GBIF species occurrence cubes

Data Use Club practical session - 14 May 2025

DUC-cubes-bg-2
Illustration of a common genet (Genetta genetta (Linnaeus, 1758)) from Brehms Tierleben. Allgemeine kunde des Tierreichs, Bibliographiches Institute, 1915. Under Public domain via Biodiversity Heritage Library.

GBIF has recently enabled a simple, easy-to-use service for creating and downloading species occurrence cubes based on GBIF-mediated data. The service enables users to select their geographic, temporal and taxonomic dimensions of interest to generate customized reports summarizing occurrences in a format suitable for use in biodiversity models and indicators. Its implementation is part of Work Package 2 for B-Cubed (Biodiversity Building Blocks for Policy), led by the Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO).

During this session, our speakers covered the following topics:

  1. Introduction to the GBIF Cube Download Service (Andrew Rodrigues)

    • Concept of data aggregates and grids
    • Data quality considerations
    • User interface demonstration

  2. From Species Occurrence to Essential Biodiversity Variables Cubes
    Results from the B-Cubed project (Lina Estupinan Suarez)

    • Link between Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBVs) and GBIF data
    • EBV data cube derived from species occurrence to support EU policy: Birds Directive and Invasive Alien Species of Union Concern
    • Resources

Speakers:

Andrew Rodrigues
John Waller
Lina Estupinan Suarez

Session resources