speciesLink is a large-scale biodiversity information portal that exists thanks to a broad collaborative network of people and institutions. CRIA's involvement with the scientific community of Brazil and other countries is responsible for the significant results achieved, currently reaching more than 15 million primary biodiversity data records, 95% of which are associated with preserved specimens and about 25% with high-quality digital images. The network provides data on over 200,000 species, of which over 110,000 occur in Brazil. This article describes thematic networks within speciesLink, as well as some of the most useful tools developed. The importance and contributions of speciesLink are outlined, as are concerns about securing stable budgetary support for such biodiversity data e-infrastructures. Here we review the value of speciesLink as a major source of biodiversity information for research, education, informed decision-making, policy development, and bioeconomy.

O interesse socioeconomico pelo acafrao da terra ocorre principalmente devido as suas propriedades alimenticias e medicinais, como tambem pela sua forte pigmentacao, que possibilita sua utilizacao como corante natural. Os objetivos dos estudos foram o de avaliar a produtividade e a rentabilidade das plantas de acafrao da terra, cultivadas em canteiros com diferentes numeros de fileiras e de amontoas e, realizar a caracterizacao bromatologica dos diferentes componentes da planta (folha, rizoma-mae, rizoma-filho, raiz) e extrair e caracterizar o amido dos rizomas. No primeiro estudo foram cultivadas as plantas de acafrao da terra, na area do Horto de Plantas Medicinais – HPM, da Universidade Federal da Grande Dourados – UFGD, sob tres e quatro fileiras de plantas no canteiro e com uma, duas ou sem amontoas, arranjados em esquema fatorial 2x3 no delineamento experimental de blocos casualizados com quatro repeticoes. Foram avaliadas as alturas das plantas, o diâmetro da base do pseudocaule e o numero de folhas por plantas, bem como as produtividades (aos 266 dias apos o plantio) de massas fresca e seca de folhas, de rizomas-mae, de rizoma-filho e de raizes. Avaliou-se a viabilidade economica da producao de rizomas-filho, por meio de estudos de custos de producao e rentabilidade por hectare. No segundo estudo foi realizada a caracterizacao bromatologica dos componentes (folha, rizoma-mae, rizoma-filho, raiz) das plantas de acafrao da terra cultivadas sob tres e quatro fileiras de plantas no canteiro com zero, uma e duas amontoas, arranjados em esquema fatorial 2x3x4. Avaliaram-se as potencialidades bromatologicas (fibras, lipidios, proteina, umidade, cinza) e a cor da materia prima dos diferentes componentes da planta de acafrao da terra. Extraiu-se e caracterizou-se o amido dos rizomas-mae e dos rizomas-filho e avaliou-se o percentual de rendimento comparando com a massa fresca de seus respectivos rizomas. No primeiro estudo observou-se que os maiores valores de altura (65,38 cm), de diâmetro do pseudocaule (8,51 cm) e do numero de folhas (13,3) das plantas de acafrao da terra foram das cultivadas com tres fileiras e uma amontoa, respectivamente aos 210, 263 e 192 dias apos o plantio. A maior massa fresca (2,34 Mg ha-1) e seca de folhas (0,52 Mg ha-1) foram das plantas cultivadas com tres fileiras. As maiores massas frescas e secas de rizoma-mae (0,85 e 0,18 Mg ha-1, respectivamente) e de rizoma-filho (4,72 e 0,91 Mg ha-1, respectivamente) foram das plantas de acafrao da terra cultivadas com uma amontoa e, a massa fresca e seca de raizes apresentaram media geral respectiva de 0,60 e 0,17 Mg ha-1. O menor custo de producao foi de R$ 17.204,73 para as plantas cultivadas em canteiros com tres fileiras e zero amontoa. A maior rentabilidade liquida foi de R$ 19.252,27 quando se utilizou o tratamento tres fileiras de plantas no canteiro e uma amontoa. No segundo estudo, o maior teor de fibras (41,58%) foi observado nas raizes das plantas de acafrao da terra. Os maiores teores de lipidios (12,46%), de proteinas (14,63%) e de cinzas (13,80%) foram encontrados nas folhas de acafrao da terra. O amido extraido dos rizomas apresentou, por difratometria de raios X, grânulos com dois picos mais intensos nas regioes 2Ɵ igual a 5 e 17 e a microscopia eletronica de varredura mostrou grânulos ovalados, possuindo uma das extremidades pontiagudas. No primeiro estudo concluiu-se que o uso de diferentes numeros de fileiras no canteiro e diferentes numeros de amontoas influenciaram a producao de rizomas-filho das plantas de acafrao da terra e os maiores rendimentos em produtividade e rendas bruta e liquida foram obtidos nas plantas de acafrao da terra cultivadas em canteiros com tres fileiras e uma amontoa. No segundo estudo concluiu-se que o uso de diferentes numeros de fileiras no canteiro e diferentes numeros de amontoas no cultivo das plantas de acafrao da terra influenciaram a producao e a composicao bromatologica nos seus diferentes componentes botânicos.

