speciesacross

Speciesacross is a proposed international framework and database intended to aggregate and harmonize observations of species across geographic regions and time. It aims to provide a centralized resource to support biodiversity research, conservation planning, and policy development, enabling large-scale analyses of species distributions, population trends, and diversity patterns.

The project envisions data from museum collections, field surveys, and citizen science, integrating records from national inventories, research programs, and digital platforms. Data contributions are standardized using common schemas such as Darwin Core, with metadata on location, date, method, and taxonomic authority. Data licensing emphasizes openness while protecting sensitive information about endangered species or indigenous communities, and includes provisions for embargoes and restricted access where appropriate.

Governance would be handled by a consortium of universities, museums, and NGOs, with a formal data-access policy, versioning, and audit trails. Quality control focuses on data provenance, taxonomic harmonization, georeferencing accuracy, and the tracking of data lineage from source to endpoint.

Limitations include uneven geographic coverage, taxonomic biases, time lags in data submission, and concerns over privacy and sovereignty. Proponents argue that the framework could improve conservation prioritization, invasive-species monitoring, climate-change impact assessments, and international collaboration, provided robust governance and community engagement accompany data sharing.

See also: biodiversity informatics, GBIF, Darwin Core, iNaturalist, open data movements.