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Final Biodiversity Report
53
Creating a Ten-Year Global, Integrative, Multi-Dimensional Biodiversity Initiative Results of a Workshop sponsored by With assistance from
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Transcript of Final Biodiversity Report
Creating a Ten-Year Global, Integrative,
Multi-Dimensional Biodiversity Initiative
Results of a Workshop sponsored by
With assistance from
2
Creating a Ten-Year Global, Integrative, Multi-Dimensional
Biodiversity Initiative
Results of a Workshop sponsored by the National Science Foundation,
December 1 – 2, 2009
David E. Blockstein1, Margaret Goud Collins
2, James Edwards
3, Terri
Killeffer4, and David Schindel
5
Copyright 2011 National Council for Science and the Environment. Permission to copy and/or distribute
all or part of the information contained herein is granted, provided that such copies carry due
attribution to the National Council for Science and the Environment (NCSE), 1101 17th
St. NW,
Washington, DC 20036; 202-530-5810; www.ncseonline.org/biodiversity
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No.
0970022.
1 National Council for Science and the Environment
2 US National Academy of Sciences, US National Committee for DIVERSITAS
3 Encyclopedia of Life, Smithsonian Institution
4 Information International Associates, Inc.
5 Consortium for the Barcode of Life, Smithsonian Institution
3
Contents
Executive Summary: A Multi-dimensional Research Program for Global Biodiversity ............................ 4
Introduction: Biodiversity in a Rapidly Changing World ......................................................................... 7
Section I. The Biodiversity Research Support Community: Capacity, Activities, and Needs ................. 10
A. Current Situation: Characterization of the Community ........................................................... 10
1. ......................................................................................................................................
Survey Results .................................................................................................................... 11
2. ......................................................................................................................................
Perspectives from the Workshop ........................................................................................ 20
B. Key Issues of Concern ............................................................................................................. 26
1. ......................................................................................................................................
Barriers to Success .............................................................................................................. 26
2. ......................................................................................................................................
Unmet Needs ..................................................................................................................... 27
3. ......................................................................................................................................
Current Capacity ................................................................................................................. 27
4. ......................................................................................................................................
Gaps in Supporting Information .......................................................................................... 27
5. ......................................................................................................................................
Scientific Challenges ........................................................................................................... 28
Section II. Key Findings and Recommendations ................................................................................... 30
A. Goals and Deliverables of a Ten-year Initiative .......................................................................... 30
B. Community Actions Needed ...................................................................................................... 32
C. Government Actions Needed .................................................................................................... 34
Section III. References .......................................................................................................................... 37
Appendices ........................................................................................................................................... 39
Appendix A. Workshop Participants ............................................................................................... 39
Appendix B. Mission statements of Biodiversity Support Organizations ......................................... 43
Appendix C. Respondents to Questionnaire .................................................................................. 51
4
Executive Summary: A Multi-dimensional Research Program for Global
Biodiversity
The National Council for Science and the Environment (NCSE) and its partners, US National Committee
for DIVERSITAS of the US National Academy of Sciences, and the Encyclopedia of Life of the Smithsonian
Institution convened a two-day workshop, “Enabling Biodiversity Research: the Roles of Information and
Support Networks” in December 2009 at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, DC. The
workshop was held in the context of “Dimensions of Biodiversity”, a 10-year research initiative being
developed by the US National Science Foundation. The 60 participants represented national and
international biodiversity research institutions, most of which focus on building the information and
reference collection infrastructures and services that are critical for biodiversity research. The workshop
followed up on issues raised at NCSE’s 9th
National Conference on Science, Policy and the Environment
in December 2008, which explored the challenges of Biodiversity in a Rapidly Changing World.
The workshop and this report characterize the community that supports biodiversity research by
housing scientific collections, generating and sharing information, and providing funding and other types
of support. The community, while containing many dedicated individuals and excellent institutions, is
not sufficiently funded, organized nor large enough to meet the challenges of understanding biodiversity
in time to avoid catastrophic losses of life’s richness. There is a serious scarcity of biodiversity
researchers and supporting organizations in the tropics, which contain the vast majority of biodiversity.
It is important that researchers and supporting organizations around the world band together to enable
and undertake a Multi-dimensional Research Program for Global Biodiversity.
This document presents the basis for a global initiative to understand the fundamentals of biodiversity
through cooperation among the institutions that enable research by providing research facilities,
taxonomic and database resources, and otherwise supporting research.
