Botanischer Garten und Botanisches Museum Berlin (Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin)

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The Botanischer Garten und Botanisches Museum Berlin (BGBM, Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin) of the Freie Universität Berlin is a centre of biodiversity research in Europe, housing extensive scientific collections of herbarium specimens (about 3.5 million), one of the world's largest living plants collections, as well as the most complete botanical library in Germany.

Service Description

GFBio Data Center

The BGBM's "Center for Biodiversity Informatics and Collection Data Integration" conducts collaborative research on national and international levels since the early 1990s. Today it comprises a strong interdisciplinary group of 25 researchers from computer science, biology, bioinformatics, and engineering. Research areas include information modeling, metadata standardization, networking of primary biodiversity data, taxonomic computing, workflow development, data rescue and archiving, and biological research collection management.

Important developments of the "Research and Development Group Biodiversity Informatics and Scientific Information Systems" include the EDIT Platform for Cybertaxonomy, the Biological Collection Access Service (BioCASE), and the DNA Bank Network. BDI is also responsible for all research information systems developed and hosted by the BGBM (Euro+Med Plant Base, Flora of Cyprus, Cichorieae and Campanula Portal, Caryophyllales Synthesis etc.). The BGBM has a close cooperation with MfN and SNSB to support the IT management of the Biowikifarm.

Scientific data curation services (incl. taxonomic services)

The taxonomic expertise and interest is that of the BGBM (see http://www.bgbm.org/en/research). Research at the BGBM is to a large extent based on our scientific plant collections. Taxonomic research, through which plants are identified, described, named and classified, is a central element of our daily work. Furthermore, we study the phylogenesis of plants and the mechanisms of their evolution. We focus our research on the following model groups of flowering plants and microorganisms: Asterales, Caryophyllales and Diatoms.

Besides this, our research activities are focused on particular regions of the world, where we carry out inventories and investigations of plant diversity together with our local partners. The results of our activities include contributions to Floras, identification guides (including genetic ‘Barcodes') and concepts for the conservation and sustainable use of plant diversity. Our focal regions are: Europe and Mediterranean area including the Caucasus and Cuba and the Caribbean region.

The BGBM has a special interest in data related to its taxonomic and regional research focal research areas.

The BGBM hosts the coordination Office of GBIF Germany (GBIF-D) serving as contact for the research community as well as for the media and the public. The BGBM is also responsible for the GBIF-D Botanical Node in close collaboration with several German botanical institutions and five other partner institutions as part of the German contribution to GBIF International. It represents all flowering plants, ferns, and mosses and also includes algae and protists, while lichens, fungi and myxomycetes are covered by the German Mycology node located at the Botanische Staatssammlung München, SNSB.

Data domains

The BGBM has a strong interest in collection and observational data as well as taxon-level data management covering the entire taxonomic workflow, in particular in the field of Botany.

IT services

Based on the international herbarium data management system JACQ (25 herbaria), the EDIT Platform for Cybertaxonomy, as well as the GFBio Terminology Services.

Data submission and accession

  • JACQ import form
  • EDIT Platform import library and interfaces
  • Terminology upload services

Data integration and management

  • EDIT platfrom database instances and editing software tools, EDIT advanced data integrity checker
  • JACQ data entry and management forms
  • Terminology management tools (e.g. semantic media wiki)

Data backup and archiving

  • Backup and archiving facilities of the BGBM and the Freie Universität Berlin

Data publication

  • GBIF Data publisher
  • Portal, service, and workflow interfaces of the EDIT Platform for Cybertaxonomy
  • BioCASe technical interfacing and helpdesk
  • Image Server, GPI/JSTOR Global Plants helpdesk

User services

EDIT Platform Workshops

BioCASe/OpenUp Training