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Biology IA: Databases

Guide for the Internal Assessment Individual Project in IB Biology

Databases and Datasets

Data analysis computer artwork - Britannica ImageQuestThis page has links to research data that can be used for your Individual Project in the field of:

  • DNA, Amino Acid, SNPs, & Genes
  • Environmental Data from Satellites
  • Migrating Marine Mammals
  • Ocean Research
  • Ornithology - eBird Database
  • Paleobiology, Paleocology, and Paleomammalogy
  • Mrs. Rodenbough's Databases doc (various topics)

You can find datasets from many disciplines, including environmental and social sciences, as well as government data and data provided by news organizations, in:

  • Google Dataset Search
  • IPUMS (Integrated Public Use Microdata Series)
  • National Center for Health Statistics

Database Ideas, via Mrs. Rodenbough (View Tabs)

  • Gapminder

  • Data.gov Open Federal, state and local data from the United States government. 

  • MorphoBank: Provides collaborative tools for researchers to upload images and morphological data, and use that information to produce, edit, illustrate and annotate phylogenetic matrices. Also a repository for data associated with peer-reviewed publications

  • Many zoos and wildlife areas offer live webcams from which ethology data can be collected 

  • Catalog of Life: Single integrated species checklist and taxonomic hierarchy - holds essential information on the names, relationships and distributions of over 1.6 million species

  • Data Basin: Provides free access to biological, physical and socioeconomic geospatial data and maps, along with tools to create custom visualizations, drawings and analyses 

  • Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF): Facilitates free and open access to biodiversity data, enabling anyone to discover, use or publish data about all types of life on Earth

  • Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS):  Authoritative taxonomic information on plants, animals, fungi and microbes of North America and the world. Full database or specific taxonomic group data available for download

  • 1000 Genomes: The genomes of more than a thousand anonymous participants from a number of different ethnic groups were analyzed and made publicly available. 

  • BioServers: Easy to use interface for DNA database searches 

  • GenBank 

  • EggNOG Database: a hierarchical, functionally and phylogenetically annotated orthology resource based on 5090 organisms and 2502 viruses. It provides multiple sequence alignments and maximum-likelihood trees, as well as broad functional annotations 

  • Ensembl: provides automatic annotation databases for human, mouse, other vertebrate and eukaryotic genomes 

  • FlyBase: genome of the model organism Drosophila melanogaster 

  • Personal Genome Project: human genomes of 100,000 volunteers from around the world 

  • Universal Protein Resource (UniProt): A collaboration between the European Bioinformatics Institute, the SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics and Protein Information Resource, provides high-quality, freely accessible protein sequence and functional information

DNA, Amino Acid, SNPs, & Genes

You can find DNA sequences, amino acid sequences, SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms). genes, and other related databases in the links below.   Most are from the National Center for Biotechnology Information, part of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

         

         

         

         

         

         

Environmental Data from Satellites

Migrating Marine Animals

         

         

Paleobiology, Paleocology, and Paleomammalogy

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology

The Cornell Lab of OrnithologyThe Cornell Lab of Ornithology is a leader in the study, appreciation, and conservation of birds. Through their programs they aim to advance the understanding of nature and to engage people of all ages in learning about birds and protecting the planet.  They host the eBird databse, in collaboration with organizations, regional experts, and users ("eBirders") all over the world.

 

eBirdeBird is the  world’s largest biodiversity-related citizen science project, with more than 100 million bird sightings contributed each year by eBirders around the world. eBird data document bird distribution, abundance, habitat use, and trends through checklist data collected within a simple, scientific framework. Birders enter when, where, and how they went birding, and then fill out a checklist of all the birds seen and heard during the outing. Access this database by creating an account with a username and password.  eBird includes population data from The Great Backyard Bird Count, maps of citizen-created bird habitat from Habitat Network. bird songs and calls from Macaulay Library, nest camera data from NestWatch, and sightings at bird feeders from Project FeederWatch.  These citizen science projects at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology provide a way for people to learn about birds, habitat, science, and conservation while contributing to real scientific studies.

Another resource available on the Cornell Lab of Ornithology website:

Ocean Research

         

         

         

         

         

Google Dataset Search

Google's Dataset Search platform enables users to find datasets stored across the Web through a simple keyword search. The tool surfaces information about datasets hosted in thousands of repositories across the Web, making these datasets universally accessible and useful.

Google believes that this project will have the additional benefits of a) creating a data sharing ecosystem that will encourage data publishers to follow best practices for data storage and publication and b) giving scientists a way to show the impact of their work through citation of datasets that they have produced.

As more dataset repositories use schema.org and similar standards to describe their datasets, the variety and coverage of datasets that users find in Dataset Search, will continue to grow.

IPUMS

National Center for Health Statistics

Datasets that can be accessed on this page include:

  • National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES)
  • National Health Care Surveys
  • National Vital Statistics System (NVSS)
  • National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG)
  • National Health Interview Survey (NHIS)
  • National Immunization Survey (NIS)
  • Longitudinal Studies of Aging (LSOA)
  • State and Local Area Integrated Telephone Survey (SLAITS)