PRIMARY BIODIVERSITY DATA RECORDS IN THE PYRENEES

We characterize the primary biodiversity data records that have been made public for retrieval for the Pyrenean region. Such data, spanning more than a hundred years, have been collected by many institutions and individual researchers and digitized in databases, some of which have been shared through the Global Biodiversity Information Facility platform by using a standard format, Darwin Core. The datasets are not homogeneous in extent, coverage, taxonomy, or accuracy. Differences arising from taxonomic depth or group, georeferencing precision, age of collection, and other features result in biases and gaps that may influence the fitness for use of such data. Knowledge of patterns found in the data may help researchers and managers operating in the Pyrenees to estimate the reliability of available information and to assess what uses for the data are acceptable.