Annotated Biodiversity Database List
If you suggest any additions to the list or find broken links please email webmaster@biodiverselife.com and maybe it can be expanded if time and resources permits.
A description, often the sites own, is included to save you a bit of time before you set off. Not all are annotated. If you feel drawn to provide a description for those missed please email. Each of these resources is extensive, so the list is a staging post rather than a replication of the zillions of links you will find on the sites themselves. Scientists and academics are not always the best at keeping-up with web protocol so some of the pages take a while to load. Be patient. There is gold at the end of every rainbow on this page.
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African Species Databases- The meta data bases page of African Conservation Foundation. Contains links to 15 plus Africa specific data bases including birds, plants, animals, endangered lists etc.
Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog - Agricultural biodiversity of crops, animals, wild relatives. Contains up to date links to a wide range of issues. For those of us interested in blogging relationships and information swaps.
Algaebase : Listing the World's Algae- AlgaeBase is a database of information on algae that includes terrestrial, marine and freshwater organisms. At present, the data for the marine algae, particularly seaweeds, are the most complete. For convenience, we have included the sea-grasses even though they are flowering plants.
Amphibia Web An information system providing comprehensive data on the biology and conservation of amphibians, with individual species accounts.
Amphibian Species of the World- Based at the American Museum of Natural History, provides an up-to-date list of all the world's amphibian species, with full details on taxonomy and nomenclature.
Animal Diversity Web is an online database of animal natural history, distribution, classification, and conservation biology at the University of Michigan Thousands of species accounts about individual animal species. These may include text, pictures of living animals, photographs and movies of specimens, and/or recordings of sounds. Students write the text of these accounts and we cannot guarantee their accuracy. Descriptions of levels of organization above the species level, especially phyla, classes, and in some cases, orders and families. Hundreds of hyperlinked pages and images illustrate the traits and general biology of these groups. Professional biologists prepare this part.
Antbase- Antbase now provides for the first time access to all the ant species of the world, one of the ecologically most important groups of animals worldwide. Antbase is a collaborative effort between scientists from around the world, aiming at providing the best possible access to the wealth of information on ants, to fulfil the conservation needs of the International Union for the Study of Social Insects (IUSSI), and the Species Survival Commission of the World Conservation Union (IUCN)
AntWeb- Every ant tells a story. AntWeb provides tools for exploring the diversity and identification of ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae
Arctic Ocean diversity- The Census of Marine Life is implementing a project aimed at documenting the present using an international Pan-Arctic view. The operational approach is for coordinated research efforts, designed to examine the diversity in each of the major three realms: sea ice, water column and sea floor.
ARKive - Images of life on Earth – Awesome repository of images and movies etc. Commendable project. Well worth a visit.
Artsdatabanken - Many species in Norway are threatened, and in danger of extinction. The task of the Norwegian Biodiversity Information Centre is to make official overviews of these species. The most important is the Norwegian Red list
Australian Faunal Directory-The Australian Faunal Directory (AFD) is being compiled as a public enquiry database and will serve as a source of taxonomic and biological information on all animal species known to occur in Australia. It incorporates the data from the terminated Zoological Catalogue of Australia database project.
Australian National Botanic Gardens and Centre for Plant Biodiversity Research- Searchable Australian government data bases including information and images of Australian plants and Australia-wide Botanic Gardens information.
Australia's Biodiversity Clearing House Mechanism - serves the information needs of those organizations involved in implementing the provisions of the Convention and the National Strategy for the Conservation of Australia's Biological Diversity.
Avibase- Avibase is an extensive database information system about all birds of the world, containing over 3.5 million records about 10,000 species and 22,000 subspecies of birds, including distribution information, taxonomy, synonyms in several languages and more. This site is managed by Denis Lepage and hosted by Bird Studies Canada, the Canadian co-partner of Birdlife International. Avibase has been a work in progress since 1992 and I am now pleased to offer it as a service to the bird-watching and scientific community.
Bark Wood Boring Beetles of the World- This website features over 4,000 images and information on over 400 species of economically important beetles that feed on the cambium layer or wood of living or recently killed trees and shrubs.
Bat Conservation International- Bat Conservation International (BCI), based in Austin, Texas, is devoted to conservation, education, and research initiatives involving bats and the ecosystems they serve
Belgian Clearing-House Mechanism - The Belgian node of The Clearing-House Mechanism (CHM) under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). Languages: French, English, Dutch.
