NATARC

WHAT IS NATARC

The Estonian research infrastructures roadmap „Natural history archives and information network“ (NATARC) develops services related to hosting and computing of scientific repositories and data archives. Services are addressed to scientists of the whole world, but also to teachers, students, nature conservationists, government officials, organisations and others. NATARC is a part of the European research infrastructure “Distributed System of Scientific Collections” (DiSSCo).

SERVICES PROVIDED

NATARC provides means for storing natural science materials in the repositories of the partners. Preserved materials can be lent for study, or studied on the site. NATARC also provides hosting of data archives related to biodiversity and earth sciences.

INFORMATION SYSTEM

NATARC information systems offer hosting of data, data managing tools and supporting services for all biodiversity and geological datasets and databases.

STATISTICS OF USE

Most used both internationally and inside Estonia are PlutoF and SARV, these systems are hosting data archives. The portal Estonian eBiodiversity, based on databases hosted in PlutoF cloud, has remarkably high frequency of attendance too.

DiSSCo Projects' Data

NATARC and Biorepositories

Georepositories

ESTABLISHED INFRASTRUCTURES

PlutoF Cloud

PlutoF platform of biodiversity databases is designed to facilitate developing databases of taxonomy, phylogenetics, ecology, nature conservation and natural history collections. Common platform aims to grant the databases with professional architecture, sustainable developing and persistence.

SARV

SARV information system of earth sciences is used in managing the geological collections and associated scientific data of the Institute of Geology at Tallinn University of Technology, the University of Tartu Geological Museum and the Estonian Museum of Natural History. Under NATARC this system is being expanded and updated technically.

Estonian eBiodiversity

The eBiodiversity is a web portal displaying information about Estonian biodiversity, derived from databases of taxonomy, ecology, phylogenetics, nature conservation etc, owned either by individuals, work groups or institutions.

Repository of Drill Cores in Särghaua

In Särghaua field-station, building of a repository for storing and studying drill cores and other rock samples has been finished in September 2013, its area covers 440 m2. The new repository grants the accessibility of all the drill cores of the Tallinn University of Technology for scientists both from NATARC partners and other institutions.

Fieldwork Computers for Environmental Board

Water- and shockproof computers have been bought for the specialists of the Environmental Board (under the Ministry of the Environment), to be used while on fieldwork in nature. These grant the environmental officials operative access to data collections of living nature (environmental register, eBiodiversity, et al) while on fieldwork, so that to facilitate making knowledge-based decisions.

Multimedia Laboratory

Multimedia laboratory resides in the Estonian University of Life Sciences, it consists of a scanner and several microscopes. The scanner can be used in digitalizing different items from collections – herbarium sheets, lichen specimens, pinned insects, etc. Scanned pictures are associated with specimen data in PlutoF cloud.