The Status of Biodiversity Research
Participants in the workshop would like to know what they don’t know. While this statement may sound
ridiculous, it is a valid concern. To completely understand the basic interactions of the world in which we
all live, the starting point begins with “how many species exist?” The next problematic step is to define a
species. Species-level diversity is a traditional core of biodiversity research, and continues to be the
basic building block, but any definition of ‘biodiversity’ must extend much farther. Diversity is universal
and evolution operates on the levels of genes, developmental pathways, physiology, populations,
communities and ecosystems. National and international research communities have grown and thrived
to focus on each of these levels of biodiversity. For each level, basic and applied research plus the
necessary research infrastructure have grown interactively, including:
Genetic
• GenBank
• European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL)
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• DNA Data Bank of Japan (DDBJ)
• Barcode of Life
Species-level
• Census of Marine Life
• Tropical Ecology Assessment & Monitoring (TEAM) Network
• All Taxa Biodiversity Inventories (ATBI)
• Catalogue of Life/Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS)
• Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)
• biodiversity informatics
Applied research
• Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR)
Ecosystems
• Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network
• National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON)
• LifeWatch
• Group on Earth Observations Biodiversity Observatory Network (GEO BON)
A Ten-year Vision for Biodiversity Research
The coming decades will challenge research communities and the research infrastructures they have
built to grow across the traditional boundaries that have separated them. Participants in the workshop
agreed that a new generation of ‘multi-dimensional’ research is needed to understand the feedbacks
and feed-forwards that link genes, gene expression, development, physiology, population and
community ecology, speciation, ecosystem functioning, and other dimensions of biodiversity.
Research infrastructures, especially reference collections and databases, will need to expand their
missions and programs of work. In addition to providing access to comprehensive resources on one
dimension of biodiversity, infrastructures will need to develop ways for researchers to navigate from the
information sources they usually use into other dimensions, to support a new generation of research.
The ‘interoperability challenge’ is already being addressed through broad initiatives such as e-Biosphere,
NEON/LifeWatch, and the Barcode of Life.
Information technology will be a critical component in enabling a new generation of multi-dimensional
research on biodiversity. IT has vastly increased access to information within a research community, but
much more will be required for multi-dimensional research.
• How will researchers link and retrieve information that reside in different databases and were
built using different data standards?
• After we have retrieved and assembled these multi-dimensional data, how will researchers work
with them?
6
Over the coming decade, the newly defined biodiversity research community will need to develop new
research laboratories and environments that will enable:
• International and interdisciplinary collaboration in virtual laboratories created on the Web;
• Digitization and annotation of new families of information ranging across satellite imagery,
ground-based monitoring, museum collections, social science surveys, and gene sequences;
• New approaches to knowledge representation in biology that render data not only
interoperable and retrievable, but computable; and
• In-depth partnerships with computer scientists and informaticians devoted to creating
computational approaches to a vastly expanded body of biodiversity data.
Additional information and background resources can be found at
http://www.ncseonline.org/biodiversity/
7
Introduction: Biodiversity in a Rapidly Changing World
As the world moves on from the International Year of Biodiversity (2010), the global biodiversity
situation is perilous. Unprecedented losses are continuing to accelerate on all scales and in all aspects
of biodiversity. Global trends of population growth, climatic disruption and unsustainable economic
activity are driving major losses of irretrievable knowledge and resources.
Losses of biodiversity act synergistically with climate change. Globally, some 20% of carbon dioxide
emissions are due to deforestation - particularly of tropical forests, the richest and most diverse
terrestrial ecosystem. Ocean acidification is reducing the buffering capacity of the world’s largest source
of carbon storage, disturbing the biological processes that drive the carbon cycle, damaging the bases of
food webs, and leading to the endangerment of the biologically rich coral reef ecosystems.
What we don’t know is hurting us. Large voids in knowledge are hampering our ability to use
biodiversity sustainably and to conserve life’s richness for the long term. Scientists still know very little
about most of the organisms that co-inhabit this planet. We do not know whether there are tens of
millions or hundreds of millions of species. The vast majority of the Earth’s species of plants, animals
and microorganisms still do not have scientific names, nor do we know their natural history, functional
roles, or the genetic and biochemical resources they contain. Resolving these mysteries becomes more
problematic with a continual drop in the number of scientists studying systematics and taxonomy.
Organisms give us a livable planet by producing oxygen, degrading wastes, cleaning our air and water,
providing us with food, building materials and pharmaceuticals, and a whole host of other ecosystem
services. We desperately need to determine the dimensions of the unknown biodiversity that surrounds
us. These issues have been made clear in reports over the past 20 plus years including by the National
Science Board (NSB) (Loss of Biological Diversity: A Global Crisis Requiring International Solutions, 1989),
the President’s Committee of Advisers on Science and Technology (PCAST) – (Teaming with Life, 1998),
and the proposed action plan by Peter Raven and E. O. Wilson (Science, 1992) as well as more recent
reports listed below.
