About the Authors

Chris Yesson

Affiliation School of Biological Sciences, Plant Science Laboratories, University of Reading, Whiteknights, Reading, United Kingdom

Peter W. Brewer

Affiliation School of Biological Sciences, Plant Science Laboratories, University of Reading, Whiteknights, Reading, United Kingdom

Tim Sutton

Affiliation School of Biological Sciences, Plant Science Laboratories, University of Reading, Whiteknights, Reading, United Kingdom

Neil Caithness

Affiliation School of Biological Sciences, Plant Science Laboratories, University of Reading, Whiteknights, Reading, United Kingdom

Jaspreet S. Pahwa

Affiliation School of Computer Science, Cardiff University, Cardiff, United Kingdom

Mikhaila Burgess

Affiliation School of Computer Science, Cardiff University, Cardiff, United Kingdom

W. Alec Gray

Affiliation School of Computer Science, Cardiff University, Cardiff, United Kingdom

Richard J. White

Affiliation School of Computer Science, Cardiff University, Cardiff, United Kingdom

Andrew C. Jones

Affiliation School of Computer Science, Cardiff University, Cardiff, United Kingdom

Frank A. Bisby

Affiliation School of Biological Sciences, Plant Science Laboratories, University of Reading, Whiteknights, Reading, United Kingdom

Alastair Culham

To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: a.culham@reading.ac.uk

Affiliation School of Biological Sciences, Plant Science Laboratories, University of Reading, Whiteknights, Reading, United Kingdom

Competing Interests

WA Gray is a member of the UK delegation of voting participants on the governing board of GBIF. FA Bisby & RJ White are part of the Species 2000 delegation which is an Associate participant on the governing board of GBIF.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: CY AC. Analyzed the data: CY. Contributed data and tools: TS PWB. Wrote large parts of the paper: CY AC. Contributed to paper writing: FAB TS PWB RJW ACJ. Contributed to project planning: NC JSP MB.