The Census of Marine Life is a growing global network of researchers in more than 70 nations engaged in a ten-year initiative to assess and explain the diversity, distribution, and abundance of marine life in the oceans -- past, present, and future. This site is a portal for the Census of Marine Life. The site is designed to provide quick and easy access to all elements of the Census and basic information about each element for the interested public. It is also a central location for news and information about the Census. ... [Information of the supplier]
In Germany, the states (Länder) are responsible as a matter of principle for the selection of sites for the NATURA 2000 system of protected areas. Site selection in marine areas was initially only possible within the territorial waters bounded by the 12 nautical mile limit, but not in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ, 12-200 nautical miles), in which the sovereign powers of Germany are limited to certain activities. However, the amendment to the German Federal Nature Conservation Act (Bundesnaturschutzgesetz) in April 2002 created the statutory basis for implementing NATURA 2000 in the marine areas of the EEZ: The German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety(BMU) and the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN) are now responsible for site selection, designation and administration of these areas. The BMU and the BfN are promoting an extensive programme of research. The following pages present that programme’s outcomes. These provided an essential decision-making basis for the identification and demarcation of sites of special ecological value in the EEZ of the North and Baltic Seas. ... [Information of the supplier]
Tagging of Pacific Predators began in 2000 as one of 17 projects of the Census of Marine Life, an ambitious 10-year, 80-nation endeavor to assess and explain the diversity and abundance of life in the oceans, and where that life has lived, is living, and will live. Several dozen TOPP researchers from eight countries began venturing into offshore waters, remote islands, and along rugged coastlines to attach satellite tags to 22 different species of top predators that roam the Pacific Ocean. As of 2007, they have tagged more than 2,000 animals, including elephant seals, white sharks, leatherback turtles, squid, albatross and sooty shearwaters. ... [Information of the supplier]
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]
GENRES supports the implementation of the BMELV concept for the conservation and sustainable utilization of genetic resources for food, agriculture and forestry as well as the execution of The National Programmes for Plant, Animal, Forest an Aquatic Genetic Resources. On this basis, GENRES is moving into the direction of a monitoring instrument for these programmes. GENRES serves as the German Clearing House Mechanism (CHM) for genetic resources in food, agriculture, forestry, and fisheries in implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). GENRES provides an overview of relevant documents, facts, projects and other measures for the conservation and sustainable utilization of genetic resources for food, agriculture and forestry in Germany, Europe and international. ... [Information of the supplier]
The Atlas of Living Australia is a five-year project funded under the Australian Government’s National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS). Its mission is to develop a biodiversity data management system which will link Australia’s biological knowledge with its scientific and agricultural reference collections and other custodians of biological information. This system should be: (*) Authoritative - guiding users to the most relevant data resources and well-researched information for each species; (*) Freely accessible - delivering services, tools and content for free use by all; (*) Distributed and federated - integrating existing systems and networks to bring together the most current and complete content. The project aims are: (*) To integrate information on all Australian species, including data on specimens held by Australia’s natural history collections and data from field observations of living organisms; (*) To support the management and integration of biological data from all areas of research (molecular to ecological); (*) To develop search interfaces and web services to facilitate discovery of biological information resources and to support the use of biological data in scientific research, policy-making and education; (*) To ensure that data relating to Australian organisms is well-managed for present needs and organised to meet future information requirements. ... [Information of the supplier]
BIOTA AFRICA has been jointly invented by African and German researchers aiming at the establishment of research supporting sustainable use and conservation of biodiversity in Africa. While, initially, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) was open to fund the initiative, meanwhile several African countries and partner institutions added funding. The project, from its beginning, had a very visible continent-wide dimension and is still expanding especially with regard to its role as a "Biodiversity Observation Network" on the African continent. ... [Information of the supplier]
BiodivERsA is a network composed of national organisations funding or managing research programmes on biodiversity across Europe. The objectives of this ERA-Net are to promote the cooperation between funding agencies in the field of biodiversity research and to coordinate research programmes at strategic and management levels to eventually develop and implement joint activities. The European partners in the BiodivERsA network have joined efforts to organize and fund a Pan-European call for international research projects on biodiversity and ecosystem services. ... [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]
