With changes in technology and a renewed effort to catalog the world's biodiversity, huge amounts of data are being generated on biodiversity issues. As response to the call for better information systems to manage the biodiversity crisis, a wide range of solutions are being developed for inventorying, managing, and disseminating taxonomic data. This book brings together a diverse array of authors, expertise, and assessors that discuss technical developments to improve the construction, population, and dissemination of biodiversity information. It is designed to inform students and researchers of biodiversity about the changes and challenges that need to be understood by everyone in this information age.

This book is focused on the development of a data integration framework for retrieval of biodiversity information from heterogeneous and distributed data sources. The data integration system proposed in this book links remote databases in a networked environment, supports heterogeneous databases and data formats, links databases hosted on multiple platforms, and provides data security for database owners by allowing them to keep and maintain their own data and to choose information to be shared and linked. The book is a useful guide for researchers, practitioners, and graduate-level students interested in learning state-of-the-art development for data integration in biodiversity.

Thanks to advances in electronic archiving of biodiversity data and the digitization of climate and other geophysical data, a new era in biogeography, functional ecology, and evolutionary ecology has begun. In Data Mining for Global Trends in Mountain Biodiversity, Christian Korner, Eva M. Spehn, and a team of experts from the Global Mountain Biodi

Global biological diversity, ecosystem diversity.

A comprehensive text and reference book covering all the aspects of biodiversity science for students and researchers of biodiversity, plant science, biotechnology, as well as zoology.

Spatially explicit data on the location of species across broad geographic areas greatly facilitate effective conservation planning on lands managed for multiple uses. The importance of these data notwithstanding, our knowledge about the geography of biodiversity is remarkably incomplete. An important factor contributing to our ignorance is that much of the biodiversity data are not readily accessible because they are dispersed across many institutions and often have not been digitized. This report documents our efforts to address these conservation planning constraints. We have compiled extant data on predicted species distributions and more than 680,000 occurrence records for terrestrial vertebrates and butterflies into a single digital database for general use in conducting geographically broad biodiversity assessments across a two-state area (Arizona and New Mexico) that defines the Southwestern Region of the USDA, Forest Service. These data represent one of the most complete databases on species occurrence to be compiled for the Southwest. Our objectives are twofold: (1) to document the types, sources, and characteristics of the data comprising the biodiversity database; and (2) to illustrate the utility of the data in addressing applied conservation problems across the Southwestern Region. We report on three case studies that illustrate how the data can be used to generate simple distribution maps using both point locations and predicted ranges, describe the patterns of species richness for seletected taxa across the Southwest, and provide an example of how managers may use the data to identify where potential resource conflicts may be par-ticularly important on National Forest System lands.

Biodiversity protection encompasses key aspects directly related to the sustainability of our food systems: BFA provides a diverse and heterogenous biological basis for diverse and resilient production systems, for the pollination of cultures, for increased diversity of food, and is strongly linked to local and indigenous knowledge on local crops and breeds acknowledged as cultural heritage. This study examines the existence of data collection, monitoring systems, and conservation initiatives as well as legislation and policies related to biodiversity for food and agriculture in the three following regions: (1) Central Asia, (2) the South Caucasus countries, Turkey, Belarus and Ukraine and (3) the Western Balkan countries and the Republic of Moldova. From this study, it appears that none of the three studied regions currently have any solid monitoring schemes for agricultural biodiversity, nor do they have a strong legal framework for protecting farmers’ rights to seeds that would allow them, amongst other things, to maintain biodiversity. Conservation actions, policies, and legislation generally concern wild biodiversity conservation (through habitat protection) and crop genetic resources conservation but rarely address biodiversity for food and agriculture or wild biodiversity loss caused by food systems. The three regional reports conducted in the framework of this study reported a general lack of capacities and a particularly low level of involvement of farmers and other food producers in monitoring, data collection, and conservation activities. The combination of these two major observations leads us to the conclusion that the governance of BFA should be transformed to put food producers at the centre of biodiversity monitoring and conservation, in dialogue with scientists and institutional actors. Their specific expertise must be acknowledged and valued in the efforts of preserving the biodiversity that they cultivate and sustain. Beyond this needed shift in the governance of monitoring activities, we highlight the necessity of a regional articulation of monitoring efforts and a specific focus on local threatened varieties and breeds (beyond habitat conservation), while very comprehensively considering BFA and wild biodiversity impacted by food systems. Regarding biodiversity protection, we recommend – in addition to farmer-centered data collection and monitoring system implementation – addressing the root causes of biodiversity loss, adopting a systematic approach in legislations, policies, and actions while supporting agroecology, and fulfilling international instruments that guarantee the rights of producers to grow and raise local varieties and breeds.

The use of digital technology in our societies is growing to meet the ever-increasing challenges of data collection, raising awareness, education and understanding nature. Artificial intelligence, for example, appears to be the answer to collecting massive amounts of data on biodiversity at a global scale and facilitating citizen participation in such data collection. Linking with Nature in the Digital Age explores the reconfiguration of our relationship with nature within this digital framework. This book examines this mediated linking from three angles. Firstly, it shows how digital technology can foster the development of links to nature. Then, it describes in greater detail the materiality of these links and how they have evolved with the developments in information technology. Finally, it questions the belief in the digital as a facilitator and opens up new perspectives on our relationship with nature and the living world