Bibliomania- Herpetological Contents- Provides regularly-updated contents of herpetological publications, together with a searchable database. (Reptiles, Amphibians etc). Search a database of approximately 50,000 herpetological publications and have the results e-mailed to you
Big Picture Book of Viruses- The Big Picture Book of Viruses is intended to serve as both a catalog of virus pictures on the Internet and as an educational resource to those seeking more information about viruses
Biocase- The Biological Collection Access Service for Europe, BioCASE, is a transnational network of biological collections of all kinds. BioCASE enables widespread unified access to distributed and heterogeneous European collection and observational databases using open-source, system-independent software and open data standards and protocols
Biochange- BioChange is an integrative, multi-disciplinary research framework to support national and local biodiversity policy in Ireland. Core research within the cluster directly addresses the protection and management of ecological resources in the context of pressures that might lead to environmental change by focusing on habitat fragmentation and loss, impacts on non-native species, climate change, pollution and resource management
Biocorder- Assimilating data relating to the World's biodiversity hinges upon a seamless data environment uniting both local and distributed information. The primary goal of the BioCorder project is to develop an information technology framework and infrastructure that facilitates the discovery, access, integration, and analysis of distributed phylogenetic and biodiversity data.
Biocrawler- Biocrawler.com is an encyclopaedia written collaboratively. It's our aim to offer a scientific encyclopaedia, which can be understood by everyone. Users of this website may post reviews, comments and other content; send communications; and submit suggestions, ideas, comments, questions, or other information as long as it has a biological orientation. Good free image resources. Video resources.
BIODIC- Initially dedicated specifically to biology students, teachers, and teacher trainees BIODIC opened to a wider public since 1999. It offers today the widest series of electron micrographs available on the web in the field of biology: over 1600 images are currently available in high resolution
Biodiscovery- The aim of bioDISCOVERY is to advance efforts to measure and describe biodiversity at the level of genes, species and ecosystems. To build a cost-effective and scientifically robust observation system to monitor change and quantify the impacts of pressures acting on biodiversity. This network will enable researchers to identify and quantify the drivers of such change and to better understand both the causative processes and the ultimate consequences for ecosystem function and human use. To develop theoretical, experimental and empirical knowledge of ecological and evolutionary processes related to biodiversity.
Biodiversity | Worldwatch Institute- The world lives amid the greatest mass extinction since the dinosaurs perished 65 million years ago and most of this loss is caused by human activities. Habitat loss, the introduction of exotic species through trade and travel, and climate change all contribute to biodiversity decline. Worldwatch research has examined the mystery of amphibian disappearances, the decline in bird populations, and the rapid loss of primates as part of its work on species loss. Current work focuses on sources of hope, including the potential for restoring important habitat such as forests and waterways that have long been degraded
Biodiversity Hotspots- Conservation International's biodiversity hotspot s site. Interactive hotspots explorer world map.
Biodiversity and Biological Collections- Devoted to information of interest to systematists and other biologists of the organismic kind. Within these pages you will find information about specimens in biological collections, taxonomic authority files, directories of biologists, the Delta system and links for hundreds of biodiversity and collection resources.
Biodiversity Bibliography Library- Californian Academy of Science Biodiversity Bibliography library
Biodiversity Bibliography- This bibliography contains approximately 4000 references on various aspects of biodiversity and conservation. Not updated since 2002
Biodiversity Heritage Library- Enormous resource for biodiversity research. Ten major natural history museum libraries, botanical libraries, and research institutions have joined to form the Biodiversity Heritage Library Project. The group is developing a strategy and operational plan to digitize the published literature of biodiversity held in their respective collections. This literature will be available through a global “biodiversity commons.”
Biodiversity Informatics: Glossary of Terms
this glossary is part of an NBII-sponsored information gateway on biodiversity. It would be more appropriately be called a directory of international biodiversity programs and projects.
BiodiversityWorld- is a three-year e-Science pilot project funded by the BBSRC to create a GRID-based problem solving environment. This PSE is planned for collaborative exploration and analysis of global biodiversity patterns.
BioGeomancer- The BioGeomancer Project is a worldwide collaboration of natural history and geospatial data experts. The primary goal of the project is to maximize the quality and quantity of biodiversity data that can be mapped in support of scientific research, planning, conservation, and management. The project promotes discussion, manages geospatial data and data standards, and develops software tools in support of this mission.
Biological Records Site- The Biological Records Centre (BRC), established in 1964, is the national focus in the UK for terrestrial and freshwater species recording (other than birds). It works with the voluntary recording community throughout Britain and Ireland. The BRC database contains over 15 million records of more than 12000 specie
Biomaps - BioMaps is a gateway to Australian biodiversity data held by Natural History Institutions. Through this site you can search biodiversity databases and compile maps showing the locations of collected and observed biodiversity specimens.
Bionet- BioNET is an international not-for-profit initiative dedicated to promoting taxonomy, especially in the biodiversity rich but economically poorer countries of the world. Working via local partnerships (LOOPs), BioNET strives to provide a forum for collaboration that is equally open to all taxonomists and to the other users of taxonomy. Working with partners locally and internationally, our work contributes to raising awareness of the importance of taxonomy to society, building and sharing of capacity, and meeting taxonomic needs via innovative tools and approaches.
BioImages (living things)- the Virtual Field-Guide to UK Biodiversity. images are presented to illustrate biodiversity and as an aid to identification. While pictures alone are generally NOT sufficient for identification, by showing different stages, states and views of the organisms more information can be offered than is available in printed field-guides.
