Biological (natural history) collections
Natural history collections worldwide house roughly 2.5 to 3 billion specimensThese are mostly herbariums for plants and museums for animal collections
Global Biodiversity Patterns
To better understand the nature of these collections both locally and internationally you should understand global biodiversity pattern.
Please revise the following:
Biomes and Biodiversity Hotspots Chapter 14: http://planet.uwc.ac.za/nisl/BDC312_2010/
Biogeographical Realms http://cmsdata.iucn.org/downloads/udvardy.pdf A classification of the Biogeographical provinces of the world. Also look at the following article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_biogeographic_provinces
Floral Kingdoms https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phytochorionhttp://www.plantzafrica.com/vegetation/floralkingdoms.htm
Natural history collections in South Africa
Museums:
http://www.museumsonline.co.za/
An assessment of zoological research collections in South Africa: http://www.sajs.co.za/sites/default/files/publications/pdf/1090-10728-1-PB.pdf
South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity (SAIAB) http://www.saiab.ac.za/
Herbariums
Bolus Herbarium http://www.bolus.uct.ac.za/
Compton Herbarium http://www.sanbi.org/programmes/biosystematics/compton-herbarium
Precis http://posa.sanbi.org/intro_precis.php
Plant collectors: http://www.geni.com/projects/Botanists-and-Plant-Collectors/4390
Guide to Plant Collections: http://www.sabonet.org.za/downloads/25_herbarium_essent/
Biodiversity data resources
The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) http://www.gbif.org/ GBIF was established by governments in 2001 to encourage free and open access to biodiversity data, via the Internet. Through a global network of countries and organizations, GBIF promotes and facilitates the mobilization, access, discovery and use of information about the occurrence of organisms over time and across the planet.
South African Biodiversity Information Facility(SABIF) http://www.sabif.ac.za/ SABIF mobilises primary biodiversity information to make it freely available on the internet so that policy makers, managers and researchers can make well-informed decisions that contribute to South Africa’s sustainable development.
International biodiversity data portals
Fishbase http://www.fishbase.org/ FishBase and the independent Catalog of Fishes.
Welcome to the BioFresh data portal: a collaborative global freshwater biodiversity data hub
http://data.freshwaterbiodiversity.eu/
Atlas of Living Australia
http://www.ala.org.au/
Algaebase
http://www.algaebase.org/
Belgian Data Portal
http://data.biodiversity.be/
NatureServe
http://www.natureserve.org/getData/
Biodiversity Information System for Europe
http://biodiversity.europa.eu/data
Sharing and accessing Biodiversity data globally
By Hannu Saarenmaa, Deputy Director for Informatics, GBIF Secretariat
http://www.esri.com/news/arcuser/0206/biodiversity1of2.html
The GMBA Mountain Portal
http://www.mountainbiodiversity.org/
Benefits of data sharing: the role of GBIF
http://www.codata.org/GEOSS/GBIF-Data%20Sharing.pdf
BiodiversLife.com is a web portal to nearly 200 reviewed mega biodiversity databases and Biodiversity News
http://www.biodiverselife.com/
The Data Centre has developed an online mapping system, Biodiversity Maps, which provides access to data on the distribution of Ireland’s biological diversity.
http://www.biodiversityireland.ie/biodiversity-data/access-biodiversity-data/
GBIF has produced a number of booklets on specific GBIF-related topics.
http://www.gbif.org/communications/resources/print-and-online-resources/download-publications/bookelets/
Ocean Biogeographic Information System
http://www.iobis.org/
World Register of Marine Species
http://www.marinespecies.org
Hawaiian Ecosystems at Risk Project
http://www.hear.org/
Global Invasive species Information Network
http://gisin.org/
Biodiversity data resources in South Africa
The South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) which incorporates SABIF facilitates the mobilization of South Africa's primary biodiversity data through its SIBIS portal. Here you can access data from large number of natinal and regional location for South Africa.
A useful site to provide a perspective to use of biodiversity data in the South African context is the Biodiversity Advisor http://biodiversityadvisor.sanbi.org
Citizen science and atlasing data resources in south africa
Animal Demography Unit http://adu.org.za/ This includes metadata and descriptions of the following projects: BIRP: Birds In Reserves Project (BIRP); CAR: Biannual roadcounts of large terrestrial birds; CWAC: Coordinated Waterbird Counts (CWAC) Programme; SABAP1: Southern African Bird Atlas Project; SABAP2: Southern African Bird Atlas Project 2; SABCA: Southern African Butterfly Conservation Assessment (SABCA); SAFAP: Atlas of the Frogs of South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland; SAFRING: Southern African Bird Ringing Unit (SAFRING); SARCA: Southern African Reptile Conservation Assessment (SARCA).
Protea Atlas Project http://www.proteaatlas.org.za/ A Citizen Science Project that provided the geographical location of Proteas throughout southern Africa for the benefit of Conservation, Rural Communities, Farmers, Reserve Managers, Tourism, Cut Flower Trade and Botany.
iSpot southern Africa http://www.ispot.org.za/ A gateway for sharing and identifying South African biodiversity.
Spatial biodiversity data in south Africa
Biodiversity GIS (BGIS)
http://bgis.sanbi.org/ is run by SANBI and includes information on various biodiversity planning projects and reports. It includes online mapping resources and tools including a Land Use Decision Support tool which help a user to find the biodiversity planning information available for a specific area of their choice. The GIS data downloads and metadata is also available for download from the site.
Compulsory Reading Material
Research and Societal Benefits of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility: http://www.bioone.org/doi/pdf/10.1641/0006-3568%282004%29054%5B0486%3ARASBOT%5D2.0.CO%3B2
Interoperability of Biodiversity Databases: Biodiversity Information on Every Desktop
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/289/5488/2312.full
How Global Is the Global Biodiversity Information Facility?
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0001124
No comments:
Post a Comment