Current Science

Open Access Open Access  Restricted Access Subscription Access

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.
User
Notifications
Font Size

  • Singh, J. S. and Kushwaha, S. P. S., Forest biodiversity and its conservation in India. Int. For. Rev., 2008, 10, 292–304.

  • Peterson, A. T., Navarro-Siguenza, A. G., Martinez-Meyer, E., Cuervo-Robayo, A. P., Berlanga, H. and Soberon, J., Twentieth century turnover of Mexican endemic avifaunas: Landscape change versus climate drivers. Sci. Adv., 2015, 1, e1400071.

  • Peterson, A. T., Navarro-Sigüenza, A. G. and Martínez-Meyer, E., Digital accessible knowledge and well-inventoried sites for birds in Mexico: baseline sites for measuring faunistic change. Peer J., 2016, 4, e2362.

  • Ali, S. and Ripley, S. D., Handbook of the Birds of India and Pakistan. Together with those of Bangladesh, Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan and Sri Lanka. Vol. 3: Stone Curlews to Owls, Oxford University Press, Bombay, 1969.

  • Sousa-Baena, M. S., Garcia, L. C. and Peterson, A. T., Completeness of digital accessible knowledge of the plants of Brazil and priorities for survey and inventory. Divers. Distrib., 2013, 20, 369–381.

  • Peterson, A. T., Knapp, S., Guralnick, R., Soberón, J. and Holder, M. T., The big questions for biodiversity informatics. Syst. Biodiv., 2010, 8, 159–168.

  • Hardisty, A. and Roberts, D., A decadal view of biodiversity informatics: challenges and priorities. BMC Ecol., 2013, 13, 16.

  • Peterson, A. T., Soberón, J. and Krishtalka, L., A global perspective on decadal challenges and priorities in biodiversity informatics. BMC Ecol., 2015, 15, 1–9.

  • Peters, J. L., Check-list of Birds of the World, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1931–1987, vols 1–16.

  • Morony, J. J., Bock, W. J. and Farrand, J., Reference List of the Birds of the World, American Museum of Natural History, New York, 1975.

  • Sibley, C. G. and Monroe, B. L. J., Distribution and Taxonomy of Birds of the World, Yale University Press, New Haven, Connecticut, 1990.

  • Clements, J. F., Schulenberg, T. S., Iliff, M. J., Roberson, D., Fredericks, T. A., Sullivan, B. L. and Wood, C. L., The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world, 2015.

  • Lira-Noriega, A., Soberón, J., Navarro-Sigüenza, A. G., Nakazawa, Y. and Peterson, A. T., Scale-dependency of diversity components estimated from primary biodiversity data and distribution maps. Divers. Distrib., 2007, 13, 185–195.

  • Colwell, R. K., 1994–present. EstimateS. University of Connecticut, Storrs; http://viceroy.eeb.uconn.edu/estimates/

  • Peterson, A. T. and Slade, N. A., Extrapolating inventory results into biodiversity estimates and the importance of stopping rules. Divers. Distrib., 1998, 4, 95–105.

  • Hijmans, R., Cameron, S., Parra, J., Jones, P. and Jarvis, A., Very high resolution interpolated climate surfaces for global land areas. Int. J. Climatol., 2005, 25, 1965–1978.

  • Rodgers, W. A. and Panwar, H. S., Planning a Wildlife Protected Area Network in India, Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, 1988, vols 1 and 2.

  • Rodgers, W. A., Panwar, H. S. and Mathur, V. B., Wildlife Protected Area Network in India: A Review (Executive Summary). Wildlide Institute of India, Dehradun, 2002.

  • Urfi, A. J., Sen, M., Kalam, A. and Meganathan, T., Counting birds in India: methodologies and trends. Curr. Sci., 2005, 89, 1997–2003.

  • Narwade, S. et al., Literature based species occurrence data of birds of northeast India. ZooKeys, 2011, 150, 407–417.


Abstract Views: 439

PDF Views: 121




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

Abstract Views: 439  |  PDF Views: 121

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.

References





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