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The Bird Monitoring Data Exchange (BMDE) was developed to be a
standardized data exchange schema that would promote the sharing and
analysis of observational data about birds.
History
A working group of representatives from non-governmental
organizations, government and academia met over a two-year period to
define the components of this data exchange schema. The result is the
creation of the bird monitoring data exchange (BMDE), which represents
the content structure of bird monitoring datasets and allows the
transfer of bird monitoring data across electronic information
systems.
The BMDE
The BMDE includes 111 fields that are capable of capturing all metrics
and descriptors associated with a bird observation. The foundation of
the BMDE are the 55 fields of the
Darwin
Core (DwC), a similar exchange schema developed to facilitate the
interchange of distributional information about organisms, based on
data from natural history collections (i.e., museums), living
collections (i.e., zoos), and observations. Using Darwin Core allows
bird monitoring data to be integrated with other bioinformatic
initiatives such as ORNIS
and GBIF. The BMDE extends the DwC
schema to incorporate required variables for the comprehensive
interchange of bird monitoring data. These extended fields include
information on the type of survey and observer effort. The BMDE does
not accommodate data on the habitats or conditions of the observation;
thus data on vegetation, sea conditions, or weather conditions are not
archived in the BMDE.
We remind you that the purpose of the BMDE is not to describe all data
fields of every bird monitoring dataset, but rather to allow sharing of
information for the purpose generating various analyses. We realize
that some types of datasets would require additional field extensions
in order to capture it in its entirety. For example, we are currently
working on a schema extension for bird banding datasets, which will be
an optional add-on to the BMDE schema.
The BMDE will function within the DiGIR grid services
environment. Currently under development are access tools available at
the AKN website to allow access to the federated datasets.
Click here
to download the BMDE (version 1.35)
Click here to see the
full list of BMDE variables and their definitions.
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About the AKN
Partners
Bird Monitoring Data Registry
Bird Monitoring Data Exchange
NatureCounts Data Sharing Policy
Levels of Data Access
Recommended Citation
More information
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