rgbif

rgbif is an R package which gives you access to GBIF mediated data via its REST API.

GBIF (the Global Biodiversity Information Facility) is an international network and data infrastructure funded by the world's governments and aimed at providing anyone, anywhere, open access to data about all types of life on Earth.

Installation

install.packages("rgbif") # CRAN version

pak::pkg_install("ropensci/rgbif") # dev version

install.packages("rgbif", repos="https://dev.ropensci.org") # dev version

Getting Started

There are several long-form articles that can help get you started:

Most GBIF users are interested in getting lat-lon occurrence records.

occ_search(scientificName = "Pan troglodytes")
occ_data(scientificName = "Pan troglodytes")

It is usually better to get occurrence records using a taxonKey. See the article Working With Taxonomic Names.

taxonKey <- name_backbone("Pan troglodytes")$usageKey
occ_search(taxonKey = taxonKey)

GBIF strongly recommends the use of occ_download() rather than occ_search() for serious research projects. See article Getting Occurrence Data From GBIF.

It is required to set up your GBIF credentials to make downloads from GBIF.

occ_download(pred("taxonKey", 5219534)) # 5219534 is the taxonKey for Pan troglodytes

Citation

Under the terms of the GBIF data user agreement, users who download data agree to cite a DOI. Please see GBIF’s citation guidelines and Citing GBIF Mediated Data.

Please also cite rgbif by running citation(package = "rgbif").