What is the Biodiversity Analysis Tool?

What does BAT do? | What is special about BAT? | What BAT can do and what it can’t | What types of questions can be addressed?

BAT is a simple on-line tool that enables the user to undertake basic biodiversity queries. BAT uses a predefined grid to display maps of species richness, endemism and what we have called taxonomic diversity. BAT has been created as a demonstration project for the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

Run a BAT query

How to use BAT

What does BAT do?

• BAT is a web based tool which will help users understand patterns in the distribution of biodiversity.
• BAT uses records of species observations published through the web by GBIF data providers.
• BAT analyses the distribution of a particular group of species in a particular area, and gives the user a map showing areas which may be significant for that group of species. For example, the user could easily obtain:
  • a map of richness of Saturniidae moth species across Costa Rica
  • a map of endemism in Australian dragonflies
  • a list of all the species of dung beetles recorded in a 20 kilometre square in New Caledonia.

What is special about BAT?

BAT uses records of species observations published through the web by GBIF data providers. Because it draws data directly from the data providers, any additions or corrections to the data are soon reflected in BAT’s results.

BAT provides a great opportunity to study the patterns of biodiversity revealed by the increasing range of data available though the GBIF network.

No specialised software is needed to run BAT, so it makes biodiversity information broadly and easily available.

What BAT can do and what it can’t

BAT can:

• help to identify biologically unique areas for particular groups of species.
• give an objective assessment of the uniqueness of an area for a particular group of species.
  • because the result is calculated directly from observation records, it is objective, repeatable, and independent of the opinions of particular experts or interests
• make results publicly available to all interested parties (such as government, scientists, NGOs) because it uses only publicly available data.
• remain current, automatically updating its results as underlying data are improved
  • because BAT runs directly from data on the web, if the data are corrected or added to (for example after a new survey) this will soon be reflected in the results after the next scheduled update.

BAT can not:

• show which areas are important for rare or threatened species,
  but can highlight areas with taxa that have been recorded only in a narrow area (endemics)
• analyse habitat suitability or change over time
• tell the user which areas should be protected or identify gaps in a system of protected areas
  but can highlight areas of high biodiversity which deserve consideration in conservation planning
• compensate for errors in data, or poorly sampled areas. It relies on recorded presence of species, and will give lower scores to areas where species have not been observed. The user needs to be wary of this, but it can also be a valuable tool to highlight data errors and areas in need of further biological sampling.

What analyses does BAT perform?

• Species Richness — maps the number of species recorded in each area from a selected data source and group of taxa.
• Endemism — maps weighted endemism to show areas where species are restricted to a narrow distribution range. This measure is similar to species richness, except that each species is weighted by the inverse of its distribution range. The scores for all species in an area are added together. Highly endemic species add a lot to the score, while widespread species add very little.
• Taxonomic Diversity — maps the taxonomic breadth of the complement of species recorded in an area. It calculates the length of the taxonomic tree required to span those species, as an estimate of the feature or genetic diversity they represent. For a given group of species, the less closely related to each other they are, the more highly they will score.
• See the Technical Background for more detail on these analyses.

What types of questions can be addressed?

• Which area has the greatest variety of observed butterfly species?
  Request a richness map.
• …but is that area a place where many widespread butterfly species happen to overlap, or is it actually unique for local species recorded in few other places?
  Request an endemism map.
• …and which area represents the broadest sample of the tree of life within this group (not just a number of closely related species)? Or in technical terms, which areas have the highest phylogenetic diversity?
  Request a map of taxonomic diversity.
• What were the actual butterfly species were recorded there?
  Request a species list for an area of interest.