Let’s get it together: Using Darwin Core to standardize bio-logging data

Animal-borne sensor data, along with other types of sensor-based observations, provide a growing volume and proportion of documentation about biodiversity. However, as the community noted at the 6^th International Bio-logging Science Symposium in 2017, the current lack of standards hinders the community’s ability to document, archive and share data and increases the chance of errors in data management, interpretation, and analysis. Although sensors differ in design and purpose, most scientifically relevant information can be described using a finite set of variables along with metadata about the sensor, animal, and deployment. In the bio-logging world there are many databases and repositories that serve a variety of purposes and funding arrangements and target specific taxa, geographies, habitats, or functionality. There is a growing need to exchange data among these diverse data systems. We will present our progress to date in using the biological data standard Darwin Core and its extensions to enable better documentation and data exchange. We will share some of the use cases developed so far, including a terrestrial GPS tracking and acceleration dataset from Movebank and a marine acoustic telemetry dataset from the Ocean Tracking Network using stationary as well as mobile acoustic receivers. Through these examples, we will describe the strategy and rationale for applying Darwin Core to typical animal tracking scenarios that include common complexities of bio-logging and other machine-based biodiversity observations.