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Diveboard - Scuba diving citizen science observations

Dimitri Brosens1,2, Peter Desmet1,2, Alexander Casassovici3

Corresponding author(s): Alexander Casassovici ([email protected]), Dimitri Brosens ([email protected])

Received {date} | Revised {date} | Accepted {date} | Published {date}

Citation: Combination of authors, year of data paper publication (in parentheses), Title, Journal Name, Volume, Issue number (in parentheses), and doi of the data paper.

Resource citation: Diveboard - Scuba diving citizen science observations. Online at http://www.diveboard.com and http://ipt.diveboard.com/resource.do?r=diveboard-occurrences.

Abstract

Diveboard (http://www.diveboard.com) is an online scuba diving platform, where divers can digitize or log their dives including the observed species, participate in citizen science surveys and projects, and interact with others. More than 10,000 divers have already registered with Diveboard and the community is still growing. This dataset contains all observations made by Diveboarders worldwide and the species in this dataset are linked to the Encyclopedia of Life (www.eol.org) as a taxonomical backbone. The dataset contains mainly fish observations (Actinopterygii and Elasmobranchii) (73%) but also holds occurrences of numerous other groups. Every record in the dataset links back to the digital dive log, creating the opportunity to trace back to the original observation and dive, through the Diveboard website. For many dives pictures are provided in the digital logbook, but momentarily they are not directly linked with the occurrence data. To date the dataset contains around 16 000 occurrences provided by 800 divers, recorded on 2500 different localities in 106 different countries. The number of participating divers is growing every day and the amount of data which could be generated through Diveboard is virtually unlimited. The “Diveboard; Citizen science” dataset will be automatically published every month through and is available through: http://ipt.diveboard.com/resource.do?r=diveboard-occurrences

Figure 0

Keywords: occurrence, observation, citizen science, marine, freshwater, fishes, scuba diving, reef, shark

Purpose: The Diveboard dataset was created by the desire of the amateur diver community to help the scientific community in research towards protecting the biodiversity of our oceans, seas, and freshwater bodies. The data is not generated with any overarching purpose, other than completing one’s personal digital log of dives. The Diveboard community has dedicated the data to the public domain under a Creative Commons Zero waiver, so these can be used as widely as possible. It needs to be mentioned that this dataset originated from citizen science observations and no validation by experts was performed. The Diveboard team and Datafable are continuously working on ways to improve the quality and fitness for use of the data.

Data published through GBIF: http://ipt.diveboard.com/resource.do?r=diveboard-occurrences

Taxonomic coverage

General taxonomic coverage description: The dataset covers animals (and very few plants) observed during scuba dives performed by members of the Diveboard community. To date 2013-11-28, about 73 % of the recorded specimens are fishes from the classes Elasmobranchii (12%) and Actinopterygii (72%) other well represented classes are the Malacostraca (5%), Reptilia (5%) (mostly Testudines) and Cephalopoda (3%). Overall, 29 different classes, according to Encyclopedia of life are so far recorded in the database. For about 490 occurrences, no higher taxonomy was deducted from the Encyclopedia of life.

Diveboarders can log their dives online, including the species they observed, by using the Encyclopedia of Life (http://eol.org) as a checklist. Most of the observations are identified to species level (to date about 14.700), though some caution regarding the identifications is appropriate. In case of doubt, the observer/identifier can be contacted via the references field, which references his/her Diveboard profile.

Figure 1

Figure 1: Taxonomic coverage of the Diveboard dataset, Classes and Phyla

Figure 2

Figure 2: Geographical taxonomic coverage.

Taxonomic ranks

Kingdom: Animalia, Plantae

Phylum: Porifera, Platyhelminthes, Cnidaria, Ctenophora, Mollusca, Arthropoda, Echinodermata, Chordata, Rhodophyta, Chlorophyta, … Class: Actinopterygii, Elasmobranchii, Holocephali, Reptilia, Mammalia, Aves, Thaliacea, Ascidiacea, Anthozoa, Cephalopoda, Bivalvia, Malacostraca, Gastropoda, Maxillopoda, Asteroidea, Crinoidea, Echinoidea, Ophiuroidea, Holothuroidea, Cubozoa, Hydrozoa, Scyphozoa, Tentaculata, Demospongiae, Hexactinellida, Calcarea, Bryopsidophyceae, Florideophyceae, Ulvophyceae …

Common names: ray-finned fishes, sharks, rays & skates, Crustaceans, Echinoderms

Spatial coverage

General spatial coverage: The Diveboard Scuba diving citizen science observations dataset is a global dataset. This means that observations can “virtually” be made everywhere on the planet. Off course, divers do mostly explore more or less fixed dive spots. When logging a dive on diveboard, divers do always have the opportunity to create a new “locality or dive site”, by naming it and placing a pin on the map. The person who logs the dive, is also asked to give the country (Dwc: country); the location (nearest administrative area); the sea/lake name (DwC:WaterBody) and the longitude (decimalLongitude) and latitude (decimalLatitude). More likely, a diver can log a dive to an already know dive site in the Diveboard database.

