Biodiversity data guide

Biodiversity Data Guide

Access, analyze, and visualize biodiversity data from global databases including GBIF, iNaturalist, and GenBank for ecological and evolutionary research.

Major Biodiversity Data Sources

Database	Content	Records	API	Cost
GBIF	Species occurrence records	2.4B+	Yes	Free
iNaturalist	Citizen science observations	180M+	Yes	Free
GenBank (NCBI)	Genetic sequences	250M+	Yes	Free
BOLD Systems	DNA barcode records	15M+	Yes	Free
eBird	Bird observations	1.3B+	Yes	Free
IUCN Red List	Conservation status	160,000+	Yes	Free (with key)
OBIS	Marine biodiversity	100M+	Yes	Free
Catalogue of Life	Taxonomic backbone	2M+ species	Yes	Free
TRY Plant Trait	Plant functional traits	12M+	Request	Free
WorldClim	Climate data (rasters)	Global	Download	Free

Querying GBIF (Species Occurrences)

Python (pygbif)

from pygbif import species as sp
from pygbif import occurrences as occ

# Search for a species by name
name_result = sp.name_backbone(name="Panthera tigris", rank="species")
taxon_key = name_result["usageKey"]
print(f"GBIF taxon key: {taxon_key}")
print(f"Status: {name_result['status']}")
print(f"Kingdom: {name_result['kingdom']}")

# Get occurrence records
results = occ.search(
    taxonKey=taxon_key,
    hasCoordinate=True,       # Only georeferenced records
    country="IN",             # India
    limit=100,
    year="2020,2024",         # Year range
    basisOfRecord="HUMAN_OBSERVATION"
)

print(f"Total records matching: {results['count']}")
for record in results["results"][:5]:
    print(f"  [{record.get('year')}] {record.get('decimalLatitude'):.4f}, "
          f"{record.get('decimalLongitude'):.4f} - {record.get('datasetName', 'N/A')}")

R (rgbif)

library(rgbif)
library(sf)
library(ggplot2)

# Get occurrence data
tiger_key <- name_backbone(name = "Panthera tigris")$usageKey

occurrences <- occ_search(
  taxonKey = tiger_key,
  hasCoordinate = TRUE,
  limit = 500,
  year = "2020,2024",
  basisOfRecord = "HUMAN_OBSERVATION"
)

# Convert to spatial data
occ_df <- occurrences$data
coords <- occ_df[, c("decimalLongitude", "decimalLatitude")]
occ_sf <- st_as_sf(coords, coords = c("decimalLongitude", "decimalLatitude"),
                    crs = 4326)

# Map occurrences
world <- rnaturalearth::ne_countries(scale = "medium", returnclass = "sf")
ggplot() +
  geom_sf(data = world, fill = "grey90") +
  geom_sf(data = occ_sf, color = "red", size = 1, alpha = 0.5) +
  coord_sf(xlim = c(60, 150), ylim = c(-10, 50)) +
  labs(title = "Panthera tigris occurrences (2020-2024)") +
  theme_minimal()
ggsave("tiger_map.pdf", width = 10, height = 6)

Species Distribution Modeling

MaxEnt Workflow

library(dismo)
library(raster)

# 1. Get occurrence data
occ_data <- occ_search(taxonKey = tiger_key, hasCoordinate = TRUE,
                       limit = 1000)$data
occ_points <- occ_data[, c("decimalLongitude", "decimalLatitude")]
occ_points <- na.omit(occ_points)

# 2. Get environmental predictors (WorldClim bioclimatic variables)
bioclim <- getData("worldclim", var = "bio", res = 10)
# bio1 = Annual Mean Temperature
# bio12 = Annual Precipitation
# bio4 = Temperature Seasonality
# ... (19 bioclimatic variables total)

# 3. Extract environmental values at occurrence points
env_values <- extract(bioclim, occ_points)

# 4. Generate background (pseudo-absence) points
bg_points <- randomPoints(bioclim, n = 10000)

# 5. Fit MaxEnt model
me_model <- maxent(bioclim, occ_points, a = bg_points,
                    args = c("betamultiplier=1.5",
                             "responsecurves=true"))

# 6. Predict habitat suitability
prediction <- predict(me_model, bioclim)
plot(prediction, main = "Predicted Habitat Suitability")
points(occ_points, pch = 16, cex = 0.5)

# 7. Evaluate model
eval_result <- evaluate(me_model, p = occ_points, a = bg_points,
                        x = bioclim)
print(paste("AUC:", round(eval_result@auc, 3)))

Phylogenetic Analysis

Building a Phylogeny

library(ape)
library(phytools)

