Samanta Orellana, PhD

Collections Digitization and Biodiversity Data

I have volunteered and worked in natural history collections for over 15 years in Guatemala, Panama, and the United States. As a research assistant at Arizona State University, I had the opportunity to join digitization efforts using Symbiota portals, which led to the development of a new platform to digitize Guatemalan collections. I officially joined the Symbiota Support Hub in 2021, assisting Latin American collections in their digitization projects. I am also part of the GBIF Network, serving as delegate for the Symbiota Node and a volunteer mentor for biodiversity data mobilization projects. Direct collaborations in Latin America have resulted in more than 100 collections live managed in Symbiota portals, and over 70,000 specimen records mobilized to GBIF by institutions in Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and the Dominican Republic.

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Digitized and Mobilized Collections (Partial list)

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Service

• Symbiota Support Hub. Coordinator for Communities in Latin America. (2021-present)

• Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Symbiota Node delegate and mentor. (2022-present)

• Guatemala Biodiversity Portal. Portal Admin. (2020-present)

• Weevil Portal. Portal Admin. (2025-present)

• Collected and Identfied Specimens. Contributions to natural history collections.

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Mentorship

• Project BID-REG2025-081: Increasing Open Biodiversity Information in Central America Through a Network of Digitized Scientific Collections. Biodiversity Data for Development Fund, European Union and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Digitization and mobilization of 25 natural history collections in Central America. University of Kansas Biodiversity Institute and Symbiota, in collaboration with University of San Carlos of Guatemala, University of El Salvador, and University of Costa Rica. Mentor and project coordinator.

• Project BID-CA2020-031-NAC: Mobilizing natural history collections of the Dominican Republic. Biodiversity Data for Development Fund, European Union and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility. Digitization and mobilization of 12 natural history collections in the Dominican Republic. Arizona State University and Symbiota, in collaboration with Zoology and Botany Research Institute, Autonomous University of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Mentor.

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Publications

• Castillo-Cabrera FJ, Roldán RA, Barrios M, Burgos-Barrios CL, Grajeda AL, García MJ, Cruz H, Morales-Mérida JR, Tenez D, Vásquez M, Agreda EO, Velásquez I, Eufragio A, Barahona-Fong R, Yurrita CL, Orellana KS. (2025). Contribution to the knowledge of urban biodiversity in Central America: A checklist to the species of Guatemala City. Neotropical Biology and Conservation 20(1): 59-66. https://doi.org/10.3897/neotropical.20.e135435

• Orellana KS, López ZM, Yoshimoto J, Quezada M, Prado L, Ambrocio AL, Dávila L, Barrios-Izás M, Bustamante M, Franz NM, Gilbert E. (2023). Digitalización de Colecciones Biológicas en el Portal Symbiota de Biodiversidad de Guatemala (Digitization of Natural History Collections in the Guatemala Biodiversity Symbiota Portal). In: Yoshimoto J, Schuster J & Monzón J. (Eds.) Biodiversidad de Guatemala. Vol. 3. Universidad del Valle de Guatemala: Guatemala. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10424127 (Book Chapter)

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Published Abstracts (* Presenting author)

• Orellana KS*, López ZM, Quezada ML, Yoshimoto J, Prado LM, Ambrocio A, Franz N, Gilbert E (2025) Five Years of the Guatemala Biodiversity Portal: Increasing Capacities for the Mobilization of Natural History Collections Using Symbiota. Biodiversity Information Science and Standards 9: e178671. https://doi.org/10.3897/biss.9.178671

• Orellana KS*, Gilbert E, Pearson K, Post G, Fisher M, Franz N (2025) Use of Symbiota Portals to Integrate Biodiversity Information in Latin America. Biodiversity Information Science and Standards 9: e177303. https://doi.org/10.3897/biss.9.177303

• Orellana KS*, López ZM, Yoshimoto J, Quezada ML, Prado LM, Ambrocio AL, Barrios-Izás MA, Jiménez RA, García P, Post G, Franz N, Gilbert E. (2024). Advances in the Digitization and Mobilization of Natural History Collections in Guatemala. Biodiversity Information Science and Standards 8: e134288. https://doi.org/10.3897/biss.8.134288.

