stirling Range
State: WA
• Australian Plant Pest Database
DateCollected: 1963-09-15
Latitude: -34.3
• Australian Microbial Resource
Longitude: 118.0
CoordinatePrecision: 10000
Information Network CoordinateMethod:
TypeStatus:
Google Earth
Paratypus
Atlas of Living Australia - sharing biodiversity knowledge

12. Rich data stores
• Shared data repositories
– Descriptive data and diagnostic keys
• IdentifyLife – including DELTA support
– Images
• Mirror MorphBank
– Sequences
• Mirror Barcode of Life Database
– Digital literature
• Mirror Biodiversity Heritage Library
– Species interactions
• Develop national repository
• Project-based data management
– Store data centrally; present locally
Atlas of Living Australia - sharing biodiversity knowledge

13. Data integration
• Integrate data and information
from all sources
– Shared structures,
vocabularies and ontologies
– User comments, corrections
and tags
GBIF data for “Australia” intersecting Australian continent
– Data quality and potential
sensitivity
– Organise data:
• By species
• By geographic region
• By ecosystem or habitat
• By trait (descriptive character, GBIF data for “Australia” not intersecting Australian continent
ecological function, etc.)
Atlas of Living Australia - sharing biodiversity knowledge

14. Additional metadata from data mining
Resource: ANIC
Species: Cryptotermes cynocephalus
Species: Cryptotermes gearyi
Species: Cryptotermes hilli
…
Region: State NSW
Region: State QLD
Region: State: NT
…
Google Earth layer: http://data.ala.org.au/ …
Species: Macropus giganteus
Resource: OZCAM MV
Resource: OZCAM SAMA
…
Enriched
Region: State NSW
Region: State VIC
Metadata
Region: State SA
…
Google Earth layer: http://data.ala.org.au/...
Region: IBRA Central Kimberley
Species: Eucalyptus apodophylla
Species: Eucalyptus argillacea
Species: Eucalyptus bigalerita
…
Resource: ANH
Resource: ANIC
Resource: NSW Herbarium
…
Google Earth layer: http://data.ala.org.au/...
Atlas of Living Australia - sharing biodiversity knowledge

15. Data dissemination
• Develop tools and portals to deliver biodiversity
information to end users
– Biodiversity Information Explorer
• Overview of all information (species pages)
• Linked pages for habitats, traits, etc.
– Conservation Portal
• Integration and analysis of site-based and collection data
• Habitat quality indicators
– Pest Information Portal
• Support biosecurity projects (ABIN, DEWHA, DAFF, etc.)
• Species factsheets and distribution analysis
– Citizen Science Portal
• Data management for amateur naturalists
• Links to research and data sharing networks
Atlas of Living Australia - sharing biodiversity knowledge

17. The Environment Institute
Where ideas grow
Tomorrow’s Science Seminar
Speaker: Prof. Kym Anderson
Regional implications of climate change for the
Australian wine industry.