# Read alignment (FASTA format)
alignment <- read.FASTA("aligned_sequences.fasta")

# Distance-based tree (Neighbor-Joining)
dist_matrix <- dist.dna(alignment, model = "TN93")
nj_tree <- nj(dist_matrix)

# Root the tree
rooted_tree <- root(nj_tree, outgroup = "outgroup_species")

# Plot phylogeny
plot(rooted_tree, type = "phylogram", cex = 0.8)
axisPhylo()

# Maximum likelihood tree (using phangorn)
library(phangorn)
data_phyDat <- phyDat(alignment, type = "DNA")
ml_tree <- pml_bb(data_phyDat, model = "GTR+G+I",
                   rearrangement = "NNI")

Comparative Methods

library(caper)

# Phylogenetic independent contrasts
# Test whether body mass predicts home range size
# while accounting for phylogenetic relatedness

trait_data <- data.frame(
  species = c("Sp_A", "Sp_B", "Sp_C", "Sp_D"),
  body_mass = c(5.2, 12.1, 3.8, 45.0),
  home_range = c(10, 25, 8, 120)
)

# Create comparative data object
comp_data <- comparative.data(
  phy = rooted_tree,
  data = trait_data,
  names.col = species,
  vcv = TRUE
)

# Phylogenetic Generalized Least Squares (PGLS)
pgls_model <- pgls(log(home_range) ~ log(body_mass),
                    data = comp_data,
                    lambda = "ML")  # Estimate Pagel's lambda
summary(pgls_model)

Ecological Data Analysis

Diversity Metrics

import numpy as np
from scipy.stats import entropy

def calculate_diversity(abundance_vector):
    """Calculate common biodiversity metrics."""
    n = np.array(abundance_vector)
    N = n.sum()
    p = n / N  # Relative abundances
    p = p[p > 0]  # Remove zeros

    return {
        "species_richness": len(n[n > 0]),
        "shannon_H": entropy(p, base=np.e),
        "simpson_D": 1 - np.sum(p**2),
        "evenness_J": entropy(p, base=np.e) / np.log(len(p)),
        "fisher_alpha": estimate_fisher_alpha(n),
        "total_abundance": int(N)
    }

def estimate_fisher_alpha(n):
    """Estimate Fisher's alpha diversity parameter."""
    from scipy.optimize import brentq
    S = len(n[n > 0])
    N = n.sum()
    def equation(alpha):
        return alpha * np.log(1 + N/alpha) - S
    try:
        return brentq(equation, 0.1, 1000)
    except ValueError:
        return np.nan

# Example: Bird community survey
abundances = [45, 23, 12, 8, 5, 3, 2, 1, 1]
metrics = calculate_diversity(abundances)
for key, val in metrics.items():
    print(f"  {key}: {val:.4f}" if isinstance(val, float) else f"  {key}: {val}")

Community Analysis

library(vegan)

# Species abundance matrix (sites x species)
community <- matrix(c(
  10, 5, 3, 0, 1,
  8, 12, 0, 2, 3,
  0, 1, 15, 8, 0,
  2, 0, 12, 10, 1
), nrow = 4, byrow = TRUE,
dimnames = list(paste0("Site", 1:4), paste0("Sp", 1:5)))

# Alpha diversity
diversity(community, index = "shannon")  # Shannon H
diversity(community, index = "simpson")  # Simpson 1-D

# Beta diversity (Bray-Curtis dissimilarity)
bc_dist <- vegdist(community, method = "bray")

# NMDS ordination
nmds <- metaMDS(community, distance = "bray", k = 2)
plot(nmds, type = "t")

# PERMANOVA (testing group differences)
env_data <- data.frame(habitat = c("forest", "forest", "grassland", "grassland"))
adonis2(community ~ habitat, data = env_data, method = "bray")

Data Standards and Best Practices

Darwin Core Standard

Darwin Core (DwC) is the standard schema for biodiversity data exchange:

Term	Description	Example
scientificName	Full taxonomic name	"Panthera tigris (Linnaeus, 1758)"
decimalLatitude	Latitude in decimal degrees	27.1751
decimalLongitude	Longitude in decimal degrees	78.0421
eventDate	Date of observation	"2024-03-15"
basisOfRecord	Type of record	"HUMAN_OBSERVATION"
coordinateUncertaintyInMeters	Spatial precision	100
institutionCode	Data provider	"iNaturalist"

Data Quality Checks

1. Coordinate validation: Flag points in oceans for terrestrial species (and vice versa)
2. Taxonomic verification: Match names against Catalogue of Life or GBIF backbone
3. Temporal consistency: Remove records with impossible dates
4. Duplicate detection: Remove spatial and temporal duplicates
5. Environmental outliers: Flag occurrences in climatically unsuitable areas
6. Sampling bias correction: Use spatial thinning or bias files in SDMs