Data access

OBIS harvests occurrence records from thousands of datasets and makes them available as a single integrated dataset. Read more about data access in the OBIS manual.

Full exports

We provide periodic exports of the entire set of quality controlled presence records as CSV. This is the easiest way to download data for large scale analyses. Absence records, records of insufficient quality, or measurements records are not included. Use the API or R package to access these data or contact p.provoost@unesco.org.

Each export consists of a single occurrence table which includes all Darwin Core fields provided by the data providers as either Event or Occurrence records, with the exception of the fields below which have been transformed or added by the OBIS quality control pipeline.

field	remarks
id	Globally unique identifier assigned by OBIS.
dataset_id	Internal dataset identifier assigned by OBIS.
decimalLongitude	Parsed and validated by OBIS.
decimalLatitude	Parsed and validated by OBIS.
date_start	Unix timestamp based on eventDate (start).
date_mid	Unix timestamp based on eventDate (middle).
date_end	Unix timestamp based on eventDate (end).
date_year	Year based on eventDate.
scientificName	Valid scientific name based on the scientificNameID or derived by matching the provided scientificName with WoRMS
originalScientificName	The scientificName as provided.
minimumDepthInMeters	Parsed and validated by OBIS.
maximumDepthInMeters	Parsed and validated by OBIS.
coordinateUncertaintyInMeters	Parsed and validated by OBIS.
flags	Quality flags added by OBIS. The quality flags are documented here.
dropped	Record dropped by OBIS quality control?
absence	Absence record?
shoredistance	Distance from shore in meters added by OBIS quality control, based on OpenStreetMap. Negative value indicates that the observation was inland by -1 times that distance
bathymetry	Bathymetry added by OBIS. Bathymetry values based on EMODnet Bathymetry and GEBCO, see https://github.com/iobis/xylookup (Data references)
sst	Sea surface temperature added by OBIS. sst values based on Bio-Oracle, see https://github.com/iobis/xylookup (Data references)
sss	Sea surface salinity added by OBIS. sss values based on Bio-Oracle, see https://github.com/iobis/xylookup (Data references)
marine	Marine environment flag based on WoRMS.
brackish	Brackish environment flag based on WoRMS.
freshwater	Freshwater environment flag based on WoRMS.
terrestrial	Terrestrial environment flag based on WoRMS.
taxonRank	Based on WoRMS.
AphiaID	AphiaID for the valid name based on the scientificNameID or derived by matching the provided scientificName with WoRMS.
redlist_category	IUCN Red List category.
superdomain	Based on WoRMS.
domain	Based on WoRMS.
kingdom	Based on WoRMS.
subkingdom	Based on WoRMS.
infrakingdom	Based on WoRMS.
phylum	Based on WoRMS.
phylum (division)	Based on WoRMS.
subphylum (subdivision)	Based on WoRMS.
subphylum	Based on WoRMS.
infraphylum	Based on WoRMS.
parvphylum	Based on WoRMS.
gigaclass	Based on WoRMS.
megaclass	Based on WoRMS.
superclass	Based on WoRMS.
class	Based on WoRMS.
subclass	Based on WoRMS.
infraclass	Based on WoRMS.
subterclass	Based on WoRMS.
superorder	Based on WoRMS.
order	Based on WoRMS.
suborder	Based on WoRMS.
infraorder	Based on WoRMS.
parvorder	Based on WoRMS.
superfamily	Based on WoRMS.
family	Based on WoRMS.
subfamily	Based on WoRMS.
supertribe	Based on WoRMS.
tribe	Based on WoRMS.
subtribe	Based on WoRMS.
genus	Based on WoRMS.
subgenus	Based on WoRMS.
section	Based on WoRMS.
subsection	Based on WoRMS.
series	Based on WoRMS.
species	Based on WoRMS.
subspecies	Based on WoRMS.
natio	Based on WoRMS.
variety	Based on WoRMS.
subvariety	Based on WoRMS.
forma	Based on WoRMS.
subforma	Based on WoRMS.