Compadre-Plant trait database Botanists at Trinity College Dublin have launched a database with information that documents significant ‘life events’ for nearly 600 plant species across the globe. They clubbed together with like-minded individuals working across five different continents to compile the huge database of plant life histories, for which data have been gathered over a near 50-year span. At a time in which climate change and increasing human populations are rapidly re-shaping plant distributions, the researchers hope their COMPADRE Plant Matrix database will foster collaborations between scientists and allow them to better answer questions such as how we can conserve the species that are critical for ecosystem services, and which may provide food for billions. The botanists have just published an article in the prestigious international, peer-reviewed publication Journal of Ecology that describes the database. We rely on plants for some of our most basic needs like food, shelter and clothing.
CoL DB Using The Catalogue of Life is a joint product of Species 2000 and ITIS. There are currently two editions, the Annual and Dynamic Checklists. The differences between these editions are outlined on the 'About the Catalogue of Life ' page. There are many ways to access the Catalogue of Life depending on your requirements but please note that not all methods can be used to access both the Annual and Dynamic Checklists:
Inside Wood The InsideWood project integrates wood anatomical information from the literature and original observations into an internet-accessible database useful for research and teaching. The InsideWood database contains brief descriptions of fossil and modern woody dicots (hardwoods) from more than 200 plant families, and is searchable by an interactive, multiple-entry key. This wood anatomy web site has over 40,000 images showing anatomical details. Note: Gymnosperm woods (softwoods) are not included. Become a fan of InsideWood on facebook to get information on additions to InsideWood, and occasional comments on how-to-use the website.
GBIF Data Portal Try out the new GBIF portal! Why not try out the new GBIF portal at www.gbif.org, which has many more features and includes lots of information about the GBIF community, including great examples of data uses in research and interesting applications? The old GBIF data portal which you are viewing now will continue to be supported until we are satisfied it can be taken down without causing major inconvenience. Global Genome Biodiversity Network A Collaborative Effort to Cryo-preserve and Provide Access to Genomic Samples from Across the Tree of Life The Global Genome Biodiversity Network (GGBN) is a global network of well-managed collections of genomic tissue samples from across the Tree of Life, benefiting society through biodiversity research, development and conservation. This network will foster collaborations among repositories of molecular biodiversity in order to ensure quality standards, improve best practices, secure interoperability, and harmonize exchange of material in accordance with national and international legislation and conventions.
Famine Foods Website by Robert L. Freedman Orinda, California U.S.A. My interest in the study of famine food-plants began in 1966 when I was an undergraduate student in the anthropology department of the University of Arizona. In my last semester, I wrote a term paper on Native American food preparation techniques, for Professor Bernard Fontana's class, "History of the Indians of North America." This research became the catalyst for an interest in the socio-anthropological aspects of human food habits, which lasted for the next fifteen years. IFPNI: Internatioal fossil plant names index Global registry of scientific names of fossil organisms covered by the International Code of Nomenclature for Algae, Fungi, and Plants (formerly International Code of Botanical Nomenclature) and International Code of Zoological Nomenclature Algae Cyanobacteria and allied prokaryotic forms Fungi Plants Problematica Protists related to algal phyla (‘ambiregnal organisms’) IFPNI provides an authoritative online, open-access, community-generated registry of fossil plant nomenclature as a service to the global scientific community.
Centre for Mined Land Rehabilitation Online Herbarium The online herbarium has been developed with Silver Biology and CMLR, initially enabled as a component of an industry grant. Many projects at CMLR require simple to advanced plant identifications as a fundamental step in researching the rehabilitation of disturbed land and the effects of mining. And a number of locations where we work have limited identification resources available. The aim of the CMLR Herbarium is primarily for plant identification by staff,students and the general public by providing query-based filtering of specimens and dynamic high-resolution images, see below, as an alternative or complement to traditional forms of plant identification. The type of specimens aim to be comprehensive site collections for long-term projects, representative collections for some mine sites in NSW and QLD and research-appropriate collection of plant specimens through other regions. Go to the CMLR Online Herbarium
DNA Banks and Genetic Resources Repositories in the United States iDigBio is actively compiling a list of DNA banking facilities and genetic resources repositories in the United States that maintain collections of nucleic acid extracts (DNA or RNA) or preserved tissues suitable for genetic and genomic studies of biodiversity. The following resources (listed alphabetically by institution) represent collections currently known by or reported to iDigBio. Each entry includes the name of the institution, a brief description, and institutional link. To report the availability of genetic resources at your institution, or to revise or update an existing entry, please contact Grant Godden. iDigBio thanks the participants of the DNA Banking Workshop hosted by the Missouri Botanical Garden (January 2013) and Breda Zimkus (Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University), in particular, for assistance in compiling these resources.
JSTOR Global Plants - LibGuides at JSTOR In addition to Global Plants, JSTOR includes thousands of academic ebooks and journals in related fields: JSTOR Life Sciences Collection: comprehensive access to 160 foundational journals in major biological subfields: aquatic science, botany, developmental & cell biology, ecology, paleontology, and zoology. More than 100 peer-reviewed ecology and botany journals. JSTOR Labs 1 Introduction The sheer amount of data contained in JSTOR raises the question of what is the most effective way for scholars to search it. The answer to this question is inevitably going to be discipline-specific as scholars in different fields do have different strategies for retrieving bibliographic information. For students and scholars in Classics, for example, the ability to search for articles that quote or refer to a specific text passage (or range of passages) is of essential importance. An index of cited passages, which is normally found at the end of monographs or edited volumens, serves precisely this purpose. Yet, when it comes to searching through archives of journal articles like JSTOR, full text search is often the only functionality offered.
Encyclopedia of Life The Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) version 3 you are using now contains the same sort of biodiversity information we hosted in the previous version, but the web platform and data services it is built on have been almost entirely reengineered and updated to modern standards. Users of the previous site will notice major differences in how the site looks and how you use it. But one thing hasn't changed - we're as committed as ever to working with our partners to gather, curate and share knowledge about life on Earth with you. Mobile first As you would expect in 2018, approximately half of our visitors reach the EOL web portal through a mobile device. Where is the damned collection? Wikidata, GrBio, and a global list of all natural history collections One of the things the biodiversity informatics community has struggled to do is come up with a list of all natural history collections (Taylor, 2016). Most recently GrBio attempted to do this, and appealed for community help to curate the list (Schindel et al., 2016), but this did not emerge, and at the time of writing GrBio is moribund. GBIF has obtained GrBio's data and is now hosting it (GBIF provides new home for the Global Registry of Scientific Collections) but the problem of curation remains.