Enhancing biodiversity conservation analysis through data harmonization

Organisms modulate their spatial behaviour primarily to optimize their energy acquisition. Understanding the spatial and temporal contexts in which interactions among species occur, as well as the dynamics of resource-mediated interactions, is critical for investigating the mechanisms underlying interspecific coexistence. However, external factors can influence energy requirements and hence space use behavior, especially within the climate and environmental change era. This requires a huge effort in data harmonization by systematically aligning, integrating, and standardizing heterogeneous datasets from multiple sources to strengthen and expand spatial and temporal home range analysis. In this context, LifeWatch ERIC, the European e-Science Infrastructure for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, technologically supports collaboration between researchers and stakeholders by providing several e-Science facilities such as a unified platform, web services and tools for data harmonization, exchange and analysis and long-term sustainability. Here we present the application of data harmonization using LifeWatch data services that resulted in the production of a large Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable (FAIR) dataset of chordate organisms. This integrated dataset facilitates comprehensive measurements and estimates of home range, body mass, metabolic rate, longevity, thermal tolerance across temperature range, which would allow us to understand the impact of climate change to biodiversity organization and conservation.