• Castillo-Cabrera FJ, Roldán RA, Barrios MV, Burgos-Barrios CL, Grajeda AL, García MJ, Cruz H, Morales-Mérida JR, Tenez ED, Vásquez M, Agreda EO, Velásquez I, Eufragio A, Barahona-Fong R, Yurrita CL, Orellana KS*. (2024). Interactive Checklists to Increase Access to Urban Biodiversity Information in Guatemala. Biodiversity Information Science and Standards 8:e137732. https://doi.org/10.3897/biss.8.137732.

• Orellana KS*, Gilbert E, Walker LJ, Pearson K, Prado LR, Post G, Yost J, Franz N. (2022). Taxonomic Curation in a Multi-taxa Symbiota Portal. Biodiversity Information Science and Standards, 6, e93671. https://doi.org/10.3897/biss.6.93671

• Pearson K, Gilbert E, Franz N, Orellana S, Post G, Rocha Prado L, Walker LJ, Yost JM. (2022). Leveraging the Symbiota Support Hub for Biodiversity Data Mobilization. Biodiversity Information Science and Standards, 6, e93893. https://doi.org/10.3897/biss.6.93893

• Pearson K, Gilbert E, Orellana KS, Post G, Walker L, Yost J, Franz N. (2022). Growth and Evolution of the Symbiota Portal Network. Biodiversity Information Science and Standards, 6,e112028. https://doi.org/10.3897/biss.7.112028.

• Gilbert E, Sterner B, Fisher MA, Orellana KS, Pearson K, Post G, Walker J, Wilt L, Yost JM, Franz N. (2022). Symbiota Integrations: Exploration of Historical and Current Methods of Data Sharing Across a Decentralized Portal Network and Goals of Extending Interoperability Globally. Biodiversity Information Science and Standards, 6, e111680. https://doi.org/10.3897/biss.7.111680.

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Conference Presentations (* Presenting author)

• Orellana KS*, Franz N, Gilbert E, Freire-Fierro A. (2025). Digitization of Latin American Herbaria with Symbiota (in Spanish). Latin American Botanical Congress. La Habana, Cuba (virtual).

• Orellana KS*, López ZM, Gilbert E, Franz N. (2024). Enabling Biodiversity Research in Guatemala with a Customized Symbiota Portal. Digital Data Conference, iDigBio and Natural Science Collections Alliance, hosted by Kansas University. Lawrence, Kansas, USA.

• Orellana KS*, Gilbert E, Franz NM. (2023). Bilingual Tools to Increase Digital Representation of Latin American Collections and Entomologists. Entomological Collections Network Annual Meeting. National Harbor, Maryland, USA.

• Johnston A, Girón J, Orellana KS, Seltmann KC, Walker LJ, Lee S. (2023). Ecdysis, an emerging community resource for digital specimen data and research. Entomological Collections Network Annual Meeting. National Harbor, Maryland, USA.

• Yost J, Orellana KS*. (2023). Communities of Practice Across the Americas. Digital Data Conference, iDigBio and Natural Science Collections Alliance, hosted by Arizona State University. Tempe, Arizona, USA.

• Orellana KS*. (2022). Symbiota Portals as Digitization Tools for Herbarium Collections (in Spanish). II Simposio de Botánica de Guatemala, Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala (virtual).

• Orellana KS*. (2022). Engaging underrepresented communities with Symbiota portals: The case of Guatemala. Digital Data Conference, iDigBio and Natural Science Collections Alliance, hosted by the Field Museum (virtual).

• Gilbert E, Orellana KS, Pearson K, Post G, Rocha Prado L, Yost J, Sterner B, Franz N. (2022). Using Symbiota to establish a global, decentralized model for data aggregation: Novel concepts and designs to improve the interoperability of occurrence-based biodiversity data. Conference of the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections. Edinburg (virtual).

• Pearson K, Franz N, Gilbert E, Orellana KS, Post G, Rocha Prado L, Yost J. (2022). New Symbiota Features to Support Digital and Extended Specimen Data. Conference of the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections. Edinburg (virtual).

• Rocha Prado L, Gilbert E, Franz N, Orellana KS, Pearson K, Post G, Yost J. (2022). Identifiers and labels for everyone: Recent developments in Symbiota. Conference of the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections. Edinburg (virtual).

