Monthly Meetup Highlights - GBIF-AsiaWG/GBIF-Asia-working-group GitHub Wiki

Table of Contents

Latest Meetings

March 2025 Meeting

Date

  • March 6, 2025

🌟Minutes

Quick Recap:

Xu Zheping chaired the meeting, introducing the GBIF Work Programme for 2025. Key discussions included the Asia Pacific Biodiversity Observation Network (APBON) workshop insights and the drafting of the annual biodiversity data report for Asia. The session concluded with Xu proposing a collaborative paper, inviting contributions from participants on various sections of interest.

Next Steps:

  1. Xu to circulate an email for discussing the paper’s draft outline.
  2. WG members to nominate experts for contributing to specific paper sections.
  3. Xu to extend invitations to additional experts for participating in the draft outline discussion.

Summary of Key Points:

  • GBIF Updates and Strategic Planning: Xu led a review of essential documents, including the GBIF Nodes Implementation Plan 2025 and the annual GBIF Work Programme update, alongside the latest GBIF newsletter.

  • 16th APBON Workshop Update: Kit, representing the ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity, provided insights from the APBON workshop held in the Philippines in January. The workshop addressed data sharing challenges and identified gaps in biodiversity observation across the Asia-Pacific region, resulting in strategic actions and regional cooperation plans.

  • Preparation of Annual Report on Biodiversity Data Use in Asia: Meiling Piao from Biodiversity Committee, Chinese Academy of Sciences (BC-CAS), outlined the structure of the Annual Report, detailing the eight-section format. She exemplified how research data is utilized and called for contributions to the 2024 report, emphasizing the significance of GBIF data. Xu shared past research papers and set a completion target for the end of March, inviting participation in the report’s finalization.

  • International Symposium on Urban Biodiversity and Sustainable Development (Asia Region): Meiling introduced a conference in Xiamen, co-hosted by BC-CAS and IUCN, focusing on the intersection of urban biodiversity and sustainable development in Asia, addressing key issues of biodiversity loss, climate change, and urban sustainability.

  • Preparation of a Co-authored Article on Biodiversity Informatics in Asia: Xu presented a structured outline for a comprehensive paper on biodiversity informatics in Asia, divided into five sections. After a lively discussion, Xu would put the outline in a Google Docs repository and proposed a follow-up meeting for further article discussions and suggested inviting more experts to join the collaboration.

December 2024 Meeting

Date

  • December 5, 2024

ZOOM

🌟Minutes

I. GBIF Strategic Framework 2023-2027 and Ongoing Projects Facilitated by: Dr. Xu Zheping

  • Focus Areas:

    • Science and Research
    • Policy and Partnership
    • Community and Publicity
    • Infrastructure and Data Development

  • Project Highlights:

    • GBIF Data Competition
    • Collaborations with Partners
    • Participation in International Meetings

  • Looking Ahead: Possibility of hosting a regional meeting in 2025.

    II. WG Report

a) Science and Research WG

Topic: Building genus level distribution for flowering plants

Presenter: Dr. Xiaoting Xu (Sichuan University, China)

  • Introduced a global distribution map of flowering plants, which was compiled over a decade. The data was classified into three types: coordinates data, range maps, and geographic units. Also discussed the challenges of combining data with different spatial resolutions and the need for a standardized geographic unit. The final distribution was obtained by standardizing taxonomic names and removing introduced data

b) Community and Capacity WG

Topic: How to make a regional GBIF newsletter

Presenter: Dr. Meiling Piao (Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences)

  • Outlined the process for the Gbif Asia working group's monthly newsletter. Showed the workflow and explained that the newsletter is compiled from various sources, with volunteers translating and summarizing the articles. The final version is then uploaded to the group's website. and emphasizing the call for contributions from all members.

c) Infrastructure and Data Products WG

Topic: Local Registry of Scientific Collections in Plant Science, a GBIF GRSciColl-like project in China

Presenter: Dr. Huiyuan Liu (Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences)

  • Highlighted China's rich biodiversity and collection resources, with over 40,000 species and 371 herbaria with 22 million plant specimens. Also discussed the Index Herbarium and the Global Registry of Scientific Collections, and shared the experience and achievements in the construction of the second edition of the Index Herbarium of China. She mentioned the establishment of the Chinese Herbarium Registration System in 2020 and the nationwide survey of Specimen Preservation Institution conducted this year. The next steps include focusing on the current status of herbaria data and confirming the preservation status of specimens in these institutions.

III. Discussion

  • GBIF Data & Herbarium Updates: Challenges and a proposed case study record in Asia for GBIF data and open science.
  • Newsletter Plan: Detailed plan proposed by Xu, with encouragement for each subgroup to establish their objectives.
  • Group Objectives: Shared by Arman and Dr. Mishkat Ullah.
  • Database Sharing: Pakistan Museum of Natural History database to be shared with Xu.
  • Herbarium Connection: Experience of connecting GBIF data to the Vietnamese herbarium to be shared by Võ. IV. Next Steps
  • Newsletter Initiative: Outlining the process for participation and sharing.
  • Expert Presentations: Establishing a protocol for warm-up presentations at each group meeting.
  • Regional Plans: Each group to develop plans in line with the GBIF Strategic Framework.
  • Case Study Report: Collaborative authoring for Asia, focusing on GBIF data in Open Sciences and its contribution to SDGs.

November 2024 Meeting

Date

  • November 10, 2024

ZOOM

Agenda

  • Welcome and introductions
  • Q&A
  • Next steps and action items
  • Closing remarks

Minutes

How to Join

Email Dr. Zheping Xu through [email protected]

Discussion Topics

Action Items