Birds Barcoding initiative- Birds are among the most conspicuous and well-studied groups of animals, yet genetic surveys including results so far with DNA barcoding suggest there are hundreds of as yet undescribed species. All Birds Barcoding Initiative (ABBI) aims to collect DNA barcodes from the approximately 10,000 species of known birds and speed discovery of new species, establishing an electronic library that links barcodes, reference specimens in collections, and associated collection data.
Botanical Image databases- list of plant image databases.
Botanical Society of America- The Botanical Society of America (BSA) is a "not-for-profit" membership society whose mission is to: promote botany, the field of basic science dealing with the study and inquiry into the form, function, development, diversity, reproduction, evolution, and uses of plants and their interactions within the biosphere. Plant image collection.
Butterflies and Moths of the World- Data base of generic names and type-species. There are currently an estimated 112,000 to 165,000 described species of butterflies and moths (Scoble, 1999) in 24,009 available or objective replacement genus-group names within 131 families. This online catalogue comprises 31,147 entries and includes all published genus-group names (including junior homonyms, junior synonyms, unnecessary replacement names, misspellings, incorrect citations and suppressed, unavailable, invalid and rejected names) from Linnaeus, 1758, up to the present.
Canadian Biodiversity Web Site- Excellent resource. Well designed site good links.
Catalog of Vascular Plant Species of Central and North-eastern Brazil- This Catalogue will contain information from more than 90,000 specimens housed in The New York Botanical Garden Herbarium that represent vascular plant species occurring in Central and North-eastern Brazil
Catalog of Vascular Plant Species of Eastern Brazil- This Catalogue contains information from more than 118,000 specimens housed in The New York Botanical Garden Herbarium that represent vascular plant species occurring in Eastern Brazil. For each species that occurs also beyond the boundaries of eastern Brazil, the Catalogue contains information from specimens chosen to represent the general limits of the species' geographical range in Latin America.
Catalog of Fishes- California Academy of Sciences- Ichthyology. Treated in the "Catalog of Fishes" are about 56,000 described species and subspecies (= species) of fishes, about 10,600 genera and subgenera (= genera) of fishes, and about 21,700 references. Approximately 4,000 of the species names are not available for use because of technical reasons. About 26,000 species are valid ones, and about 25,000 are synonyms. About 200-300 new species are being described each year.
Catalog of Invasive Plant Species of United States -During the past decade, awareness has been raised of the economic and ecological damage that is caused by invasive plants in the United States. Invasive plants have been introduced into the United States from other countries and have rapidly spread throughout the nation's cropland and ecological communities. These plants lack natural herbivores and parasites to limit their population size and are quickly able to dominate their new habitats. Every state has been affected by invasive species, costing the United States billions of dollars annually in agricultural losses and control measures.
Catalogue of Craneflies of the World- This Catalogue of the Craneflies of the World (CCW) covers all 17501 genus-group and species-group taxa of the families Pediciidae, Limoniidae, Cylindrotomidae, and Tipulidae (Insecta, Diptera, Tipuloidea). Its author is Pjotr Oosterbroek, honorary staff member of the Zoological Museum Amsterdam, section Entomology. Images.
Catalogue of Life : - Comprehensive index of the world’s known species. Enormous
Catalogue of Oodanta of the World- The Global Species Database of Odonata is a list of all names of extant species of dragonflies and damselflies of the world. The present list is based on a database built during a period of twenty years.
Catalogus evaniidorum- Evanioidea includes three families with disparate biologies: Evaniidae(ensign or hatchet wasps), Aulacidae, and Gasteruptiidae. Evaniids develop as solitary egg predators within the egg cases (oothecae) of cockroaches (Dyctioptera: Blattaria), aulacids are parasitoids of woodboring sawflies and beetles, and gasteruptiids are predator-inquilines within the nests of solitary bees and wasps. Despite numerous fascinating biological attributes these insects have largely been neglected by the entomological community - until recently.
Caterpillars, pupae, butterflies and moths- It will be necessary for decades to enlarge, edit, revise and improve both the content and structure of these dynamic event-based databases for the inventory of the caterpillars, their food plants, and their parasitoids of the Area de Conservacion Guanacaste (ACG) in northwestern Costa Rica (http://www.acguanacaste.ac.cr). We began this inventory in 1978, and since then many institutions and persons have participated and contributed to its content and structure. The content of the core FileMaker Pro (FMP) database was initially derived from field notebooks in 1988. After that, the data was field notebooked and subsequently computerized at the end of the year (1988-1999). From 1999-2000 onward, the data is being progressively more directly computerized without a hard copy intermediate. Currently in FMP 4.0, as the years pass it will migrate to new structures, applications and their versions, and platforms.
Census of Antarctic Marine Life- The Census of Antarctic Marine Life (CAML) will survey the cold Southern Ocean surrounding Antarctica in an attempt to understand the biological diversity of this unique and poorly understood environment.
