A multidimensional assessment of Antarctic terrestrial biological data

Summary

The globally significant communities of terrestrial Antarctica face an uncertain future amid growing threats in the region. Emerging data-driven approaches must be leveraged to predict and understand patterns of biodiversity across the continent. A new comprehensive database of Antarctic biological occurrence records, the Biodiversity of Ice-free Antarctica Database, will enable such novel fundamental and applied biodiversity modelling. However, there are limitations of assembled occurrence databases that, if unaccounted for, can result in poor model inference and outcomes. We perform a data quality assessment of the new database to highlight its potential and to identify data limitations that must be considered during modelling.