Biologging intelligent Platform (BiP): an integrated and standardized platform for sharing, visualizing, and analyzing biologging data

Abstract

Sharing biologging data can facilitate collaborative research and biological conservation by providing maps showing animals' distribution and movements. It is a critical social mission to preserve not only horizontal position data, but also behavioral data such as diving depth, flight altitude, speed, and acceleration, as well as physiological data such as body temperature, along with related metadata, ensuring their preservation for future generation. Moreover, although biologging was initially developed in the field of biology, it now contributes to diverse fields such as meteorology and oceanography, leading to expanded opportunities for secondary data utilization. In light of social and academic requirements, we developed “Biologging intelligent Platform (BiP)”, which adheres to internationally recognized standards for sensor data and metadata storage. As a result, BiP not only stores sensor data along with metadata but also standardizes this information to facilitate secondary data analysis, facilitating broader applications of biologging data across various disciplines. By visiting the website (https://www.bip-earth.com) and completing the user registration, data owners can interactively upload sensor data, input metadata associated with individual animals, devices, and deployments, standardize data formats, and choose between open and private settings for sharing data. Anyone interested in utilizing the data can access metadata and visualized route maps, irrespective of the data's open or private status. Users can freely download open datasets that are available under the CC BY 4.0 license, which permits copying, redistribution, and modification while adhering to the metadata's credit requirements. To use private datasets, users can contact the data owner to request permission. A unique feature of BiP is the Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) tools that calculate environmental parameters, such as surface currents, ocean winds, and waves from data collected by animals. Algorithms published in some previous studies are integrated into the OLAP which can estimate the environmental and behavioral parameters. To enhance data accessibility, BiP allows users to search for datasets using the DOI of the paper in which the data was used. We believe that linking with other databases for data exchange and multi-repository storage could enhance the sustainability of the data itself.