Census of Diversity of Abyssal Marine life- A deep-sea project documenting species diversity of abyssal plains to increase understanding of the historical causes and ecological factors regulating biodiversity and global change
Census of Marine Life- The Census of Marine Life is a growing global network of researchers in more than 80 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.
Census of Marine Zooplankton-The Census of Marine Zooplankton (CMarZ) is a field project of the Census of Marine Life. CMarZ is working toward a taxonomically comprehensive assessment of biodiversity of animal plankton throughout the world ocean. The project goal is to produce accurate and complete information on zooplankton species diversity, biomass, biogeographical distribution, genetic diversity, and community structure by 2010. Our taxonomic focus is the animals that drift with ocean currents throughout their lives This assemblage currently includes ~6,800 described species in fifteen phyla; our expectation is that at least that many new species will be discovered as a result of our efforts. The census encompasses unique marine environments and those likely to be inhabited by endemic and undescribed zooplankton species
Centre for Biological Informatics NBII serves as "an electronic gateway to biological data and information maintained by federal, state, and local government agencies; private-sector organizations; and other partners around the nation and the world. The NBII is dedicated to the development of an electronic "federation" of biological data and information sources. Its success rests on a growing network of partners who share and use this information
CephBase is a dynamic relational database-driven web site that has been online since 1998. CephBase provides taxonomic data, distribution, images, videos, predator and prey data, size, references and scientific contact information for all living species of cephalopods (octopus, squid, cuttlefish and nautilus) in an easy to access, user-friendly manner.
Chillobase is intended to be a catalogue of all known centipedes (Chilopoda) of the world. It is an electronic database, publicly and freely available through the World Wide Web. Based on a nomenclature of available genus- and species-level names, it is intended to offer, as far as possible, a consistent, updated taxonomic system for the Chilopoda. In a searchable web-based format, it aims to be a user-friendly reference database for faunistic, ecological and medical research, as well as to stimulate further taxonomic research.
CITES-listed species database- Large data base and search facility
Clearing-House Mechanism for Convention on Biological Diversity - Information resources, on-line forums, etc., related to the world-wide implementation of the Convention.
Conservation and Sustainable Use of Agricultural Biodiversity - This UPWARD three-volume publication is a global compilation by scientists, development specialists, academics, policy-makers and donors. Vol. 1: understanding agricultural biodiversity, Vol. 2: strengthening local management of agricultural biodiversity, and Vol. 3: ensuring an enabling environment for agricultural biodiversity. PDF downloads of all 75 chapters available
Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic (OSPAR)
Convention on Biological Diversity The CBD is a global, comprehensive agreement addressing all aspects of biological diversity: genetic resources, species, and ecosystems. Primary site for information, implementation, reports, documents and links. V
Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species - CITES is an international treaty drawn up in 1973 to protect wildlife against over-exploitation, and to prevent international trade from threatening species with extinction. Web site includes text of the convention, publications, research programs, databases of CITES-listed flora and fauna.
Convention on Migratory Species - The Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (also known as CMS or the Bonn Convention) aims to conserve terrestrial, marine and avian migratory species throughout their range.
Darwin Initiative Biodiversity Conservation - http://www.darwin.gov.uk
A UK government grant scheme to promote biodiversity protection and sustainable resource use in less developed countries. Project, programme and monitoring information.
Deep Water Chemosynthetic Ecosystems- A global study of the biogeography of deep-water chemosynthetic ecosystems and the processes that drive them.
Digital Morphology- Digital Morphology, part of the National Science Foundation Digital Libraries Initiative, develops and serves unique 2D and 3D visualizations of the internal and external structure of living and extinct vertebrates, and a growing number of 'invertebrates'. The Digital Morphology library contains nearly a terabyte of imagery of natural history specimens that are important to education and central to ongoing cutting-edge research efforts. The Digital Morphology library site now serves imagery, optimized for Web delivery, for almost 300 specimens contributed by more than 80 collaborating researchers from the worlds premiere natural history museums and universities.
Discover Life- Discover Life provides free on-line tools to identify species, share ways to teach and study nature's wonders, report findings, build maps, process images, and contribute to and learn from a growing encyclopaedia of life that now has 1,197,522 species pages.
Diversitas- How did biodiversity evolve in space and time to reach current state?How much biodiversity exists and how does its change or loss affect the system as a whole?How does biodiversity correspond to the delivery of ecosystem functions and services, and what is the true value of these commodities.How can scientific investigation support policy and decision making to encourage more sustainable use of biodiversity? Armed with a broader, deeper knowledge of biodiversity, we will be better equipped to safeguard the future of Earth’s natural resources.
back to topEco Port- EcoPort is a single, contiguous, communal, wiki and database on the Internet that enables individuals and institutions to pool their information and apply their separate expertise in a collective manner to give any one of us free access and permission to use the sum of what all of us know.