• Orellana KS*. (2020). Promoting the digitization of Latin American entomological collections using Symbiota portals. Equity, Justice and Inclusion in Ento: Making Entomological Collections Research More Accessible Mini Symposium. Entomological Collections Network Annual Meeting (virtual).

• Orellana KS*. (2020). Digitization of Mesoamerican Biological Collections using Symbiota portals (In Spanish). Mesoamerican Society of Biology and Conservation, I Virtual Meeting (virtual).

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Poster Presentations

• Walker L, Fisher M, Franz N, Gilbert E, Pearson K, Post G, Orellana S, Yost J. (2023). Symbiota. iDigBio’s Digital Data in Biodiversity Research Conference, Tempe, AZ.

• Gilbert E, Pearson K, Post G, Rocha Prado L, Orellana KS, Walker L, Yost J, Franz N. (2021). The state of the Symbiota Portals: Gateways to digital management and discovery”. Conference of the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections. Edinburg.

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Scientific Outreach

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Organized Workshops

• Symbiota Portals for the Digitization of Herbaria (in Spanish). Co-organizer. University of Kansas Biodiversity Institute, Yale Peabody Museum, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Lima, Perú. October 2025.

• Advanced Tools for the Management of Scientific Collections in the Guatemala Biodiversity Portal (in Spanish). Organizer and instructor. University of Kansas Biodiversity Institute and Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala, Guatemala City, Guatemala. June 2025.

• Introduction to the Guatemala Biodiversity Portal. Co-organizer and instructor. Museo de Historia Natural, Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala, Guatemala City, Guatemala. June 2025.

• Interactive Tools for the Study of Guatemalan Biodiversity (virtual, in Spanish). September 2023. Organizer and instructor. Symbiota Support Hub, Arizona State University.

• A Guided Tour of the Guatemala Biodiversity Portal (virtual, in Spanish). March 2023. Organizer and instructor. Symbiota Support Hub, Arizona State University.

• Natural History Collections Digitization and Mobilization with Symbiota Portals: Mexican Herbaria Network (virtual, in Spanish). November 2022. Co-organizer and instructor. Mexican Herbaria Network and Arizona State University.

• Natural History Collections Digitization and Mobilization with Symbiota Portals (virtual, in Spanish). September 2022. Organizer and instructor. Symbiota Support Hub, Arizona State University.

• Digitization of Natural History Collections in the Guatemala Biodiversity Symbiota Portal (virtual, in Spanish). August 2022. Organizer and instructor. Symbiota Support Hub, Arizona State University.

• Introduction to Symbiota databases platform: Consortium of Small Vertebrate Collection (virtual, in Spanish). August 2020. Organizer and instructor. Biological Collections System of the School of Biology, Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala.

• Introduction to Symbiota databases platform: ecdysis (virtual, in Spanish). July 2020. Organizer and instructor. Universidad del Valle de Guatemala.

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Invited Presentations

• Symbiota Portals (virtual, in Spanish). September 2022. Natural History Collections Management Workshop, Instituto de Investigación de Recursos Biológicos Alexander von Humboldt, Colombia.

• Digitizing Natural History Collections in Guatemala (virtual, in Spanish). September 2022. Connecting Collections Workshop Series, Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

• Publication of Biodiversity data to GBIF from the Guatemala Biodiversity Portal (virtual, in Spanish). May 2022. Colegio de Farmacéuticos y Químicos de Guatemala.

• Introduction to the Guatemala Biodiversity Portal (virtual, in Spanish). August 2021. Natural History Collections Digitization Workshop, Universidad del Valle de Guatemala.

• Symbiota: A platform to mobilize, integrate and use natural history collections data (virtual, in Spanish). April 2021. Webinars Series, Sistema de Información sobre Biodiversidad de Colombia.

• Guatemala Biodiversity Portal: Digitizing the biological collections of the country (virtual, in Spanish). March 2021. Conference Series Women in STEM: Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, Women Who Code, Guatemala.

• Digitization of Biological Collections using the Guatemala Biodiversity Portal (virtual, in Spanish). February 2021. Undergraduate Collections Management Course, Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala.

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Online Resources

• Guatemala Portal Docs. Documentation site for users of the Guatemala Biodiversity Portal (2020-present).

• Guatemala Biodiversity Portal. Symbiota portal for the management of natural history collections in Guatemala (2020-present).

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