Despite the scope of the problem and the workforce challenges, a renewed sense of opportunity in the
biodiversity science community has been generated by a tremendous flowering of new techniques for
biodiversity observation, research, data storage, and analysis. Advances in molecular biology, genetics,
cyberinfrastructure, computational biology and other fields have enabled biodiversity studies that were
never previously possible. The scientific community can now begin a systematic re-assessment of the
scientific capacity for biodiversity research, the challenges and opportunities posed by changes in
biodiversity, biodiversity science and biodiversity support services. There are likewise new opportunities
to rapidly characterize biodiversity, and advances in technology, collaboration, funding, permitting, etc.
may allow the community to scale up its knowledge quickly.
8
Previous efforts to identify the resource needs and the activities that fill those needs have only
addressed portions of the biodiversity community. There have been no attempts to examine the needs
of the biodiversity research community as a whole, or to focus on the integrative efforts that will be
needed to ascertain the dimensions of what scientists have yet to learn about biodiversity and its
functioning in ecosystems around the world.. Some of these previous reports and ongoing activities
include:
• Systematics Agenda 2000 (1994) examined the needs of the taxonomic community.
• The US National Science and Technology Council report on Scientific Collections: Mission-Critical
Infrastructure for Federal Science Agencies (2009) focused on collections maintained by US
federal agencies.
• The OECD’s Global Science Forum has compiled reports including Biological Resource Centres:
Underpinning the Future of Life sciences and Biotechnology (2001) and Policy Issues Related to
Scientific Research Collections (2008).
• e-Biosphere 09 (http://www.e-biosphere09.org/) was devoted to developing interoperable
cyberinfrastructure for biodiversity.
• The Global Biodiversity Assessment (1995) attempted to examine biodiversity in all its aspects
and in an international context, but is now badly out of date.
• The National Academy has addressed elements of these questions in a number of reports,
including NEON: Addressing the Nation’s Environmental Challenges (2003), A Biological Survey
for the Nation (1994), and Earth Science and Applications from Space: National Imperatives for
the Next Decade and Beyond (2007) with a chapter on “Land-Use Change, Ecosystem Dynamics,
and Biodiversity."
• The 2010 Biodiversity Indicators Partnership of over 40 international organizations
(www.twentyten.net) is developed a set of 22 biodiversity indicators in preparation for the
Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) meeting in Nagoya, Japan in November 2010. The
initiative is sponsored by the UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre (WCMC).
• Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) conducted a United States Botanical Capacity
Assessment (http://www.bgci.org/usa/bcap) in 2009.
• Community efforts to identify top research questions in conservation biology have been
conducted in the U.K. (Sutherland et al. 2006, 2009, 2010) the US (Fleishman et al, 2011) and
Canada.
A large and vibrant international community of nongovernmental organizations supports
biodiversity research by providing logistics, informatics, funding, and integrative services for
biodiversity research.
The US National Science Foundation (NSF), seeking to understand the extent and functions of
biodiversity, have initiated plans for a decade-long campaign to characterize the key but understudied
dimensions of biodiversity. “The Dimensions of Biodiversity initiative seeks to characterize biodiversity
on Earth by using integrative, innovative approaches to fill rapidly the most substantial gaps in our
understanding of the diversity of life on Earth. This campaign will take a broad view of biodiversity, and
9
in its initial phase will focus on the integration of genetic, taxonomic and functional dimensions of
biodiversity… By 2020, the Dimensions of Biodiversity campaign is expected to have transformed how
we describe and understand the scope and role of life on Earth. The campaign promotes novel,
integrated approaches to identify and understand the evolutionary and ecological significance of the
dimensions of biodiversity amidst the changing environment of the present day and geological past”
(NSF 2010 – Program Solicitation 10-548 and NSF 2011 – Program Solicitation 11-518).
Success of this initiative depends in large measure on coordination and support from a diverse
community of organizations and institutions that maintain biodiversity databases and collections,
develop new informatics tools and other cyberinfrastructure, and provide logistical support and funding
for biodiversity researchers.
This document presents the basis for a global initiative to understand the fundamentals of biodiversity
through cooperation among the institutions that enable research by providing research facilities,
taxonomic and database resources, and supporting research.
It is based on a workshop funded by the NSF and held at the National Academy of Sciences in
Washington, DC in December 2009. The major goal of the proposed workshop was to bring together
representatives from this community to assess the institutional capacity for research support and
develop approaches and collaborations for building increased capacity. Specific workshop activities
included:
• Develop a compendium of the kinds of enabling support currently being provided;
• Identify significant gaps in this support;
• Propose mechanisms to fill those gaps; and
• Develop strategies for strengthening communication and cooperation among the elements of
the community
The workshop was organized by a partnership of the National Council for Science and the Environment
(NCSE), Encyclopedia of Life (EoL) and the US National Committee for DIVERSITAS. Information
International Associates (IIa) provided analysis of the state of the biodiversity research community.
