Over the last 20 years, biodiversity research has been established and shaped as a young interdisciplinary research field. In light of the global biodiversity crisis, however, this research is under pressure related to time and expectations and investments are necessary. The German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) since October 1, 2012, and will become a hub for biodiversity research. The German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) concentrates expertise across city and state borders, brings together top scientists, connects theoreticians and empiricists of manifold research fields, focuses on theory and synthesis (synthesis centre sDiv), educates a new generation of scientists in transdisciplinary biodiversity research (graduate school yDiv) and communicates the importance of safeguarding biodiversity. ... [Information of the supplier]
Ecological societies of China, Japan, and Korea collaboratively established a federation to promote ecological science in East Asia. EAFES plans symposia, meetings, joint researches and other activities that could contribute to develop the ecological science and society in this region. [Information of the supplier]
ViBRANT recognised the need for a bibliography of life, i.e. a freely accessible bibliography of every taxonomic paper ever published. None of the currently available aggregators were satisfactory, so we have chosen to extend the Plazi bibliographic tool, RefBank. There are two primary reasons for this choice, first the original developer, Guido Sautter, is a partner in ViBRANT and second, RefBank contains a parsing tool that will turn Rod Page's "cryptic text strings" into structured references that can be easily transformed into any of the other conventional forms (see the Data Format Report). The bulk of RefBank's growth to date has come from ViBRANT contributed references, with 80,000 references being accumulated in the first six months of operation and another 85,000 references in the second six months. Work continues within ViBRANT to extract bibliographies from published works and parse them to generate more references. This work is to ensure that RefBank is seeded with sufficient references at launch so as to engage users. There was a significant development for RefBank in Autumn 2012 when it was the subject of a presentation and demonstration at TDWG 2013. Since when we have seen the addition of community contributed references. A more formal launch of RefBank, probably in conjunction with related ViBRANT developed tools, is planned for Summer/Autumn 2013. (http://vbrant.eu/content/communal-literature) ... [Miscellaneous as indicated]
The Norwegian Zoological Society (NZF) was founded in 1946 and is the only association in Norway which is interested in all groups of animals, from insects and crustaceans to mammals and birds. The association is open to anyone interested in zoology - both amateurs and professionals. Our main tasks is to disseminate information about wildlife and the conservation of wild fauna and its habitats. ... [Information of the supplier, translated and modified]
The Network of Knowledge BiodiversityKnowledge is being developed and communicated by the EU-project KNEU - Developing a Knowledge Network for EUropean expertise on biodiversity and ecosystem services to inform policy making economic sectors, funded under FP7 as coordination action (Grant No.265299). The project comprises a consortium of 18 leading institutions in Europe on biodiversity and ecosystem services research and governance. The consortium understands itself as a facilitator in developing the Network of Knowledge, aiming at a broad involvement from partners across the biodiversity knowledge landscape. ... [Information of the supplier]
BiNHum is a joint project of five natural history museums and research collections representing the Humboldt-Ring. These are the State Museums of Natural History Karlsruhe (SMNK) and Stuttgart (SMNS), the Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig in Bonn (ZFMK), the Bavarian Natural History Collections in Munich (SNSB), and the Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin-Dahlem (BGBM).The three-year project (2012–2015) will enforce collaboration and consolidate collection data of the Humboldt-Ring institutes and their associates by development of a joint data portal and efforts in data mining, standardisation, new data types as 3D images e.g., or data digitized by the sub-project MORPHYLL at the SMNS (DFG support code RO 3250/21, acquisition of ecophysiologically relevant morphometric data of fossil leaves), and data porting to current IT standards. Additionally, the portal will provide all accessible data to international projects as GBIF. ... [Information of the supplier]