Eco-Index- The Rainforest Alliance launched the Eco-Index in 2001 to provide the conservation community with a quickly and easily accessible vehicle to share project data and reports, lessons learned, and best practices in a succinct and consistent format. To best serve our audience, the entire site is available in English and Spanish, and profiles of projects based in Brazil are in Portuguese.
Ecological Society of America Data Registry- A publicly accessible registry describing scientific data sets on ecology and the environment. The data sets registered here are associated with articles published in the journals of the Ecological Society of America. They are registered here in order to facilitate communication and data sharing by scientists.
EIA - Environmental Investigation Agency- The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) is an international campaigning organisation committed to investigating and exposing environmental crime.
Elasmoworld – Sharks, skates, rays, chimera. Contains over 4000 entries and over 10,000 keywords relating to elasmobranches, including invasive elasmobranches.
Electronic Biologia Central-Americana- 58 digitized volumes of the Biologia Centrali-Americana
ENBI - European Network for Biodiversity Information
EnviroLink Network- a non-profit organization... a grassroots online community that unites hundreds of organizations and volunteers around the world with millions of people in more than 150 countries. EnviroLink is dedicated to providing comprehensive, up-to-date environmental information and news
European Biodiversity Monitoring and Indicator Framework (EBMI-F) - European framework in European Centre for Nature Conservation
European Nature Information System -EUNIS data are collected and maintained by the European Topic Centre on Biological Diversity for the European Environment Agency and the European Environmental Information Observation Network to be used for environmental reporting and for assistance to the NATURA2000 process (EU Birds and Habitats Directives) and coordinated to the related EMERALD Network of the Bern Convention.
Fauna Europa- The scientific names of all European land and freshwater animals brought together in one authoritative database.
FishBase- FishBase is an information system with key data on the biology of all fishes. Similar to an encyclopaedia, FishBase contains different things for different people. For example, fisheries managers will dive into the largest existing compilation of population dynamics data; teachers and students will find numerous graphs illustrating basic concepts of fish biology; taxonomists will enjoy access to the November 2000 update of Eschmeyer’s (1998) Catalog of Fishes databases; conservationists will use the lists of threatened fishes for any given country (Hilton-Taylor 2000); policymakers may be interested in a chronological, annotated list of introductions to their country; research scientists, as well as funding agencies, will find it useful to gain a quick overview of what is known about a certain species; zoologists and physiologists will have the largest existing compilations of fish morphology, metabolism, gill area, brain size, eye pigment, or swimming speed at their fingertips; ecologists will likewise use data on diet composition, trophic levels, food consumption and predators as inputs for their models; geneticists will find the largest compilation of allele frequencies; the fishing industry will find proximate analyses, as well as processing recommendations for many marine species; anglers will enjoy a listing of all game fishes occurring in a particular country (IGFA 1994); and scholars interested in local knowledge will find more than 100,000 common names of fishes together with the language/culture in which they are used and comments on their etymology
Flora Europea- Searchable floral taxonomic database. Non-native species distributions are indicated by symbology including square brackets
Flora Maps and Herbaria Databases
This site provides a variety of map and other botanical resources for measuring biodiversity in the plant kingdom.
Flora of Australia- The Flora of Australia aims to provide a uniform description of the plants of Australia, with identification keys, illustrations of most genera and many species and distribution maps of all taxa.
Flora of New Zealand- Providing an authoritative synthesis of the state of knowledge of our unique New Zealand flora.
Flora of North America- Search for information on the names, taxonomic relationships, continent-wide distributions, and morphological characteristics of all plants native and naturalized in North America north of Mexico
Forestry Images- The overall objective of Forestry Images is: to provide an accessible and easily used archive of high quality images related to forest health and silviculture, with particular emphasis on educational applications. Over 60,000 images, mostly in the public domain under creative commons license.
GBIF portal: Global Biodiversity Information Facility- Highly sophisticated and detailed database. Information on species and other groups of plants, animals, fungi and micro-organisms, including species occurrence records, as well as classifications and scientific and common names. Information on the species recorded in each country, including records shared by providers from throughout the GBIF network. Information on the data providers, datasets and data networks that share data through GBIF, including summary information on 1585 datasets from 222 data providers
Global Amphibian Assessment- The Global Amphibian Assessment (GAA) is the first-ever comprehensive assessment of the conservation status of the world's 5,918 known species of frogs, toads, salamanders, and caecilians. This website presents results of the assessments, including IUCN Red List threat category, range map, ecology information, and other data for every amphibian species.
Global Amphibian Assessment- Documents the Conservation Status of all described amphibian species.
Global Biodiversity Forum - GBF - An independent and open mechanism to analyze and discuss priority ecological, economic, institutional and social issues related to the options for action to conserve biodiversity, and use biological resources sustainably and equitably. Designed to provide a forum to support and enhance the objectives of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and other biodiversity-related instruments at the national and international levels.
