Biodiversity Data Science

If we are to manage, conserve, and adapt to the widespread change now occurring in the Anthropocene, we require not only robust scientific evidence of the patterns of ecological change, but also the means to track these changes at finer temporal and spatial scales across multiple dimensions (e.g., functional, structural and taxonomic diversity). Such knowledge will be crucial to enhancing predictions of future change, enabling planning and prioritization of conservation and restoration interventions, and monitoring the effectiveness of such actions. Currently this type of knowledge is generated across many platforms, with varying data formats and scales, driven largely independently by diverse questions. Integrative understanding of biodiversity patterns and change is rarely realized at scale, and mainly understood from local exemplar cases. Through a series of expert workshops we will assess the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and big next steps for data integration for biodiversity science, monitoring and conservation for organisms and ecosystems. We will focus on conceptual and technical challenges that are just out of reach, but tantalizingly close, that if addressed would accelerate and transform biodiversity science and associated applications in conservation and management.