Aggregated Data: Australian Species Occurrences 1900-2023

Aggregated Australian species occurrence data from 1900 to the present using a suite of facets of most importance for environmental assessments. Occurrence records were aggregated and organised by the Atlas of Living Australia (ALA, https://ala.org.au/) and include survey and monitoring data collected and managed by the Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS, https://imos.org.au/) and the Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN, https://tern.org.au/). Data from these infrastructures and other sources have been organised here as a national public-access dataset. This collection serves as a standardised snapshot of Australian biodiversity occurrence data from which many indicator datasets can more readily be derived (see Has Derivation entries below).

The primary asset is aggregated_spp_occ.csv. This contains all faceted data records for the period and supported facets related to time, space, taxonomy and conservation significance. Six derived assets demonstrate uses supported by the faceted data. Each is a pivot of the aggregated dataset. The data_sources.csv file includes information on the source datasets within the Atlas of Living Australia that contributed to this asset.

Grouping records from this dataset supports comparisons between the number of occurrence records for different regions and/or time periods and/or categories of species and occurrence data. Grouped counts of this kind may serve as useful indications of variation and change across the dimensions compared. Note however that such counts may not accurately reflect real differences in biodiversity. It is important to consider confounding factors (particularly variations in recording effort over time). Grouping all records by a single facet (e.g. IBRA region) may help to expose such factors.