Periodic Reporting for period 1 - B3 (Biodiversity Building Blocks for policy)
Berichtszeitraum: 2023-03-01 bis 2024-08-31
The B3 project operates within a context of urgent need for better biodiversity monitoring and more informed, sustainable resource management practices. Globally, biodiversity is under intense pressure from land use changes, climate change, invasive species, and pollution, causing widespread ecosystem degradation. This reality is driving demand for innovative tools and data systems that can support local and international efforts to protect biodiversity and adapt to climate change. The European Green Deal and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals are key drivers, requiring reliable data and monitoring systems that guide policies and support ecosystem management. B3 addresses these needs by creating tools, workflows, and datasets that enhance biodiversity monitoring and analysis, aiming to inform strategic actions for environmental sustainability across Europe and beyond.
The core objectives of B3 are twofold: firstly to develop an infrastructure for biodiversity data through biodiversity data cubes, and second, to promote the widespread use of these data through robust workflows. Data cubes are multidimensional structures that efficiently organize and present data about species occurrences over time and across locations, allowing stakeholders to identify biodiversity trends and gaps in data coverage with greater accuracy and reliability. B3’s approach is inclusive, engaging a wide range of stakeholders—scientists, policymakers, conservationists, and even citizens—to actively use and contribute to biodiversity data, ensuring that outputs are valuable to all levels of decision-making. By promoting open-access, user-friendly platforms, B3 fosters transparency, engagement, and a sense of shared responsibility for biodiversity management.
The project’s pathway to impact combines technical development with engagement and capacity-building. B3 provides users with training, documentation, and a helpdesk to ensure effective uptake of the project’s tools. These resources aim to empower stakeholders to apply B3’s tools to their biodiversity and environmental data needs, making it possible for the insights generated by the project to inform conservation planning, ecosystem management, and policy development. By using the infrastructure of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), B3 ensures its outputs are interoperable and accessible at a global level. This alignment supports the project’s objective to contribute to biodiversity policy, scientific research, and conservation efforts internationally.
In terms of scale, B3’s expected impacts extend across European and global contexts. The focus on reproducible workflows and data sharing supports Europe’s role as a contributor to global biodiversity informatics and environmental data science. In summary, B3 aims to address complex environmental challenges by providing a structured approach to biodiversity monitoring and data use, thereby supporting global sustainability initiatives with a coordinated, evidence-based approach.
The core objectives of B3 are twofold: firstly to develop an infrastructure for biodiversity data through biodiversity data cubes, and second, to promote the widespread use of these data through robust workflows. Data cubes are multidimensional structures that efficiently organize and present data about species occurrences over time and across locations, allowing stakeholders to identify biodiversity trends and gaps in data coverage with greater accuracy and reliability. B3’s approach is inclusive, engaging a wide range of stakeholders—scientists, policymakers, conservationists, and even citizens—to actively use and contribute to biodiversity data, ensuring that outputs are valuable to all levels of decision-making. By promoting open-access, user-friendly platforms, B3 fosters transparency, engagement, and a sense of shared responsibility for biodiversity management.
The project’s pathway to impact combines technical development with engagement and capacity-building. B3 provides users with training, documentation, and a helpdesk to ensure effective uptake of the project’s tools. These resources aim to empower stakeholders to apply B3’s tools to their biodiversity and environmental data needs, making it possible for the insights generated by the project to inform conservation planning, ecosystem management, and policy development. By using the infrastructure of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), B3 ensures its outputs are interoperable and accessible at a global level. This alignment supports the project’s objective to contribute to biodiversity policy, scientific research, and conservation efforts internationally.
In terms of scale, B3’s expected impacts extend across European and global contexts. The focus on reproducible workflows and data sharing supports Europe’s role as a contributor to global biodiversity informatics and environmental data science. In summary, B3 aims to address complex environmental challenges by providing a structured approach to biodiversity monitoring and data use, thereby supporting global sustainability initiatives with a coordinated, evidence-based approach.
A primary technical accomplishment is the establishment of species occurrence data cubes, which enable biodiversity data to be organised and analysed across spatial, temporal, and taxonomic dimensions. These data cubes are central to the project’s aim of providing a reliable system for biodiversity data storage and analysis, with the flexibility to support a broad range of research and policy needs. To facilitate the effective use of these data cubes, B3 has also developed workflows and technical guidelines, which help ensure that project tools and outputs are both reproducible, adaptable and FAIR. These workflows are designed with the needs of biodiversity data users in mind, allowing for robust analyses and more reliable ecosystem monitoring. Additionally, the guidelines establish clear standards for software, which is essential for maintaining consistency across the project’s tools and applications. B3 has also advanced work on biodiversity indicators, which provide metrics for assessing ecosystem health and tracking biodiversity change. These indicators draw on data from the data cubes and cover multiple aspects of biodiversity, including species richness, phylogenetic diversity, and the impacts of invasive species. The project has also begun integrating deep learning techniques into species distribution modelling, focusing on mitigating biases related to inconsistent sampling efforts.
The landscape analyses identified how B3’s tools can meet stakeholder needs and support biodiversity conservation objectives. These analyses have guided the development of tools and indicators to align them with current policy frameworks, ensuring they provide actionable insights for biodiversity management.
The landscape analyses identified how B3’s tools can meet stakeholder needs and support biodiversity conservation objectives. These analyses have guided the development of tools and indicators to align them with current policy frameworks, ensuring they provide actionable insights for biodiversity management.
The project’s biodiversity data cubes are a notable outcome, providing a structured way to organise and analyse species data that is aligned with FAIR principles. These data cubes facilitate a more consistent approach to analysing biodiversity trends, allowing users to identify patterns and gaps in biodiversity data. Combined with the project’s workflows and quality-assured software guidelines, these outputs enable researchers, conservationists, and policymakers to access, interpret, and apply biodiversity data more effectively.
The project’s biodiversity indicators—covering species richness, phylogenetic diversity, and invasive species impacts—provide metrics for evaluating ecosystem health. They support policymakers by delivering measurable data on biodiversity that can inform conservation efforts and environmental management practices. As B3 tools are designed to be interoperable with major biodiversity data infrastructures like GBIF, they already align well with data standards, yet ongoing coordination with regulatory and standardisation bodies will ensure their sustained relevance.
The project’s biodiversity indicators—covering species richness, phylogenetic diversity, and invasive species impacts—provide metrics for evaluating ecosystem health. They support policymakers by delivering measurable data on biodiversity that can inform conservation efforts and environmental management practices. As B3 tools are designed to be interoperable with major biodiversity data infrastructures like GBIF, they already align well with data standards, yet ongoing coordination with regulatory and standardisation bodies will ensure their sustained relevance.