Abstract
Arthropods play a dominant role in natural and human-modified terrestrial ecosystem dynamics. Spatially-explicit arthropod population time-series data are crucial for statistical or mathematical models of these dynamics and assessment of their veterinary, medical, agricultural, and ecological impacts. Such data have been collected world-wide for over a century, but remain scattered and largely inaccessible. In particular, with the ever-present and growing threat of arthropod pests and vectors of infectious diseases, there are numerous historical and ongoing surveillance efforts, but the data are not reported in consistent formats and typically lack sufficient metadata to make reuse and re-analysis possible. Here, we present the first-ever minimum information standard for arthropod abundance, Minimum Information for Reusable Arthropod Abundance Data (MIReAD). Developed with broad stakeholder collaboration, it balances sufficiency for reuse with the practicality of preparing the data for submission. It is designed to optimize data (re)usability from the “FAIR,” (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) principles of public data archiving (PDA). This standard will facilitate data unification across research initiatives and communities dedicated to surveillance for detection and control of vector-borne diseases and pests.
Highlights
Arthropods play a dominant role in the dynamics of practically all natural and human-modified terrestrial ecosystems[1,2,3] and have significant economic and health effects
We designed Minimum Information for Reusable Arthropod Abundance Data (MIReAD) to achieve a balance between standards that are too onerous for data generators with guidelines that are sufficient to ensure at least minimal reusability[31,41]
We present MIReAD as a minimum information standard for representing arthropod abundance data
Summary
Arthropods play a dominant role in the dynamics of practically all natural and human-modified terrestrial ecosystems[1,2,3] and have significant economic and health effects. Certain insects provide significant economic benefits (e.g. pollination) exceeding $57 billion a year to the United States alone[4]. Vector borne diseases cause billions of dollars in crop and livestock losses, every year[7,8,9]. Vector borne diseases account for more than 17% of all infectious diseases (e.g. malaria, Chagas, dengue, and leishmaniasis, Zika, West Nile, Lyme disease, and sleeping sickness), with hundreds of thousands of deaths, hundreds of millions of cases, and billions of people at risk, annually[10,11]
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