Coordinates: 90°0'0''S and 90°0'0''N Latitude; 180°0'0''W and 180°0'0''E Longitude

Figure 3

Temporal coverage

Figure 4

Living time period: 1980-recent

Methods

Method step description: Event and location conditions (date, time, depth, etc.) are often logged automatically by the dive computer. This data can be imported or manually added by the diver in the Diveboard application, while observed species are added manually. These actions can be done just after surfacing, as the Diveboard application is available online and as a mobile app, which allows divers to record their dive even if no internet connection is available.

Study extent description: The dataset covers recorded observations made during scuba dives performed by members of the Diveboard community. As such there is no specific geographic or temporal study extent, although most dives logged on Diveboard were conducted in well-known dive spots, such as well-known reefs and wrecks. In a later phase, specific surveys might also be logged on Diveboard.

Sampling description: Observations are not recorded with a specific goal in mind and only reflect what the diver has noticed during the dive. Divers rarely conduct a full inventory of a dive spot, so the observed species only represent part of the occurring species at the time of the dive. There is a sampling bias for known, interesting, noticeable and/or rare species.

Quality control description: The Diveboard application restricts divers to only record species found in the Encyclopedia of Life (http://eol.org). As such, all observations are linked to an EOL page in the field taxonID. It is important to note that the data are not validated by specialists.

Datasets

Dataset history

Since 2011, Diveboard lets scuba divers track and share their scuba diving experiences by providing them with a multimedia online logbook. The logbook can connect directly with dive computers through a PC/MAC plugin and fetch dive profiles. Divers can complete their logbook by adding observed species for every performed dive. Since October 2013, this online logbook is connected with GBIF, hoping that the publication of the data will help more scuba divers to get involved in monitoring our biotope in real time and in providing valuable data to scientists including species occurrences and dive profiles. Not only recent succeeded dives can be logged on Diveboard, also older dives, including occurrences, logged in the original divers log booklet can be digitized in the same way. This means that Diveboard is not only generating new data, but also historical data is mobilized this way.

Featured data use

The data generated through Diveboard has a high potential in the monitoring of reef biodiversity. Unfortunately data generated by divers is biased. Divers usually only note the most interesting observed species and species are not always completely determined. For this dataset 87% of the occurrences are brought to species level. In the dataset there is a large percentage of Actinopterygii (70%) and Elasmobranchii (10%) recorded, simply because divers usually look for the “big” fish or everything out of the ordinary. On the other hand, the data is very valuable and can potentially work as an early warning system for invasive species. The invasion of the Lionfish (Pterois sp.) in the seas near Central America is well illustrated through in the data.

Dataset description

The Diveboard Darwin Core Archive is generated by creating a custom SQL query on the original Diveboard MySQL database. The SQL query generates a particular view on the data which is compliant with the Darwin Core standard. In IPT, a simple SQL statement makes the view ready for publication. After validation of the mapping the Darwin Core Archive is created and published to GBIF. More information on this process can be found at: https://github.com/Datafable/diveboard-gbif. The Darwin Core terms published in this dataset are:

id, type, modified, language, rights, rightsHolder, references, datasetID, institutionCode, collectionCode, datasetName, ownerInstitutionCode, basisOfRecord, catalogNumber, recordedBy, associatedMedia, eventID, samplingProtocol, eventDate, habitat, fieldNotes, EventRemarks waterBody, country, countryCode, locality verbatimLocality, minimumElevationInMeters, maximumElevationInMeters, minimumDepthInMeters, maximumDepthInMeters, locationRemarks, decimalLatitude, decimalLongitude, geodeticDatum, coordinateUncertaintyInMeters, georeferenceSources, identifiedBy, dateIdentified, taxonID, scientificName, nameAccordingTo, kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus and taxonRank

The data published on ipt.diveboard.com is published under a CC0 waiver. This means that the data is free to use. Off course we would like you to take this in consideration:

Based on http://www.canadensys.net/norms

Give credit where credit is due: As is common practice in scientific research, cite the data you are using.

Be responsible: Use the data responsibly. The data are published to allow anyone to better study and understand the world around us, so please do not use the data in any way that is unlawful, harmful or misleading. Understand that the data are subject to change, errors and sampling bias. Protect the reputation of the data publisher and clearly indicate any changes you may have made to the data.

Share knowledge: Let us know if you have used the data and inform the data publisher(s) if you have comments about the data, notice errors, or want more information.

Respect the data waiver: Understand and respect the data license or waiver under which the data are published. It is indicated in the rights field of every record and in the dataset metadata.

Additional information: The data is collected with the help of divers all around the world. If you have questions regarding surveying specific dive sites, you can contact us at [email protected] and we will see what we can do. The dataset was standardized, documented and published with the help of Datafable, a team of open data volunteers. The process is documented here: https://github.com/Datafable/diveboard-gbif.

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the Global Diveboard community, without divers there is no Diveboard and definitely no Diveboard datset.

References

Encyclopedia of Life. Available from http://www.eol.org. Accessed continuously from 2011

Footnotes

  1. Datafable, Brussels, Belgium ↩ ↩2

  2. Research Institute for Nature and Forest, Brussels, Belgium ↩ ↩2

  3. Diveboard, 92200, Neuilly sur Seine, France ↩