Additional information and background resources can be found at
http://www.ncseonline.org/biodiversity/
10
Section I. The Biodiversity Research Support Community: Capacity,
Activities, and Needs
A. Current Situation: Characterization of the Community
Non-governmental organizations and institutions provide a large proportion of the infrastructure,
coordination and support that serves as the foundation for biodiversity research. These institutions
range from individual museums, botanical gardens, zoos, and other organizations to national and multi-
national networks established to enable greater understanding of biological diversity. They enable
research by providing logistics, informatics, funding, and integrative services. They address the full
range of biodiversity components and questions from molecules to ecosystems, and include genetic,
taxonomic and functional elements of biodiversity.
The community includes approximately 65 leading institutions, organizations and networks. Almost all of
these are based in Europe and the United States (see Appendix B). Each of the 65 was invited to
participate in the December 2009 workshop and in the pre-workshop questionnaire. More than 65%
participated directly in the workshop (Appendix A) or indirectly by responding to the survey (Appendix
C). Thus, this report represents the vast majority of the leadership of the international biodiversity
support community.
Although this community includes many organizations, partnerships, and dedicated individuals, it lacks
unity and coherence as an international community. In general, the European organizations are much
better networked and coordinated than their American counterparts. . With a few notable exceptions
such as the well organized biodiversity research communities in Mexico and Brazil, there is an enormous
and serious lack of organizations and individual capacity in the developing nations, where most of the
world’s biodiversity resides.
The following characterizes the organizations based on self-responses to a series of survey questions.
The survey and analysis were conducted by Terri Killeffer of Information International Associates
(Killeffer 2009). A list of respondents can be found in Appendix C.
11
1. Survey Results
How much of the institutional budget is directed towards biodiversity?
More than half (18) of 31 organizations responding to the question – devote 100% of their budget to
biodiversity (Figure 1).
6
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20
N/A Spend 100%
Spend 80%
Spend 50%
Spend 35%
Spend 13%
Spend 10%
Spend 2%
Spend 1%
Spend 0%
Figure 1
12
Who is the primary funding source?
Government (25 organizations) and foundations (20 organizations) are the primary funders for more
than half of the organizations (Figure 2). Commerce was not a primary funding source for any of these
groups.
Primary Funding Sources7
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
Allowed to select up to three
Figure 2
How important is the US National Science Foundation as a funder for these organizations?
Of 13 organizations that reported receiving funds from the US National Science Foundation (NSF), 4
organizations receive more than 65% of their funds from NSF, with the remainder receiving 33% or less
(Figure 3). Many of the participating organizations were not based in the US and thus are not eligible for
NSF funding.
13
What is the geographic focus of the organization?
More than half (60%) have a global focus, with 18% having a continental focus, 12% nationally focused
and 8% transnational.
14
What types of organizational activities are undertaken?
A wide range of activities are carried out. More than 75% provide biodiversity data and half undertake
educational activities. None of the respondents provide commercial products (Figure 4).
Organizational Activities10
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
Allowed to select all that apply
Figure 4
15
What types of information are provided?
Some 75% of the organizations provide biological information about species – especially species
occurrence data. Nearly half provide ecological data, a variety of information tools, and other types of
information (Figure 5).
Information Provided by Organization11
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
Allowed to select all that apply
Figure 5
What taxonomic groups are addressed?
Although nearly half of the community (17 organizations) includes at least some information on all
taxonomic groups, only 4 organizations emphasize all taxonomic groups. The rest focus on one a few
taxonomic groups; these specialized groups cover essentially all groups from microorganisms to
vertebrates.
What types of ecological data are provided?
More than 20 types of ecological data are provided by organizations including:
• Biogeographic Distribution
• Climate Data
• Demographic Data
• Ecological Indicators
• Ecological Thematic Layers
• Ecosystem Type
• Elevation Model (digital)
• Environmental Preferences
16
• Evolutionary Relationships
• International Ecological Classification Standard
• Life History
• Marine Environmental Parameters
• Physiochemical Characteristics
• Population Distribution and Dynamics
• Remotely Sensed Environmental Parameters
• Soil Map (digital)
• Trophic Ecology
How are data used for management?
Almost all data providers make information available for management of a variety of types. Data from
more than 75% of the sources were used with respect to ecosystem services, with data from half or
fewer used for any other single type of natural resource management. Less than 10% provided data
relevant to agriculture (Figure 6).
Biodiversity/Ecosystem Resource Management Data Types Provided
14
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
Allowed to select all that apply
Figure 6
17
What types of habitat are covered?
The largest coverage is for marine (80%) and coastal (67%) with more than 50% of the organizations
including information on terrestrial systems of a variety of types (Figure 7).
