Biodiversity informatics

Research Directions in Biodiversity Informatics

This paper provides an introduction to the major research directions in biodiversity informatics. The biodiversity enterprise is a vast and complex information domain. I describe the need to build infrastructure for this domain, major research thrusts needed to improve its work practices, and areas of research that could contribute to the advancement of the field. I emphasize that the science o...

Historical Considerations in Biodiversity Informatics

Historical collections of biological specimens are potentially rich sources of data for contemporary researchers. However, many technical issues have to be addressed in order to make these collections widely available. This paper reports on a qualitative study of historical and current data practices at the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, which is seeking wider understanding of the h...

Biodiversity Informatics Infrastructure: An Information Commons for the Biodiversity Community

This paper provides an overview of efforts to create an informatics infrastructure for the biodiversity community. A vast amount of biodiversity information exists, but no comprehensive infrastructure is in place to provide easy assess and effective use of this information. The advent of modern information technologies provides a foundation for a remedy. Biodiversity informatics infrastructures...

Biodiversity informatics: managing and applying primary biodiversity data.

Recently, advances in information technology and an increased willingness to share primary biodiversity data are enabling unprecedented access to it. By combining presences of species data with electronic cartography via a number of algorithms, estimating niches of species and their areas of distribution becomes feasible at resolutions one to three orders of magnitude higher than it was possibl...

Internet-based Ant Taxonomy and Biodiversity Informatics