BORIIS
(Biota of
Shortly
after its founding, in 1994, RINHS began building a database with the goal
of listing every species of organism known to occur in
The
Biota of Rhode Island uses a highly customized MS Access database, coupled
with ArcGIS capability, to track over 10,000 species (including 511 RI Natural
Heritage Program species and 364 GCN species) using over 75,000 evidentiary
records (voucher specimens, observations, literature citations). It also can
track natural communities: in partnership with RI DEM and TNC, RINHS incorporated
information on 101 natural communities identified in the Natural Communities
of RI (Lundgren and Enser 2002), the 64 CWCS Key Habitats, and other frequently
encountered community classification schema.
RINHS's
goals for the Biota of Rhode Island are: a) to get this wealth of information
into the hands of partners willing to help support the cost of its management,
and b) to encourage those same partners and others to use Biota of Rhode Island
as a central biodiversity data repository, something that has been called
for in the past and would greatly benefit everyone working on environmental
planning and management. To achieve these goals, RINHS is exploring the development
of statewide biodiversity data collaborative who's members would have secure
two-way web access to the Biota of Rhode Island. Collectively, the Biota of
Rhode Island database, the collaborative partner groups, and the multi-user
access system will be known as BORIIS (Biota of
In the BORIIS collaborative, RINHS will actively manage
the underlying Biota of Rhode Island database, adding substantial value to
any contributed data through QA/QC protocols, scientific steering committees,
software ugrades, custom data tools, proactive data mining and data exchanges,
taxonomic review, channels for public input, and outreach and education. RINHS
will also maintain the software and hardware that allows each partner to have
two-way communication with the database. To participate, each partner must
contribute to the cost of data management and also commit to use BORIIS to
manage biodiversity data generated through their own activities. The cost
to a partner will be much less than acquiring comparable capability on its
own and BORIIS's huge underlying dataset and unique capabilities will improve
partners' results and save time and money over alternative, ad hoc data management
they may already be doing.
RINHS
is an ideal party to convene the BORIIS collaborative. As an independent,
non-profit, non-regulatory, explicitly non-advocacy, organization with a membership
that includes environmental organizations, scientists, and natural historians,
it can work easily with a wide range of stakeholders, including grassroots
groups and individuals. As part of its mission, it maintains active contact
with a network of organizations, agencies, researchers, and naturalists. It
is the exclusive NatureServe data cooperator for