The field of biodiversity informatics is in a massive, "grow-out" phase of creating and enabling large-scale biodiversity data resources. Because perhaps 90% of existing biodiversity data nonetheless remains unavailable for science and policy applications, the question arises as to how these existing and available data records can be mobilized most efficiently and effectively. This situation led to our analysis of several large-scale biodiversity datasets regarding birds and plants, detecting information gaps and documenting data "leakage" or attrition, in terms of data on taxon, time, and place, in each data record. We documented significant data leakage in each data dimension in each dataset. That is, significant numbers of data records are lacking crucial information in terms of taxon, time, and/or place; information on place was consistently the least complete, such that geographic referencing presently represents the most significant factor in degradation of usability of information from biodiversity information resources. Although the full process of digital capture, quality control, and enrichment is important to developing a complete digital record of existing biodiversity information, payoffs in terms of immediate data usability will be greatest with attention paid to the georeferencing challenge.

O Virtual A. de reune toda a colecao botânica de Augustin Francois-Cesar Prouvencal de Saint-Hilaire (1799-1853), naturalista frances que visitou o Brasil entre 1819 e 1822. O Herbario Virtual e composto pelas informacoes bibliograficas, notas de campo, mapas e ilustracoes representativas da colecao, todas relacionadas com os respectivos especimes depositados em herbario. Toda informacao foi reunida num sistema de informacao que esta disponivel na internet, no endereco hvsh.cria.org.br, para consulta livre e esta aberto a contribuicoes de especialistas. A analise continua dos dados qualificam as informacoes disponiveis no herbario virtual. A difusao do conhecimento se da atraves de publicacoes cientificas e programas de oficinas tecnicas e educacionais das instituicoes parceiras. Ressalte-se ainda a importância desta experiencia piloto de repatriamento de dados cientificos e historicos que inspirou outras iniciativas no Brasil, como por exemplo o programa REFLORA do CNPq. Palavras chave: Herbario historico, Colecoes Cientificas, Repatriacao

Addressing the challenges of biodiversity conservation and sustainable development requires global cooperation, support structures, and new governance models to integrate diverse initiatives and achieve massive, open exchange of data, tools, and technology. The traditional paradigm of sharing scientific knowledge through publications is not sufficient to meet contemporary demands that require not only the results but also data, knowledge, and skills to analyze the data. E-infrastructures are key in facilitating access to data and providing the framework for collaboration. Here we discuss the importance of e-infrastructures of public interest and the lack of long-term funding policies. We present the example of Brazil's speciesLink network, an e-infrastructure that provides free and open access to biodiversity primary data and associated tools. SpeciesLink currently integrates 382 datasets from 135 national institutions and 13 institutions from abroad, openly sharing ~7.4 million records, 94% of which are associated to voucher specimens. Just as important as the data is the network of data providers and users. In 2014, more than 95% of its users were from Brazil, demonstrating the importance of local e-infrastructures in enabling and promoting local use of biodiversity data and knowledge. From the outset, speciesLink has been sustained through project-based funding, normally public grants for 2-4-year periods. In between projects, there are short-term crises in trying to keep the system operational, a fact that has also been observed in global biodiversity portals, as well as in social and physical sciences platforms and even in computing services portals. In the last decade, the open access movement propelled the development of many web platforms for sharing data. Adequate policies unfortunately did not follow the same tempo, and now many initiatives may perish.