Habitat Types Covered15
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
Allowed to select all that apply
Figure 7
What types of genetic data are provided?
Genetic data provided includes sequences (14 organizations), bar codes (13), annotation (6) and “other”
(13). Twelve organizations do not provide genetic data.
What types of digital library resources are provided?
Secondary services (e.g. indexing and abstracting) are provided by 15 groups. Twelve provide access to
the original literature or other types of digital library resources. Six provide policy and legal documents
and another six groups do not provide digital library resources.
18
What types of web accessible data and information are provided?
More than half the organizations provide online access to specimen or observational data or document
standards and protocols or names catalogs. Controlled terminology is provided by 25% of the groups
and other web accessible data are provided by 25% (10 groups). Only two groups do not provide web
accessible data. A wide variety of web applications and tools are provided, with the vast majority being
available through open sources (Figure 8).
Web Services – Applications/Tools19
0
5
10
15
20
25 Apps/Tools
Open source
Allowed to select all that apply
Figure 8
Is biodiversity information infrastructure provided?
64% of the organizations develop or provide standards, protocols, support, software, or other types of
information infrastructure; whereas 28% do not (8% did not answer). 71% develop or provide data or
metadata standards and protocols; 18% do not and 11% did not respond.
Visualization tools are provided by 19 organizations, analytical tools by 18 and modeling by 9 groups.
Other informatics tools are provided by 11 groups. 25 groups provide portals or websites with
information from multiple sites whereas 14 only provide their own information.
Who are the target users?
Almost all organizations (35) target the scientific community, with students (31), educators (30), the
science-attentive public and policymakers (each 26), information intermediaries and natural resource
managers (24 each), the general public (15) and other users (5) as lesser audiences.
19
Are products and services available without charge?
All responders had some form of free products and services with eight having additional restrictions.
What kinds of logistical support are provided?
67% of the organizations provide some logistical support; while 31% do not. The support includes:
• Support
o Financial
o Policy
o Education through publications
o Lab space
o Vehicles
• Technology
o Tools
o Infrastructure
o Standards
• Training
• Networking and Collaboration
Do organizations assist with research permitting?
Only 13% of the organizations help with permitting issues although other groups have member groups
that are involved in permitting but do not participate themselves. Some organizations have blanket
permits from particular countries related to threatened or protected species.
20
2. Perspectives from the Workshop
The December 2009 workshop included a set of breakout groups aimed at defining the community and
characterizing its activities. The participants were provided with a set of questions, and the following
reports were provided as summaries of the main points of those discussions.
a. Who are the members and key user constituencies of the groups and networks represented at the
meeting?
• Field station “community”: 200-300 field stations in North and South America
• Ecological research community
• Natural resource management community
• Monographic taxonomic experts, delivering data through global standard databases; 515 sectors
via 71 providers
• 95 research institutes and universities doing research on marine biodiversity—taxonomy,
species distributions, functional roles, physiology, socio-economic aspects of biodiversity.
• Metagenomics (at community level) and genomics (at species level) researchers, and a broad
range of consumers of these data.
• Catalog of Life, 10 major users: 8-10 data portals like the Global Biodiversity Information
Facility (GBIF), 40 national portals, 40,000 individual users of the site per year, first commercial
users
• 1000 governmental and non-governmental members of International Union for Conservation
of Nature (IUCN)
• Bioinformatics, computer cyberinfrastructure, metadata developers (processors and
ontologists), Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) sites and other organizations organizing data
in standardized formats connected through the Committee on Data for Science and Technology
(CODATA)
• 4 million citizen scientists (through Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology), bird observation data
(70 million records)
• Suite of formal and informal science education projects in biodiversity, molecular biology and
ecological research: 40,000-50,000 people/year
• Frozen zoo includes 180 institutions, mostly zoological parks in the US, but also 20 other
countries, and some species from wild populations. Contains 8700 cell cultures from over 800
vertebrate taxa. The purpose is conservation research, but resources are used by hundreds of
investigators, especially evolutionary biologists and biomedical scientists. A major source of DNA
for research. Contributors are from Association of Zoo and Aquariums (AZA).
o AZA: 221 institutions, primarily in US, responsible to 175 million zoo visitors per year
• Scientific community ((15 international institutions in Consultative Group on International
Agricultural Research (CGIAR), each having their own network, thousands of people in total)
working on research for food and agriculture for development. Representing 11 gene banks,
agronomic associations, agricultural institutions, plant breeders. Focus on conservation and use
of biodiversity for crops. 470,000 samples are exchanged among members annually. 650,000
21
accessions. Also manage databases of observation data and taxonomic data for identification.
Working on developing data about crop threats. Contribute to GBIF. Cover 1500 crop species.
