ViBRANT is a European Union FP7 funded project starting in December 2010 that will support the development of virtual research communities involved in biodiversity science. Our goal is to provide a more integrated and effective framework for those managing biodiversity data on the Web. ViBRANT provides: (1) A virtual research environment (Scratchpads) where users can safely store, share and manage their research information; (2) Analytical services for users to build identification keys and phylogenetic trees; (3) A publication platform for users to automatically compile biodiversity science manuscripts from their research database; (4) A portal for users to centrally access publicly accessible biodiversity research information and literature; (5) Training, helping research communities to use these tools and services; (6) A standards compliant technical architecture that can be sustained by biodiversity research community. ... [Information of the supplier]
The i4Life Project (Indexing for Life) is to create a Virtual Research Community that will develop and harmonise the various species catalogues used by six of the world’s global biodiversity programmes using the Catalogue of Life as a yardstick. One of the great issues in biodiversity science is how to synthesize a comprehensive view of the entire biodiversity to better understand how it functions, and to model and forecast how it will respond to major anthropogenic pressures. Harmonising the differing catalogues of species is a crucial part of this synthesis and has enormous practical significance in indexing the knowledge needed to protect biodiversity. Six ‘global biodiversity programmes’, the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), the European Nucleotide Archive (part of INSDC), the Barcode of Life initiatives, the IUCN Red List, the new LifeWatch programme, and the Encyclopedia of Life, join in this project with the Catalogue of Life to initiate this harmonisation and to explore the full extent of species surveyed in the different programmes. The target is to enable each programme to enhance its catalogue with the assistance of the others, and to create a harmonised list for the entire set of organisms. ... [Information of the supplier]
Biodiversity information constitutes an important source of knowledge for many disciplines. For example, it is fundamental to supporting conservation and for understanding the potential impacts of climate change. External and internal factors call for an urgent modernization of the production and accessibility of these data, information and knowledge. These external factors include the need for biodiversity data to support decisions for regional and taxon focused conservation. Internal factors are a consequence of the opportunities of the digital revolution, and the need to reconcile the escalating volume of data with the requirement to curate it by a fixed number of taxonomists. The pro-iBiosphere project has been launched for a period of two years (September 1st, 2012 to August 31st, 2014), with the goal of addressing technical and semantic interoperability challenges and preparing the ground for the creation of a system for intelligent management of biodiversity knowledge which will improve the present system of taxonomic literature. ... [Information of the supplier]
The EuMon project attempts to provide a European framework that standardizes, focuses and coordinates existing monitoring programs by comparing and integrating existing methods and monitoring schemes of species and habitats of community interests. The most successful methods in terms of cost effectiveness, regional robustness will be selected and tested for their European wide applicability. EuMon will pay special attention that existing monitoring programs can incorporate these methods and will give recommendations how new and successful monitoring programs can be established.Special consideration for implementing monitoring programs will be paid by studying the social effects of monitoring regimes, because the relationship between amateurs and professionals are meant to be most important for implementing a successful monitoring regime.The establishing of the NATURA 2000 network is one of the main actions on a European level to halt biodiversity loss. Therefore it is a prerequisite to evaluate its ability to maintain biodiversity. Additionally EuMon will develop methods to name the responsibility of EU Member states for the species and habitats of Community interests living under their protection.A comprehensive database on monitoring schemes and recommended methods will be established and made accessible via an Internet portal. ... [Information of the supplier]
Cyberinfrastructure for Phylogenetic Research (CIPRES) project is an open collaboration funded by the National Science Foundation [USA]. The group is led by Tandy Warnow and involves researchers (biologists, computer scientists, statisticians, and mathematicians) at thirteen institutions. The goal of the CIPRES project is to enable large-scale phylogenetic reconstructions on a scale that will enable analyses of huge datasets containing hundreds of thousands of bio molecular sequences. To achieve this goal we have brought together a group of researchers involved in phylogeny estimation, statistics, and computer science to create new solutions for the difficult computational problems that arise in inferring evolutionary relationships. The project has a 5 year development plan (2003-2008) to create a national computational infrastructure for the international systematic's community. The group is committed to providing open-source software. ... [Information of the supplier, modified]
In the framework of an initiative to advance biodiversity research in Germany, we will establish three exemplary large-scale and long-term research sites (funded by the German Research Foundation). They are termed Biodiversity Exploratories, in contrast to mainly descriptive observatories. The exploratories will establish and sustain the scientific infrastructure and develop the intellectual framework needed to address critical questions about changes in biodiversity and to evaluate the impacts of those changes for ecosystem processes. Thus, in the exploratories biodiversity and ecosystem research will be merged at a large scale and with a long-term perspective. In this first phase the exploratories will address the relationship between land-use intensity, biodiversity change, and ecosystem functioning for selected taxa. After establishment, these exploratories will also integrate further contributing projects proposed by the German research community. Thus, the biodiversity exploratories will serve as a stimulating research platform for the whole German biodiversity research community. ... [Information of the supplier]
The iPlant Collaborative: what potential does it have for advancing plant science? We encourage all creative thinkers in the plant and computing research communities to invest a little time in understanding the iPlant Collaborative and thinking about how it might revolutionize the plant sciences. To jumpstart your thinking process, you might want to consider participating in the iPlant Collaborative's April kickoff conference at Cold Spring Harbor Lab, either in person or via our free, live webcast which will allow for direct participation. Participation in the conference is not necessary for participation in the Collaborative, but may be helpful in understanding how best to participate. International participation is welcome and encouraged. ... [Information of the supplier]
The Amazon Forest Inventory Network is an international network that has been established to understand the biomass and dynamics of Amazonian forests. Since 2000 we have established a systematic framework for long-term monitoring of this region, which holds more biodiversity, water, and vegetation carbon, than any other region of the planet. RAINFOR has worked step-by-step, including partners across the nations of Amazon, taking account of the potentially strong modulating role of environmental variables like soil nutrition, and the need to help develop a new generation of Amazon ecologists. RAINFOR is curently supported by the Andes and Amazon Initiative of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. ... [Information of the supplier]
On the ATBI+M site for the Biosphärenreservat Spreewald you will find all relevant information about this ATBI+M project. You can find out what ATBI+M is all about, how you can participate and contribute towards biodiversity conservation, how you can even receive financial support, and what happens to your collected data afterwards. ... [Information of the supplier, modified]
iSpecies is a test of E O Wilson's idea of a web page for each species. The data displayed are generated "on the fly" by querying other data sources. iSpecies uses web services to talk to source databases, extract data, and assemble a page for each species. The code makes extensive use of XML. Essentially, each web service returns XML in one form or another, and XSL style sheets are used to transform the result into HTML. ... [Information of the supplier, modified]
