Photo par Anton Van de Putte sous licence CC BY 4.0

The SCAR Antarctic Biodiversity Portal

The SCAR Antarctic Biodiversity Portal is funded under the ADVANCE project.

ADVANCE

Antarctic bioDiVersity dAta iNfrastruCturE (ADVANCE) is a 3 years project funded by Belgian Science Policy (BELSPO).

ADVANCE aims to create a Virtual Research infrastructure (VRI) for the Antarctic and Southern Ocean (ASO) region that converts biodiversity data into research and policy-relevant data products.

The ASO region endures rapid change in certain areas, but remains relatively untouched by human activities and warrants protection. In addition the region yields a unique potential in gaining new knowledge on key scientific issues, such as those identified in the framework of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) Horizon Scan exercise and the Southern Ocean Action Plan. THE VRI will help address those concerns by enabling the linking, enrichment, and valorization of heterogeneous information from various sources in order to provide insights into biological systems responses to climate change. It will expand a well-established online data platform (the SCAR Antarctic Biodiversity Portal, biodiversity.aq) to meet the growing needs of the Antarctic and Southern Ocean biodiversity research community to access high-quality data, services, protocols, standards, workflows, and software/applications that integrate biodiversity data with environmental data from diverse sources and create research and policy-relevant outputs. These protocols, data, tools, and procedures will be open, replicable, and transparent. ADVANCE will maximise current long-term and developing facilities’ long-term sustainability and eliminate duplication. The project will cooperate with OBIS and GBIF to build new biodiversity data models and enhance the present standard. This allows us to create relevant resources for biodiversity research, such as an image library and trait databases, and applications that allow building data products based on Essential Biodiversity Variables, Essential Ocean Variables, Essential Climate Variables, and ecosystem Essential Ocean Variables (eEOVs). ADVANCE will work with SOOS, EMODnet, and IDEA to retrieve and inject environmental data. Close engagement with non-funded partners like ULB and AAD, as well as global communities, will assure that SCAR provides scientifically sound services and resources.

ADVANCE will support the publication of all elements of the research cycle in accordance with the open science principles including the FAIR, TRUST and CARE principles - Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable (FAIR), Transparency, Responsibility, User focus, Sustainability and Technology, (TRUST) Collective Benefit, Authority to Control, Responsibility, and Ethics (CARE).

This initiative brings together experts at the observational, data management, analytical, and policy levels of an integrated system. The project has 1 financed national partner, 1 unfunded national partner, and 5 unfunded foreign partners. SCAR and the ATS (CEP and CCAMLR) will collaborate with other ASO initiatives. The network comprises key Belgian and international research organisations in biodiversity informatics and numerical ecology to promote free and open access to Antarctic and Southern Ocean biodiversity data. It will integrate with European and global projects.

The VRI established within the project will benefit researchers, industry (fisheries, tourists), and policymakers from Belgium and other ATS member states, acceding nations, as well as other international fora, NGOs, and the public. Better access and sharing of analytical workflow will allow better comparisons of data gathering and analysis approaches and support Best Practices. Shared best and to relate our study to action and policy and improve citizens’ awareness of a remote and mystifying world.