The ARAMOB data repository is one outcome of the DFG-funded project "Semantic enrichment and mobilization of data in distributed repositories for taxonomy and ecology of spiders" (2016 - 2019, grant number: 316372061). Main objective of this project was to create a curated data repository for spider assemblage (sampling-event based) data that can be used by researchers to analyze the ecology, habitat preferences and temporal changes in population sizes of these organisms. To this purpose, research groups from Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Stuttgart (SMNS), the IT Center of Staatliche Naturwissenschaftliche Sammlungen Bayerns (SNSB) and the Institute for Environmental Research (IFER) of RWTH Aachen University, under the leadership of Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Karlsruhe (SMNK), have joined forces. SNSB and SMNS are established GFBio Data Centers with focus on biodiversity data.
ARAMOB became a use case in the German national initiative NFDI4Biodiversity in 2022. In this frame the repository integrates data from the above mentioned project partners as well as data delivered from arachnologists of AraGes, since 2023 from data papers published in the society's journal Arachnologische Mitteilungen/Arachnology Letters. Public available data can be accessed via the ARAMOB portal, where data can be explored by (project) metadata, a map, species lists and Explorative Data Analysis Tools.
The ARAMOB portal currently offers almost 120,000 datasets. These include approximately 500,000 individuals of 662 different species at 1247 locations. These datasets include important metadata that users can view on a map, search in species lists or edit after downloading. We also provide a special data analysis tool, the ARAapp version 1.12, for initial analyses of the data (Bach et al. 2024).
We continue to collect species-specific, ecologically analyzable study data that was previously not publicly available. To support this, we offer data providers a protected area in Diversity Workbench where they can save the data after import. By the end of 2023, we were able to gain an additional 270,000 datasets.
A further step towards improving the data basis for ecological evaluations is the offer of data publication (Data Paper) in the journal of Arachnologische Mitteilungen, which was launched at the end of 2023. The framework and background (Bach et al. 2023) as well as an editorial (Raub et al. 2023) on the data papers were published in volume 66 of Arachnologische Mitteilungen at the end of 2023. In addition, a first data publication appeared in the same issue (doi: 10.30963/aramit6601), the data of which are now available via ARAMOB.
Furthermore, we plan to integrate additional arachnologically relevant thesauri and management tools into the Diversity Workbench database and to intensify the import of data by scientists. This will be facilitated by the provision of templates by the Arachnological Society.