How the Catalog is Organized
OBIS Nodes (Organizations)
OBIS nodes are the regional and thematic nodes that form the OBIS network. In the catalog, each node is represented as an Organization. The OBIS Secretariat and OBIS Community are also represented as organizations.
Products are associated with the node that stewarded the underlying data. Node metadata is synchronized from the OBIS API.
Examples: EurOBIS, Antarctic OBIS, Caribbean OBIS, Ocean Tracking Network
OBIS Institutions (Groups)
Institutions are the research organizations, universities, and agencies that contribute data to OBIS and are registered in Ocean Expert. Each institution is represented as a Group in the catalog, enriched with data from Ocean Expert including contact information, location, and acronyms.
Products can be tagged with one or more institutions to show all contributors.
Examples: CSIRO National Collections, Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ), Alfred Wegener Institute
Nodes vs. Institutions
Nodes are the data stewardship entities — products are owned by nodes.
Institutions are the research entities that produce the data — products are tagged with institutions.
A publication analyzing Arctic fish distributions might be owned by node-arctic-obis and tagged with the University of Alaska Fairbanks and the Norwegian Polar Institute.
Product Types
The catalog uses Zenodo's resource type vocabulary:
| Type | Description |
|---|---|
| Dataset | Derived, aggregated, or processed datasets |
| Publication | Peer-reviewed articles, reports, technical documents |
| Software | Code, applications, and tools |
| Presentation | Conference slides and webinar decks |
| Poster | Scientific posters |
| Image | Maps, visualizations, infographics |
| Video | Animated visualizations and educational content |
| Lesson | Educational materials and tutorials |
| Other | Products that don't fit the above categories |
Thematic Areas
Products can be tagged with one or more thematic areas:
- Biodiversity
- Climate Change
- Ocean Acidification
- Marine Protected Areas
- eDNA
- Invasives
- Fisheries
- Pollution
- Coastal Management
- Deep Sea
- Coral Reefs
- Species Distribution
- Near-Realtime
To suggest new themes, contact helpdesk@obis.org.