Global Change Master Directory- Goal is to enable users to locate and obtain access to Earth science data sets and services relevant to global change and Earth science research. The GCMD database holds more than 19,000 descriptions of Earth science data sets and services covering all aspects of Earth and environmental sciences. One can use the search box or select from the available keywords to search for data and services.
Global Climate Observing System (GCOS)
Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network (GCRMN)
Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network (GCRMN)
Global Environment Facility (GEF)
Global Facilitation Unit for Underutilized Species
Global International Waters Assessment (GIWA)
Global Invasive Species Database - Describes invasive microorganisms, invertebrates, fish, birds, reptiles, amphibians, mammals and plants, including their biology, ecology, geography, and eradication and control. Information from experts on biological invasion.
Global Invasive Species Programme (GISP) - An international team of biologists, natural resource managers, economists, and policy makers is organizing to prepare a global strategy for addressing the invasive species problems.
Global Mountain Biodiversity Assessment - GMBA is a new Diversitas-network on mountain biodiversity. Invites submission of contributions to the scientific GMBA conference in Switzerland on Sept.7-10, 2000.
Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS)
Global Programme of Action for the Protection of the Marine Environment from Land-based Sources (GPA)
Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC)
Global Programme of Action for the Protection of the Marine Environment from Land-based Activities - The GPA aims at preventing the degradation of the marine environment from land-based activities by facilitating the duty of States to preserve and protect the marine environment.
Global Terrestrial Observing System (GTOS)- A programme for observations, modelling, and analysis of terrestrail ecosystems to support sustainable development
Google: Biodiversity
Google's inventory of resources on biodiversity and related topics.
Grassbase- GrassBase will ultimately provide an integrated, online view of the World Grass Species databases which have historically been held in two separate downloadable databases. The first step towards this integration has been the generation of nearly 11,000 species descriptions from the DELTA format that they're encoded in.
HerpNet- Reptiles and Amphibians. HerpNET is a collaborative effort by natural history museums to establish a global network of herpetological collections data, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF No. 0132303) and a GBIF DIGIT grant. Currently, 57 institutions are participating in the HerpNET community, with an open-ended invitation to institutions who would like to join. Thirty-five institutions are available on the SPECIMEN SEARCHING PORTAL, with data from 4.02 million specimens available for searching.
Hexacorallians of the World- A compilation of publications concerning taxonomy, nomenclature, and geographic distribution of extant hexacorallians - members of cnidarian orders Actiniaria (sea anemones in the strict sense), Antipatharia (black corals), Ceriantharia (tube anemones), Corallimorpharia (sea anemones in the loose sense), Ptychodactiaria (sea anemones in the loose sense), Scleractinia (hard or stony corals), and Zoanthidea (sea anemones in the loose sense)
History of Life- Life! It's everywhere on Earth; you can find living organisms from the poles to the equator, from the bottom of the sea to several miles in the air, from freezing waters to dry valleys to undersea thermal vents to groundwater thousands of feet below the Earth's surface. Over the last 3.7 billion years or so, living organisms on the Earth have diversified and adapted to almost every environment imaginable. This exhibit provides a survey of that biodiversity through time, focusing on major lineages of organisms. Many of these lineages have gone extinct or currently exist at a much lower diversity than in the past, so there may be large exhibits on groups of organisms that are unfamiliar to you. They are featured because they play an important role in the history of life on Earth.
back to topIISD Reporting Services - A non profit repository providing multimedia informational resources for environment and sustainable use policy makers.
Index Fungorum- Index Fungorum is a community resource currently co-ordinated and supported by the following partnership: CABI Bioscience, CBS and Landcare Research (the custodians).
Index Nominum Genericorum (ING), a collaborative project of the International Association for Plant Taxonomy (IAPT) and the Smithsonian Institution, was initiated in 1954 as a compilation of generic names published for all organisms covered by the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature
Infonatura - Birds, Mammals and Amphibians of Latin America. A conservation and educational resource on the birds, mammals and amphibians of Latin America and the Caribbean. You can use InfoNatura to learn about more than 8,500 common, rare and endangered species.
Integrated Botanical Information System- IBIS, the Integrated Botanical Information System, is a single relational database that links the data held in the various collections of the Australian National Botanic Gardens, the Australian National Herbarium, the Australian Plant Image Index and the Australian Plant Name Index.
Integrated Botanical Information System- Search the Australian National Herbarium (CANB) herbarium database records. Data may be queried by matching text patterns on a number of fields and data reports are available in a number of different formats. Most fields are case sensitive and the wildcard is the percentage sign (%). A valid user name and password is required to access all of the download options and data elements available through this database gateway.
Integrated Taxonomic Information System- An Integrated Taxonomic Information System! Here you will find authoritative taxonomic information on plants, animals, fungi, and microbes of North America and the world.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
International Legume Data Base and Information Service- Catalogue of world legume species. Search for invasive legume species by scientific name. Results indicate existence of weedy populations, invasion impacts, invasive potential and status.
