Ms Kylie Morrow1, Dr Nick dos Remedios1, Mr Simon Bear1
1Atlas Of Living Australia (ALA) / CSIRO, Australia
Biography:
Kylie is an experienced tech professional who currently leads the coordination of digital content across the Atlas of Living Australia (ALA), CSIRO. Driven by a deep passion for biodiversity and technology, Kylie plays a central role in projects spanning UX/UI, software testing and user support to drive innovation across ALA’s digital infrastructure. Her work is informed by a diverse professional and educational background encompassing design, marketing, ecology, and genomics. Kylie believes in harnessing data and technology to inform transformative research and decision-making. She is actively committed to championing diversity and inclusion in STEM and across the product lifecycle.
Abstract:
The Atlas of Living Australia (ALA) is a nationally significant open infrastructure that aggregates, enriches, and shares biodiversity data from across the country. With over 150 million species occurrence records, taxonomy covering over 153,000 species, and a suite of 150+ web services, the ALA supports researchers, policymakers, educators, government agencies, and the public—delivering open data and tools that underpin evidence-based decision-making and conservation.
At the core of this capability is BioCache the ALA’s spatially aware occurrence indexing and query system. BioCache not only provides fast, flexible access to species distribution data but also integrates rich multimedia content such as high-resolution species images and audio recordings. These records are often georeferenced, allowing users to explore biodiversity through both spatial and sensory dimensions.
With more than 23 million images accessible via images.ala.org.au, the ALA supports large tile image handling for high-resolution datasets, enabling researchers to inspect fine morphological details critical for taxonomy, species identification, and ecological analysis. The integration of audio files further enhances occurrence records, particularly for species where vocalisations are key to detection and classification.
This abstract will showcase how BioCache connects occurrence data, spatial coordinates, and media to offer a multi-dimensional research resource. It also highlights how data providers can contribute images and audio through ALA’s data ingestion pipelines, enriching the national biodiversity knowledge base.
By combining spatial precision with visual and auditory richness, the ALA’s infrastructure transforms species occurrence records into deeply contextualised, AI and research-ready assets opening new frontiers for biodiversity science, education, and environmental stewardship.