ZooArchNet: Connecting zooarchaeological specimens to the biodiversity and archaeology data networks.

Michelle J Lefebvre,Laura Brenskelle,Robert Guralnick,Neill J Wallis,Sarah Whitcher Kansa,Jessica N King,Kitty F Emery,Eric C Kansa,John Wieczorek,Sergi Lozano

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0215369

Abstract

Interdisciplinary collaborations and data sharing are essential to addressing the long history of human-environmental interactions underlying the modern biodiversity crisis. Such collaborations are increasingly facilitated by, and dependent upon, sharing open access data from a variety of disciplinary communities and data sources, including those within biology, paleontology, and archaeology. Significant advances in biodiversity open data sharing have focused on neontological and paleontological specimen records, making available over a billion records through the Global Biodiversity Information Facility. But to date, less effort has been placed on the integration of important archaeological sources of biodiversity, such as zooarchaeological specimens. Zooarchaeological specimens are rich with both biological and cultural heritage data documenting nearly all phases of human interaction with animals and the surrounding environment through time, filling a critical gap between paleontological and neontological sources of data within biodiversity networks. Here we describe technical advances for mobilizing zooarchaeological specimen-specific biological and cultural data. In particular, we demonstrate adaptations in the workflow used by biodiversity publisher VertNet to mobilize Darwin Core formatted zooarchaeological data to the GBIF network. We also show how a linked open data approach can be used to connect existing biodiversity publishing mechanisms with archaeoinformatics publishing mechanisms through collaboration with the Open Context platform. Examples of ZooArchNet published datasets are used to show the efficacy of creating this critically needed bridge between biological and archaeological sources of open access data. These technical advances and efforts to support data publication are placed in the larger context of ZooarchNet, a new project meant to build community around new approaches to interconnect zoorchaeological data and knowledge across disciplines.

Highlights

Interdisciplinary collaborations hold the key to addressing the complex human-environmental relationship and its influence on biodiversity at broad spatial, temporal, and cultural scales [1,2,3,4,5,6]
Key efforts to mobilize biodiversity data have made available over a billion specimen records in a global network of data publishing/access platforms linked through the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF; gbif.org)
Zooarchaeological specimen records are a subset of the larger biological specimen database available through VertNet and connected portals (e.g., GBIF)

Summary

Introduction

Interdisciplinary collaborations hold the key to addressing the complex human-environmental relationship and its influence on biodiversity at broad spatial, temporal, and cultural scales [1,2,3,4,5,6] Catalytic in supporting such collaborations has been recent growth in open sharing of biodiversity data, including that from modern (neontological) through deep time (paleontological) specimens, as well as the networks and tools for accessing and interpreting these data. Instead of distributed data networks, these technologies emphasize automated entity reconciliation to develop and maintain cross references among records in multiple sources These technologies facilitate highly granular networking among cultural heritage information systems from around the world despite differences in research approaches, language, data models, and software

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Conclusion