Abstract Detail



Conference Wide

Folk, Ryan [1], Siniscalchi, Carolina [2], Guralnick, Robert [3], Engle-Wrye, Nicholas [1].

Biodiversity data wrangling: Linking large phylogenies with species traits and ecologies.

Botany has seen a massive growth in “big data” resources ranging from DNA to plant distributions and morphological traits. Databases like GenBank and GBIF have accordingly become household words among meeting attendees, reflecting the impact data resources have had on today’s research landscape. BSA has seen productive workshop series focused on each of these data streams in isolation, such as the popular iDigBio and phylogenomics workshops. Based on sheer data scale, we are at the threshold of using these data as platforms for assessing species traits and ecologies at the kinds of truly continental and global levels needed to test fundamental theories and to produce the applied outcomes needed for environmental action. Yet biodiversity researchers are only beginning to tap the potential that these datasets have when employed in synergy. Needed is a relatively new set of skills to perform analytical integration: bringing distributions and phylogenetic trees together, bringing traits and distributions together, and other typical yet challenging tasks. We propose a crash course in performing an essential component of integrative science—Data Wrangling—that meets the increasing needs of students and academics. The purpose of this workshop is to showcase novel methods and applications of biodiversity data in a phylogenetic and spatial context, exposing attendees to several typical workflows and hopefully inspiring them with new ideas for their own scientific systems and datasets. We will cover diverse research topics representing the future of the field, and instructors will include early-career individuals. We will offer hands-on instruction in each analysis topic, including assessing trait history and evolutionary rate, ancestral niche reconstruction, trait-associated diversification, phylodiversity, and other popular topics. We will focus our coverage on strategies to test popular hypotheses using publicly available data. Advanced and novice users are both encouraged to attend and will be divided into separate working groups. We aim particularly for those who have or are in the process of acquiring datasets and looking for ideas for analytical applications, and we refer to other BSA workshops those attendees who primarily seek instruction in data acquisition. Prepared datasets will be used for this workshop; attendees who are able to bring their own diverse datasets are enthusiastically encouraged to do so, but should contact workshop leaders several days in advance of the workshop date to make the most of the workshop experience. Users should plan to bring a computer that is set up with an R environment.


1 - Mississippi State University, Biological Sciences, 295 E. Lee Blvd., P.O. Box GY, Mississippi State, MS, 39762, United States
2 - P.O. Box 2896, Apt 2, Mississippi State, MS, 39762, United States
3 - Florida Museum Of Natural History, 358 Dickinson Hall, University O, 358 Dickinson Hall, University Of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 32611, United States

Keywords:
none specified

Presentation Type: Workshop
Number: W07001
Abstract ID:3
Candidate for Awards:None


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