International Organisation for Plant Information- The International Organization for Plant Information (IOPI) will provide a series of computerized databases summarizing taxonomic, biological, and other information on plants of the world. IOPI's mission is to develop an efficient and effective means of providing basic plant information to users, and guide them toward sources of authoritative data. IOPI is a member of Species 2000, and is a supporter of GBIF.
International Plant Names Index - home page
IUCN - Commission on Education and Communication (CEC) - Links Education for Sustainable Development
IUCN - The World Conservation Union - Features information on biodiversity and endangered species in forests, wetlands, and marine and coastal ecosystems, as well as on environmental law.
IUCN Invasive Species Specialist Group - The ISSG aims to reduce threats to natural ecosystems and the native species they contain - by increasing awareness of invasions, and of ways to prevent, control, or eradicate them.
IUCN Redlist of threatened species
IUCN Species Survival Commission - A large network of conservation experts brought together to work against the species extinction crisis.
Kew Herbarium Catalogue- The Herbarium at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew houses approximately 7 million specimens, collected from all around the world. Specimens are either pressed and dried or preserved in spirit. Kew is committed to making this important collection more accessible to botanists and others, wherever they may be, for use in their own projects: particularly in biodiversity, conservation, sustainable development and systematics. Currently the Catalogue contains more than 260,000 plant records more than 50,000 of which have digital images available.
Lepidotera (Butterflies)- Lepidoptera are the second-most diverse order of insects (after Coleoptera – the beetles). There are about 180,000 known species of Lepidoptera and another 300,000 likely await description. This site is the on-line home of an effort that employs DNA barcoding to advance the identification and discovery of Lepidoptera.
Macaulay Library - Animal Sound & Video Catalog
Mammal Species of the World- The Mammal Species of the World (MSW) is a database of mammalian taxonomy. It is hoped that this database on the World Wide Web can be used as a convenient on-line reference for identifying or verifying recognized scientific names and for taxonomic research.
MaNIS- Mammal Networked Information System- With support from the National Science Foundation, seventeen North American institutions and their collaborators developed the Mammal Networked Information System.
MarBEF- a network of excellence funded by the European Union and consisting of 92 European marine institutes, is a platform to integrate and disseminate knowledge and expertise on marine biodiversity, with links to researchers, industry, stakeholders and the general public
Missouri Botanical Garden's VAST (VAScular Tropicos) nomenclatural database and associated authority files.
Morphbank- Morphbank is an open web repository of biological images documenting specimen-based research in comparative anatomy, morphological phylogenetics, taxonomy and related fields focused on increasing our knowledge about biodiversity. The project receives its main funding from the Biological Databases and Informatics program of the National Science Foundation. Morphbank is developing cyber infrastructure to support a wide array of biological disciplines such as taxonomy, systematics, evolutionary biology, plant science and animal science. Morphbank serves as a permanent archive allowing storage and sharing of digital images. At the same time, it is a collaborative platform supporting large international groups of scientists. Among other things, morphbank tools allow scientists to share specimen images, add information to existing images by annotating them, remotely curate natural history collections based on images of their specimens, build phylogenetic character matrices based on images, and create, manage, and share their own collections of digital images.
Moss Checklist- Mosses are the second largest group of plants, after the enormously richer angiosperms. A Checklist of Mosses lists 12,800 recognized species in 901 genera, including 42 synonymous genera with species that have not been transferred to the accepted genus.
MSU Global access - a searchable database of over 5,000 annotated links, and features country specific pages, maps, international news headlines, and more.
National Biodiversity Network -an information network of biodiversity data provided by a collaboration of organisations, such as the UK nature agencies, wildlife trusts, the Natural History Museum and others.
National Biological Information Infrastructure. The National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII) is a broad, collaborative program to provide increased access to data and information on the US’s biological resources
National Science Collections Alliance- Accesses a wide range of data bases. The Natural Science Collections Alliance is a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit association that supports natural science collections, their human resources, the institutions that house them, and their research activities for the benefit of science and society.
Natural Science Collections Alliance.
Nature and biodiversity contact points in Belgium - Contact points for international nature- and biodiversity-related agreements and organisations.
Nature Navigator- Nature Navigator provides a single access point to information on more than 10,000 of the best-known species that occur in Britain - in essence, those that bear a vernacular name. It is aimed at the general public and provides a simple way to access scientific classification using familiar names for species and higher groupings.
NatureServe- NatureServe represents an international network of biological inventories—known as natural heritage programs or conservation data centres—operating in all 50 U.S. states, Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean.
NBN Species Dictionary- The Species Dictionary aims to provide a standard reference for names of organisms found in the United Kingdom. It is a project of the National Biodiversity Network and is hosted and managed by the Natural History Museum, London.
