Biospytial: spatial graph-based computing for ecological Big Data

BACKGROUND: The exponential accumulation of environmental and ecological data together with the adoption of open data initiatives bring opportunities and challenges for integrating and synthesising relevant knowledge that need to be addressed, given the ongoing environmental crises. FINDINGS: Here we present Biospytial, a modular open source knowledge engine designed to import, organise, analyse and visualise big spatial ecological datasets using the power of graph theory. The engine uses a hybrid graph-relational approach to store and access information. A graph data structure uses linkage relationships to build semantic structures represented as complex data structures stored in a graph database, while tabular and geospatial data are stored in an efficient spatial relational database system. We provide an application using information on species occurrences, their taxonomic classification and climatic datasets. We built a knowledge graph of the Tree of Life embedded in an environmental and geographical grid to perform an analysis on threatened species co-occurring with jaguars (Panthera onca). CONCLUSIONS: The Biospytial approach reduces the complexity of joining datasets using multiple tabular relations, while its scalable design eases the problem of merging datasets from different sources. Its modular design makes it possible to distribute several instances simultaneously, allowing fast and efficient handling of big ecological datasets. The provided example demonstrates the engine’s capabilities in performing basic graph manipulation, analysis and visualizations of taxonomic groups co-occurring in space. The example shows potential avenues for performing novel ecological analyses, biodiversity syntheses and species distribution models aided by a network of taxonomic and spatial relationships.