• Developing country scientists (300-400)
• InterAcademies Panel (IAP): a network of 100 national science academies
• Network of data centers focused on species and ecosystem status and mapping: 15 universities,
10 NGOs, 70 state, federal and tribal government agencies. 4 million data requests per year,
serving conservation planners, threatened and endangered (T&E) species, regulatory
compliance, at-risk species and ecosystem management, and researchers on at-risk species and
ecosystems.
• Encyclopedia of Life (EOL): systematists and taxonomists, general lay community (public, citizen
science), biologists, general, applied users (conservation, management and planning)
o Other users: industrial, bioenergy, waste management, utilities, certification efforts for
buildings (LEED), forestry and biomass production, and sustainable development
• 120 marine labs; 10,000 scientists; remote places
• National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) producing 700 data products
• Morphbank – place for morphologists to put their images, metadata catalog, specimen
information, etc.
• Plant Conservation International – plant search database, global tree specialist group of IUCN;
red list assessment for trees; botanical capacity assessment project funded by National Fish and
Wildlife Foundation
• Data Mining for Global Trends in Mountain Biodiversity – a book From Global Mountain
Biodiversity Assessment
• Encyclopedia of the Earth (maintained by NCSE), peer-reviewed online hyperlinked
encyclopedia aimed primarily at undergraduate students
• Others
b. How do the organizations set priorities and make decisions around biodiversity research? How does
the biodiversity network community interact with the users of biodiversity data in defining an
agenda?
i. Overall challenges in prioritization:
a. Balance between top down and bottom up:
What is the appropriate balance between top-down global priority setting exercises based
on assessments such as the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment and bottom-up approaches
that begin with decisions of individual scientists and institutions? Although top-down
approaches can stimulate investments and new research, often the impetus for global
assessments or international policy mechanisms comes first from the bottom up. Without
dedicated resources, the top-down approach has limited effectiveness.
b. Understanding that there are 2 investment marketplaces (providers and users):
Priorities are set by both the Academic Marketplace (scientific advancement) (provider-
driven) and the Applications Marketplace (e.g. land use and management, conservation)
22
(user-driven). The connection between these 2 marketplaces is currently not very strong.
The goals and motivations of the academic community often differ from those of the user
community. Additionally there are cultural, communication and funding gaps. Mechanisms
to connect researchers and users are relatively few. Funding sources are not systematically
aligned to the needs of either community. Recognition of a matrix of approaches to science,
such as Pasteur’s quadrant (use-inspired basic research) (Stokes 1997) may help to clarify
the situation.
In determining prioritization, funders and researchers should seek to maximize return on
investment (maximize knowledge gained per investment), by enabling re-use of data being
digitized, creating coordinated networks and other means of collaboration. They also need
to consider the cost of not doing something, i.e., what is the cost of ignorance?
ii. Specific approaches of organizations to prioritization include:
• American Zoo and Aquarium Association (AZA) prioritizes its work through taxonomic
advisory groups that identify species needing attention.
• Catalog of Life user group works with identified user community.
• Cyberinfrastructure for Advanced Marine Microbial Ecology Research and Analysis
(CAMERA) has a science advisory board made up of “super-users”
• CGIAR has an inter-center working group on genetic resources that helps to set priorities.
Also led by “challenge programs” which link the centers to international initiatives (e.g.,
genomic challenge and climate change challenge program). The Global Crop Conservation
Trust is building an endowment fund for conservation by Annex 1 crops, which is driving
priorities for conservation and research. Treaty for the Protection of Genetic Resources for
Agriculture (TPGRFA) provides the legal framework for collecting, preserving and exchanging
crop samples.
• CODATA Taxonomic Data Working Group (TDWG) is typically organized around thematic
working groups made up of scientific, informatics, and database experts.
• Frozen Zoo has an internal review group. Also has an internal committee that reviews
requests for uses of genetic data.
• IUCN, Conservation International (CI), and NatureServe together with a number of other
partner organizations (BirdLife International, Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, WildScreen,
Texas A&M University, Sapienza University of Rome, and Botanic Gardens Conservation
International) work together to expand the geographic and taxonomic coverage of the IUCN
Red List and ensure that these data are made widely available for information conservation
planning, management, decision making, and monitoring.
• Marine Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning (MarBEF) network has a science advisory
board that meets twice a year and gives directives.
• NatureServe has standing councils comprised of it member organizations. Also creates ad
hoc work groups to tackle methodology issues. Also sets priorities through participation in
international standards groups like TDWG.
23
• Organization of Biological Field Stations (OBFS) does not attempt to set a scientific agenda
or priorities. They just support principal investigator (PI)-driven research of their members.
• Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) does not attempt to set an agenda. They respond to
proposals that are reviewed by committees that may include outside researchers.
c. What are the community strengths, assets and needs?
i. Strengths & Assests
• Considerable infrastructure, each with its own acronym – a lot of expertise and resources
already in place
• Continuity of organizations and efforts over time (remarkable, given lack of continuity in
funding)
• Ecological/habitat diversity
• Existing, immense network of participants
• Geographical diversity
• International scope Links to national and international policy drivers
• Links to national and international policy makers and influencers
• Taxonomically broad (in many aspects)
• Very broad audience of users, including the public
ii. Needs
• More focus on ecosystem function
• Geographic breadth: Need broader representation by developing countries
• Diversity in genomic data, which are over-represented by “culturable” organisms
• Paleontological expertise: mostly focused on extant biodiversity (rather than fossil record)
• Greater involvement with policy makers
• Standardized assessment methods and networks for collecting, disseminating and accessing
biodiversity data
• Standardized methods for sharing and integration of data (ontologies, and other technical
aspects)
• An expanded open-access culture with a protocol to track provenance of data that makes
people more comfortable sharing data, knowing that they will receive credit for their work
• Expanded human capacity to replace retiring scientists and to expand geographically and
taxonomically
• Standardized infrastructure for collecting and managing biodiversity data
• Better tools for traversing between alternative taxonomies
• Complete the inventory of life forms – and the computational infrastructure to handle it –
there will be an explosion of data as genomics moves forward
• Complete catalogs of known species
• Better understanding of how biodiversity contributes to and influences ecosystem function
• Stronger institutions: weakness is a dependence on “fragile” institutions, which have
uncertain funding streams
• Financial resources
24
d. Issues:
i. Data Issues
• Access to data and specimens
• Analytical tools
• Archiving and storage of data so they can be used in the future scaling of consortium models
internationally
• Attribution
• Bar coding; everything tied to voucher specimen
• Baseline information
• Change detection
• Completeness: How much is enough?
• Data policy – data with metadata need to be made available to the world
• Digitization on a large scale of existing and legacy data
• Emphasizing data quality, usability, replication merit, as we go forward
• Environmental data insufficient
• Geographic data biases
• Incentives for data availability
• Interoperability/data integration: Most data sets weren’t designed to be integrated
• IT infrastructure
• Metadata and standards
• Quality control/fitness for use: too much data locked up by individuals or not in electronic
format
• Scaling and coordination
• Taxonomic improvements
• Tracking use of data once they’re downloaded
• Value added information
ii. Community Issues
• Community is lacking theory and consistent systems of representation: This will come from
knowledge representation and computer science, not from biodiversity science community
• Educating consumers of taxonomic data
• Human resources
• Information in living collections (botanical gardens, zoos, aquariums) not fully utilized –need
to mobilize the network of botanical gardens
• Internationalization, access in different languages and international coordination
• Maximizing potential of biodiversity knowledge sharing
• Mechanisms needed for getting people together and for networking activities
25
• Reward and evaluation incentives (metrics) at the individual level and the institutional level
• Societal and political challenges
• Workflows become critical
iii. Community components
Users:
• Need connections to policy decisions, decision-makers
• Need connections to users – what do they want?
• Need clearer outreach/marketing message to promote public understanding
• Need indicators of biodiversity and ecosystem studies
Researchers:
• Diversify coverage to include poorly known groups, microbes in particular
• Fight data entropy
• Create data standards, probably specific to sub-communities
• Need to overcome fractionation, capitalize on good local solutions that can be scaled up
Funders:
• Focus on intrinsic merit over wider impact results in shorter-term grants to create new
databases versus longer-term support; results in fragility of databases,
organizations, initiatives; loss of the benefits of past investments
• Wider impact should also include longer-term impact: Need longer-term support for
data archives, collections, infrastructure
• Create incentives to digitize resources, open sharing
• Require and enforce data policies that support openness, sharing; create systems for
giving professional credit for contributions to data
• Provide access to data on current investments in biodiversity research and
infrastructure
iv. Other Issues
• Lack of theoretical basis for knowledge representation
• Modeling, macroecological questions
• Evolutionary questions
• Biodiversity as a commodity
• Hardware: decide how much to spend on infrastructure vs. data
• What’s transformative in the thinking?
• Return on Investment: where are the low-cost opportunities?
26
v. Solutions
• Have solved the problems on very small scales
• GEO BON set up to address many issues raised here
• GBIF set up to address these issues at the primary species information level
• GBIF’s strategic plan (GBIF 2006) and work plan (GBIF 210) are good reference documents
for this process
• Funders need to consider applications to be as important as fundamental research
• Leveraging – as we go forward in this initiative, other currently funded projects will bear
additional fruit
• Some of the innovation will come from integration
B. Key Issues of Concern
To identify challenges in providing the support for a major campaign to understand dimensions of
biodiversity, we surveyed the community through a series of open-ended questions. The questions and
a summary of responses are below. The complete set of responses (Killeffer 2009) is available at
www.NCSEonline.org/biodiversity.
