|
Theme
II-5: Biological collections and information systems: Mobilizing
natural history knowledge – J. Beach and W. Berendsohn
Presentation abstracts
will appear here as soon as possible.
The acquisition, cultivation,
preservation, and storage of objects in biological collections
is an integral part of biological research in many sub-disciplines.
Biological collections include microbial and tissue culture collections,
plant genetic resources, natural history museums, botanical and
zoological gardens, natural substance collections, as well as
observation data (surveys, mapping projects) and multimedia data
such as animal sounds and pictures of organisms. They are maintained
principally by natural history museums, but also by private or
public research laboratories or institutes in fields like biotechnology,
environmental science, agronomy, and pharmacology, to name but
a few.
It has been estimated
that biological collections world-wide hold more than 2.5 billion
specimens - and each of them represents a data record of the occurrence
of a specific organism at a specific time and place. The object
presents a falsifiable source of information, i.e. it can be re-observed
to verify a scientific hypothesis based on it. In addition to
physical specimens, there exists an immense quantity of observation
records (e.g. presence/absence data for plants in quadrants taken
for floristic mapping, observations of migratory animals, etc.).
Taken together, this represents an immense knowledge base on global
biodiversity. Field and research notes often contain further detailed
data, and the object itself can be a physical resource for research
and industry.
Currently, this knowledge
base is largely under-utilised, because its highly distributed,
heterogeneous, and complex scientific nature obstructs efficient
retrieval. Over the past decade, the underlying information structures
have been investigated and fairly comprehensive reference models
exist. Databasing collection inventories also rapidly progresses,
although the total number of available records still looks small
compared to the total. The current challenge lies in the networking
of collections, be it on the level of the individual specimen
or observation record (where available), or by means of meta-information
on the collection or sub-collection level.
Submitted abstracts
include:
The Species Analyst-A
Distributed Network of Biodiversity Information
D. Vieglas, University of Kansas
Maximise Common Denominators:
Towards and International Data Access Profile for Biological Collection
Information
A. Guntsch and W. G Berendsohn, Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum
Berlin-Dahlem, Königin-Luise-Str. 6-8, 14191 Berlin, Germany
Biological Collections
as a Tool for the Construction of Predictive Distributional Maps-An
Example of Italian Lichens
NIMIS Pier Luigi & Martellos Stefano, Università di Trieste, Via
Giorgieri 10, I 34127 Trieste, Italia.
Using Natural History
Museums to Create National Biological Surveys : A Mexican Case
Study
Adolfo G. Navarro, Museo de Zoología, Facultad de Ciencias, Mexico
Putting Natural History
Museum Collections Data to Work in Solving Problems: Invasive
Species, Global Climate Change and Agricultural Planning
Dr. A. Townsend. Peterson Natural History Museum
Building the Encyclopedia
of Life From Biological Collections Databases
Dr. James Beach, Biodiversity Research Centre, University of Kansas
|
