Biodiversity databases in Russia: towards a national portal

Russia holds massive biodiversity data accumulated in botanical and zoological collections, literature publications, annual reports of natural reserves, nature conservation, and monitoring study project reports. While some data have been digitized and organized in databases or spreadsheets, most of the biodiversity data in Russia remain dormant and digitally inaccessible. Concepts of open access to research data is spreading, and the lack of data publishing tradition and of use of data standards remain prominent. A national biodiversity information system is lacking and most of the biodiversity data are not available or the available data are not consolidated. As a result, Russian biodiversity data remain fragmented and inaccessible for researchers. The majority of Russian biodiversity databases do not have web interfaces and are accessible only to a limited numbers of researchers. The main reason for lack of access to these resources relates to the fact that the databases have previously been developed only as a local resource. In addition, many sources have previously been developed in the desktop database environments mainly using MS Access and, in some cases, earlier DBMS for DOS, i.e., file-server system, which does not have the functionality to create access to records through a web interface. Among the databases with a web interface, a few information systems have interactive maps with the species occurrence data and systems allowing registered users to upload data. It is important to note that the conceptual structures of these databases were created without taking into account modern standards of the Darwin Core; furthermore, some data sources were developed prior to the first work version of the Darwin Core release in 2001. Despite the complexity and size of the biodiversity data landscape in Russia, the interest in publishing data through international biodiversity portals is increasing among Russian researchers. Since 2014, institutional data publishers in Russia have published about 140 000 species occurrences through gbif.org. The increase in data publishing activity calls for the creation of a GBIF node in Russia, aiming to support Russian biodiversity experts in international data work.