Scientists from megadiverse countries, such as Brazil, face huge challenges in gathering and analyzing information about species richness and abundance. In Brazil, speciesLink is an e-infrastructure that offers free and open access to data from more than 300 biological and data collections. SpeciesLink's thematic network, INCT-Virtual Herbarium of Plants and Fungi and the List of Species of the Brazilian Flora, are used as primary data sources to develop Lacunas, an information system with a public web interface that generates detailed reports of the status of plant species occurrence data. Lacunas also integrates information about endemism, conservation status, and collecting efforts over time. Here we describe the motivation and the functionality of this system, showing how it can be useful in detecting under-sampled plant species and geographic areas. We show examples of how knowledge can be extracted from biodiversity primary data using Lacunas. For instance, Lacunas report revealed that 111 angiosperm species (10.3 %), currently considered Data Deficient (DD) in the Official List of Threatened Brazilian Flora, have their distribution well characterized. In addition, the situation of Attalea funifera, a native palm classified as DD, was analyzed in detail, together with other use cases. Information presented in Lacunas reports can thus be used by scientists and policy-makers to help evaluate the status of species occurrence data and prioritize digitization and collecting efforts, as well as some features concerning its conservation status. As Lacunas offers a public online interface, it may also become a valuable tool for helping decision-making processes to become more dynamic and transparent.

The number of studies based on herbarium data for analyzing biogeographical patterns and environmental questions is increasing, as herbaria are making their collections available online. However, the quality of a specimen's spatial data still varies dramatically among records. Most historical specimen records either lack geographic information or have only vague textual descriptions about the locality, while contemporary records may exhibit unwarranted variation in spatial data quality, requiring increased awareness among mycologists about the importance of high quality primary spatial data for specimens. Georeferencing is the process of assigning geographic coordinates to a record linking it to a geographic location on Earth, and it can be processed retrospectively for records without geographical coordinates based on locality descriptions or directly collected in the field using GPS handheld units. Here we provide an overview of methods for georeferencing historical data retrospectively, discuss practical recommendations for collecting high quality spatial data for fungal specimens, and suggest decimal degrees as a standard form for citing geographic coordinates.

The new Franco-Brazilian website "Saint-Hilaire virtual herbarium" offers dynamic online consultation of all specimens and manuscripts of the naturalist Auguste de Saint-Hilaire, providing links between specimen images and associated textual data, including notes available in his field books. This tool aims at facilitating the work of taxonomy and systematic botany and allowing a more accurate reconstruction of the routes and time frame of Saint-Hilaire's exploration. All specimens are being digitized by the Paris herbarium (P) and added online. The system will also offer Saint-Hilaire's major publications online. The nomenclature and determinations are automatically updated through dynamic links to the SONNERAT/MNHN database. In this paper, we propose moreover a standard for the correct citation of Saint-Hilaire specimens.

A comprehensive new inventory of Brazilian plants and fungi was published just in time to meet a 2010 Convention on Biological Diversity target and offers important insights into this biodiversity's global significance. Brazil is the home to the world's richest flora (40,989 species; 18,932 endemic) and includes two of the hottest hotspots: Mata Atlântica (19,355 species) and Cerrado (12,669 species). Although the total number of known species is one-third lower than previous estimates, the absolute number of endemic vascular plant species is higher than was previously estimated, and the proportion of endemism (56%) is the highest in the Neotropics. This compilation serves not merely to quantify the scale of the challenge faced in conserving Brazil's unique flora but also serves as a key resource to direct action and monitor progress. Similar efforts by other megadiverse countries are urgently required if the 2020 targets of the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation are to be attained.