COS 63-6 - Efficient management of large amounts of field survey data: Shifting from a state-of-the-art web portal to spreadsheets

Abstract: Ecological data management is an important issue for organizations overseeing the acquisition of biodiversity observations. This challenge is pronounced for the Quebec Biodiversity Observation Network initiative (Biodibversité Québec) which oversees the acquisition of a wide variety of data (abundances, eDNA, acoustics, environmental data, etc.) over the large territory of the province of Quebec (Canada), in a large number of sites (287) and of partners. Web portals and data integration tools such as GBIF's IPT have gained popularity in recent years to meet the data integration and management challenge. Following this trend, Biodiversité Québec has developed a portal allowing its partners to integrate and interact with their data. However, the schema of acquired data must evolve with the needs of field technicians and protocols. In addition, data acquisition requires quality control and interaction interfaces. Finally, the skill level and comfort with web-based tools vary widely between partners, participants, and technicians who manipulate the data. These challenges required from Biodiversité Québec significant efforts to accommodate complex data schemas as well as significant efforts to train partners. Our experience led us to promote the implementation of a spreadsheet-based template system. This system proved to be simpler for our partners to integrate into their processes and easier to maintain for data managers. Our experience of ecological data management has shown that despite web-based visualization tools are effective in communicating and synthesizing data, data management benefits from relying on tools and technologies that can be adapted to evolving needs and users' skill level.