New York State Biodiversity Research Institute -Gateway site to biodiversity resources and services provided by the NYS Museum
New York Botanical Garden- Contains links to Index Herborium, Living Collections Catalog, Index to American Botanical Literature and more
Open Directory - Science: Environment: Biodiversity: Conservation
Pacific Biodiversity Information Forum- Home Page
Phasmida Species File- The Phasmida Species File is a taxonomic database of the world's living Phasmida [=Phasmatodea](stick and leaf insects). It has full synonymic and taxonomic information for c. 2,800 valid species, numerous citations and type specimen data, and an ever increasing number of images.
Plantlife - www.plantlife.org.uk Dedicated exclusively to conserving all forms of plant life in their natural habitats.
Ramsar Convention on Wetlands - An intergovernmental treaty which provides the framework for national action and international cooperation for the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources.
Regional Seas Conventions - Regional Seas
Research and Analysis Network for Neotropical Amphibians (RANA)
Seamounts Online- SeamountsOnline is a NSF-funded project designed to gather information on species found in seamount habitats, and to provide a freely-available online resource for accessing and downloading these data. It is designed to facilitate research into seamount ecology, and to act as a resource for managers.
Species 2000: Indexing the World's Known Species
Biodiversity from a United Kingdom (UK) perspective.
Species Dictionary- The Dictionary is made up from a collection of over 210 separate checklists containing more than 196,000 versions of taxonomic names and other associated information. You can either search individual lists or find organisms by their common or scientific name.
TDWG: Biodiversity Information Projects of the World Lists 520 biodiversity information projects around the globe. Wonderful resource andour thanks to them for gathering this information.
The Medusa network- Mediterranean plant data base
Tree of Life Web Project containing information about the diversity of organisms on Earth, their history, and characteristics. The information is linked together in the form of the evolutionary tree that connects all organisms to each other. The Tree of Life is a collaborative Internet project containing information about phylogeny and biodiversity. This is one of the portals for access to its resources.
UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre (WCMC) - species & habitats conservation. The United Nations Environment Programme's (UNEP's) World Conservation Monitoring Centre provides information services on conservation and sustainable use of the world's living resources, and helps others to develop information systems of their own. The Biodiversity Assessment Programme provides and facilitates access to information on species of conservation concern. The goal is to support policy and action for the conservation and sustainable management of biological diversity by providing integrated information on status, trends, distribution and use
UNEP-WCMC Species Conservation Database - Animals -the web frontend to the United Nations Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre species conservation database of animals. This website provides access to the international legislative and distribution information of animal species throughout the world.
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
United Nations System-Wide Earthwatch
Universal Information Projects of the World- The directory of ICTVdB is an Index of Viruses, a list of approved virus names linked to virus descriptions coded from information in Virus Taxonomy: The Seventh Report of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses, van Regenmortel et al. (eds) Academic Press (2000), and includes updates subsequently approved by ICTV. It also incorporates the plant virus database VIDEdB and is illustrated with EM pictures, diagrams and images of symptoms contributed by virologists around the world.
World Atlas of Biodiversity- This web site is an interactive map showing a range of information about biodiversity
World Biodiversity Database (WBD) is a continuously growing taxonomic database and information system that allows you to search and browse a number of online species banks covering a wide variety of organisms. The 20 species banks accessible through the WBD offer taxonomic information, species names, synonyms, descriptions, illustrations and literature references, as well as online identification keys and interactive geographical information systems
World Biodiversity Database- The WBD currently consists of 20 separate projects, each with its own interface and feature set. These projects cover a total of 25472 unique taxa, plus an additional 3958 synonyms.
World Checklist of Monocotyledons -The Checklist contains the accepted scientific names and synonyms and distribution of all 75,000 species of monocotyledon. You can search using scientific name (including place or date of publication) or area of the world in which the plant grows (using TDWG categories). You can also generate a synonymised checklist (in various formats) for a given taxonomic group and /or place.
Checklist currently covers 78 families mostly following APG/2 and contains over 200,000 names.
World Checklist of Selected Plant Families- The Checklist currently covers 150 families mostly following APG/2.
World Conservation Union (IUCN) .
World Data Center for Biodiversity and Ecology- The WDC for Biodiversity and Ecology contains data related to federal, state, non-profit, university, and private sector research data and information gathered within the United States. This information includes land cover (vegetation mapping, gap analysis), species information, regional information throughout the U.S., national level data and information related to bird conservation, invasive species, fisheries and aquatic resources, wildlife disease, and amphibian declines.
World Data Center for Biodiversity and Terrestrial Ecology
World Profira Database- As a result of long term accumulation of literature records of extant sponges by Rob van Soest and John Hooper, we can now for the first time present a searchable preliminary world database of all recent sponges ever described. The list is a logical follow up and addition to the Systema Porifera (editors Hooper & Van Soest, 2002).
World Spider Catalog- A successor to 14 published volumes by Bonnet, Roewer, Brignoli, and Platnick, the World Spider Catalog aims to provide listings of all currently valid species, genera, and families of spiders, all their synonyms, and all significant taxonomic references to each species, from Linnaeus to date. The version available on the web is updated semi-annually; the database version is updated as funding opportunities allow.
