ArcOD is actively consolidating existing datasets, rescuing datasets from scientific investigator's notebooks, and extracting data from scientific publications. The details describing each dataset, and a summary of what they contain, is then transferred to a "metadata" file. Most datasets require significant reformatting and cleanup, as well as careful checking of their species lists for changes in taxonomic naming and hierarchy (the relationship between species). Once completed, with help from the Alaska Ocean Observing System (AOOS) these datasets become posted for public interactive searches through both the Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS) and the Global Biodiversity Information System (GBIF) web portals.
More than 200,000 records are now available, with an even larger number in various stages of processing. Please refer to the OBIS site for species-specific data queries.
Each ArcOD dataset, and the accompanying metadata is available for downloading in its entirety through this website. Full datasets may contain valuable information fields not available through OBIS or GBIF. Datasets are arranged by realms. Use of any use of datasets for publication MUST acknowledge the scientist/organization contributing the data, as well as the ArcOD site as the distributional source.