Earlier this fall, REEF's Director of Science, Christy Pattengill-Semmens, attended the Biodiversity_Next conference in the Netherlands, joining over 700 other participants from 76 countries. The conference brought together major international organizations, research scientists, and policy makers to jointly identify "socio-technical bottlenecks and horizon-scan opportunities around data-intensive biodiversity and geodiversity research". Put more simply, building a global infrastructure for biodiversity data. Through REEF’s Volunteer Fish Survey Project, our surveyors have generated the largest marine fish biodiversity dataset in the world, with over 15 million records and counting. By attending conferences such as this and being a part of the Biodiversity_Next community, Christy is exploring how to best curate and archive REEF’s data and leverage the data for broadest impact in the understanding and protection of biodiversity.
If you are interested in learning more about this conference, check out this aftermovie put together by the organizers - https://youtu.be/8tAy6SwbdEQ.