Standards

The National Biological Information Infrastructure sponsors or uses a variety of standards and tools for indexing, formatting and organizing biodiversity information. Among these are:

ITIS – Integrated Taxonomic Information System is an authoritative taxonomic information source on plants, animals, fungi, and microbes of North America and the world that includes scientific and common species names, hierarchical classifications, and historical documentation of a name. Integrated Taxonomic Information System

Biocomplexity Thesaurus – a searchable database of terms organized as broader, narrower and related that describe primarily on the environment, ecology, aquatic sciences and fisheries, life sciences, pollution, and sociological topics. Biocomplexity Thesaurus

FGDC-BDP Metadata Standard – The Federal Geographic Data Committee Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata is a used to describe both geospatial and tabular scientific data for data sharing and longevity. The Biological Data Profile is an extension of the FGDC standard that accommodates the biological and ecological communities. FGDC-BDP Metadata Standard

Dublin Core - An internationally recognized and implemented, interoperable, online metadata standard used to describe such resources as publications, databases, tools, software, educational materials, grey literature, references, and more. Dublin Core Metadata

Darwin Core – Is a metadata standard used to describe natural history specimen collections and species observation databases. Darwin Core Metadata

Natural Resource Monitoring Partnership (NRMP) – An internet accessible, searchable database that provides information on monitoring protocols and resource assessment methodologies organized to facilitate reference and use. This is not a database of monitoring data or results, but rather a database of protocols. It is a catalog developed and maintained by users, under the management of an archivist/librarian. Natural Resource Monitoring Partnership

Geospatial Interoperability Framework (GIF) – The GIF allows NBII users to seamlessly and transparently discover and visualize distributed mapping resources. The Geospatial Interoperability Framework strategy is based on International Standards Organization (ISO) standards and Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) specifications, integrated with the core NBII Framework standards and protocols such as Universal Description, Discovery and Integration (UDDI) protocol, with data content and metadata standards. Geospatial Interoperability Framework