Biodiversity and ecosystem research deals with heterogeneous and distributed data resources generated from a large number of disciplines, which need to be integrated to advance the actual scientific knowledge. There is a clear need for integrative research, but at the same time, it is very challenging to provide appropriate solutions for the management of information. Within the biological and ecological informatics communities, recent efforts are devoted to the adoption of semantic web techniques, which provide a promising way to properly describe and interrelate different data sources to reduce barriers to data discovery and integration. In this respect, semantic harmonization, achieved with the development and use of thesauri, represents an essential precondition. The E-Biodiversity Research Institute of LifeWatch Italy (LW-ITA) developed thesauri, available as a web service (http://www.servicecentrelifewatch.eu/catalogue-of-services), on morphological traits of several groups of aquatic organisms, on alien and endemic species, and on genomics and barcoding. They were all implemented in Simple Knowledge Organization System (SKOS) and Resource Description Framework (RDF), using TemaTres, an open-source web-based platform for the collaborative management of thesauri, as well as a Linked Data interface and an RDF query language (SPARQL) endpoint. The development of LW-ITA thesauri is the result of an interdisciplinary collaboration of experts from both the specific domains and information and communication technologies. In this context, experts had a central role in the different phases of implementation of thesauri, resulting in the production of shared and stable versions of thesauri, and in the extension of the range of covered concepts.
The key role of semantics for data integration and interoperability in biodiversity and ecosystems research
Bergami C;Balech B;Boggero A;Cianferoni F;Colangelo P;De Felici S;Oggioni A;Pierri C;Rosati I
2018
Abstract
Biodiversity and ecosystem research deals with heterogeneous and distributed data resources generated from a large number of disciplines, which need to be integrated to advance the actual scientific knowledge. There is a clear need for integrative research, but at the same time, it is very challenging to provide appropriate solutions for the management of information. Within the biological and ecological informatics communities, recent efforts are devoted to the adoption of semantic web techniques, which provide a promising way to properly describe and interrelate different data sources to reduce barriers to data discovery and integration. In this respect, semantic harmonization, achieved with the development and use of thesauri, represents an essential precondition. The E-Biodiversity Research Institute of LifeWatch Italy (LW-ITA) developed thesauri, available as a web service (http://www.servicecentrelifewatch.eu/catalogue-of-services), on morphological traits of several groups of aquatic organisms, on alien and endemic species, and on genomics and barcoding. They were all implemented in Simple Knowledge Organization System (SKOS) and Resource Description Framework (RDF), using TemaTres, an open-source web-based platform for the collaborative management of thesauri, as well as a Linked Data interface and an RDF query language (SPARQL) endpoint. The development of LW-ITA thesauri is the result of an interdisciplinary collaboration of experts from both the specific domains and information and communication technologies. In this context, experts had a central role in the different phases of implementation of thesauri, resulting in the production of shared and stable versions of thesauri, and in the extension of the range of covered concepts.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
