Integrating past, present, and projected future biological and environmental data to facilitate innovative global change biology research

Leveraging UC Berkeley’s exceptional resourcesBerkeley Natural History Museums• Insects (and their kin)

– 6.5 Million specimens (<2.5% digitized)• Fossils

– 6.5 Million specimens (<5% digitized)• Vertebrates

– 677,000 specimens (100% digitized)• Plants

– 2.2 Million specimens (16% digitized)

Time scale

1800s present

Leveraging UC Berkeley’s exceptional resourcesBerkeley Field Stations• Biological observations

– Species checklists– Field notes– Photographs

• Microclimate sensor arrays– Over 4 million measurements– 48 variables

Time scale

1900s present

Leveraging UC Berkeley’s exceptional resourcesWieslander Vegetation Type Mapping• Plot data

– Vegetation data for 18,000+ plots• Polygon data

– Dominant vegetation mapped • Photographs

– ~3100 black and white photos• Specimens

– ~22,000 specimens collectedTime scale

1928 1942

Kelly et al. 2005

Leveraging UC Berkeley’s exceptional resourcesSediment Cores• Climatic, floristic, entomological

and fire history data from ~50 cores, including Clear Lake

Time scale

130,000 ya present

Pulling data from external sourcesFreely-available baselayers• Climate• Land cover• Topography• Geology• Soils• Fire frequency• Nature reserves

More biological observations• Biocollections from

around the State

• Photographs and additional observations collected by various users

• Users can access data and its metadata via our Online Portal, Holos. Holos comes with built-in searching, charting, visualization and analysis tools

• The Data API’s open framework allows third-party developers to write their own tools.

Integrating data within Holos