Nach den Bakterien sind Pilze die am weitesten verbreitete Lebensform der Erde. Sie finden sich in der Tiefsee und im Hochgebirge, in Gesteinen und im Wasser, auf und in anderen Lebewesen, in Wüsten, Regenwäldern und an den Polen. Sie sind artenreicher als Pflanzen, Fische und Säugetiere zusammen, und Schätzungen zufolge sind mindestens 90 % ihrer Arten noch unentdeckt. Doch bereits mit dem kleinen Anteil der Arten, der derzeit wirtschaftlich genutzt wird, werden Hunderte von Milliarden Euro erwirtschaftet, sowohl in der Lebensmittelproduktion als auch in der Pharmaindustrie. Auch zahlreiche zelluläre Prozesse wurden erstmals an Pilzen entdeckt. Allerdings ist die grundlagen- und anwendungsorientierte Forschung auf nur wenige Organismen beschränkt und lässt das große Potenzial der Diversität bekannter und noch unbekannter Pilze ungenutzt. Ziel des LOEWE Schwerpunktes für Integrative Pilzforschung (IPF) ist es daher, die Expertise im Bereich der Diversitätsforschung und Modellorganismen-basierter Forschung in synergistischer Weise zusammenzuführen, so dass es zu einer nachhaltigen Stärkung der hessischen Wirtschaft und Forschung in einem expandierenden Forschungsfeld mit großem wissenschaftlichem und wirtschaftlichem Potenzial kommt. ... [Information des Anbieters]
The Max Planck Digital Library (MPDL) cordially invites you to participate in the Open Science Days 2016. The event will take place at the Harnack House in Berlin and is going to extend over one and a half days (February 17/18). Having no specific focus topic at the first Open Science Days in 2014, we dealt with the various aspects of openness in the different areas of Open Science. At our next event we would like to put an emphasis on one of these areas: Citizen Science. Citizen Science refers to the growing involvement of amateur or non-professional scientists in the research process. In some research fields, like e.g. environmental research, this involvement already has become a common practice. Other research disciplines seem to be more reluctant and yet it is unclear, whether Citizen Science will be an important factor in all areas of the entire research process in the future. SETI@home, an early approach to internet-based Citizen Science, already started in 1999. Being focused on distributed computing, this project depends on a rather passive contribution by citizens. Today, we see a broad range of projects that require a more active role: Citizens are asked to collect water samples or to describe ancient texts. Interested people can decide to analyze pictures or video recordings of tiny worms, far galaxies or prowling groups of apes. More complex projects involve citizens that are willing to build up their own technical equipment for rather demanding and precise measurements and observations. Some discussions even concern the involvement of citizens in the establishment of hypotheses and the planning of research. Which are the most important perspectives and opportunities deriving from this opening of research processes for a broader public? Are there different motivating factors for the researchers or research organizations that already have taken action in the field of Citizen Science? What have been their experiences so far? Are there any serious risks, those who promote the advancement of Citizen Science should bear in mind? Participants will have the opportunity to present their own ideas, experiences, initiatives or activities and to discuss current topics related to Citizen Science. Aside from the mentioned thematic priority, there will also be talks and room for discussion on current developments concerning further areas of Open Science. The conference language will be English. The participation fee is 100 € and the number of participants is limited to 80 persons. ... [Information of the supplier]
The survival of a species is dependent on maintaining the health and well-being of individuals and populations. The production of hormones is the foundation of species survival by regulating reproduction and facilitating the maintenance of homeostasis. Researchers have been evaluating and monitoring gonadal, pituitary and adrenal hormones for decades and yet our understanding of these physiological mechanisms is limited to only a small percent (2-3%) of wildlife species. The International Society of Wildlife Endocrinology (ISWE) was initiated in 2010, out of a desire by wildlife endocrinologists to further our knowledge and expand our potential resources in this field of study. ISWE presents an opportunity for developing and applying non-invasive endocrine monitoring techniques much more broadly and systematically to help solve a variety of management problems for many zoo-held species. As well, these tools can also be used to monitor, better understand and manage the health and well-being of wildlife. ... [Information of the supplier]
The 1st Joint Meeting of the Society for the Preservation of Natural History Collections (SPNHC) and the Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG) also known as the Taxonomic Databases Working Group, will take place from August 25th to September 2nd 2018 in Dunedin, New Zealand. The theme of the conference is: Collections and Data in an Uncertain World. The destructive forces of nature were never more evident than with the 2011 Tōhoku tsunami in Japan or the earthquakes that struck Christchurch in 2010 and 2011. The damage to museums and collections, and data loss were staggering. As reconstruction is now well underway, what have we learned from these catastrophes and how can we mitigate damage to our "libraries of life" in the future? ... [Information of the supplier, modified]