1. What are the largest barriers to success in accomplishing your organizational mission?
• Data integration, sharing and access
o Lack of infrastructure
o Incompatibilities of data
• Willingness to share
o Turf sensitivity
o Individual competition
o Publication first
o Needs for proper attribution
• Lack of human capacity and expertise
o Taxonomists
o Field biologists
o Staff
• Lack of financial resources
o Erratic short-term funding
27
2. What are the largest unmet needs in providing information and support related to biodiversity
research globally?
� Access and sharing of data
� Integration of biodiversity data with other data and tools
� Biodiversity indicators for general public as well as decision-makers
� Use and development of advanced web-technologies and tools
� Metadata
3. Is current capacity (including human resources) sufficient to support a major new research
effort on Dimensions of Biodiversity?
� Majority of responders said “No”
� A few said “yes”
� Others weren’t quite sure
• If capacity is insufficient, what are the largest unmet needs? Assessing the capacity of
developing countries
• More people
o Taxonomists
o Biodiversity informaticians
o Curators
• Support
o Policies
o Funding
o Public
4. What are the top major gaps in the support infrastructure for biodiversity science?
� Limited or no access to data, information, specimens, etc.
o Need digital conversion
o Barriers (e.g. bandwidth, trust)
� Need for “Biobanks” or research/data centers
o Capacity development, manage collections, data mining, taxonomic research, etc.
� Lack of training for:
o Biologists in modeling, spatial statistics, etc.
o Young researchers
How can these gaps be filled?
� Increase bioinformatics and cyberinfrastructure
o Data integration
o Data digitization
� Creation of data centers
o Supportive services
o Outreach to developing countries
28
� Increase in funding
o Build a business model
o Approach non-traditional funding
� Education
o Policy & decision-makers, classroom, informal, media, etc.
5. Scientific Challenges
a. What are the top scientific questions that need to be addressed in order to characterize the
dimensions of biodiversity?
Nearly 100 questions were suggested. These questions can be summarized as follows. A full list
of questions and a more complete summary can be found in Killeffer (2009).
• What species exist?
• How many species exist?
• How are species to be defined?
o Taxonomic classification disputes
o Relevant units of biological diversity (macro vs. micro)
• What are the influences of phylogeny and genetics to species diversity/evolution?
o What role does the environment play?
• Where are the species?
o Biogeography
o Range, depth, and elevation
o Landscape, habitat, etc.
• What changes are taking place with biodiversity?
o Threats
o Areas most at-risk
o Loss of ecosystem services
• How can we predict, model, measure, or characterize the ecological processes of
biodiversity in order to:
o Assess impacts of anthropogenic or climatic changes
o Create key mitigation/conservation/management plans
• Human aspect
o Anthropogenic influence/disturbance
o Livestock-agroecosystem interactions
o International cooperation
• What do we already know?
• Technology
o Normalizing information for synthesis and analysis
o Digitization
29
o User interfaces
o Development of composite indicators
• What is our baseline?
b. What are the top scientific questions that should guide exploration of the Earth’s unknown
dimensions of biodiversity?
• What don’t we know?
o Undiscovered species, critical thresholds, ocean exploration, etc.
• What are the trends and how can we predict the future?
o Impacts of climate change, invasions, adaptation, land-use, etc.
• What are the functions and services of ecosystems?
o How does society depend upon these?
o How do these affect decision-making?
• What are the spatial, temporal, genetic, and phenotypic patterns of diversity?
o How are these defined and scaled?
c. In what fields of biodiversity science will additional funding be most likely to lead to
breakthroughs in understanding of biodiversity?
� Informatics
� Genomics
� Field work
� Modeling
� Data intensive analysis
� Collections
30
Section II. Key Findings and Recommendations
Workshop participants were provided with an overview of NSF’s plans for a ten-year “Dimensions of
Biodiversity” funding initiative
http://www.nsf.gov/attachments/115335/public/firth_bioac_09_11_2009.pdf and were
asked how it would benefit from, and provide benefits to, the existing global networks that provide
infrastructure and support for biodiversity research. Participants welcomed the initiative and felt
qualified to comment, based on their experience in creating and operating national and international
networks of physical infrastructure, information resources, and systems that support biodiversity
research. Discussion then focused on three central questions that confront this and any long-term
research initiative:
A. What new goals and deliverables for research and research infrastructure should form the
centerpieces of the initiative?
B. What new forms of activity, collaboration, and coordination will be needed from the
community?
C. What actions will be needed from US government agencies and their foreign counterparts?
The results of those discussions follow.
A. Goals and Deliverables of a Ten-year Initiative
NSF is to be congratulated for proposing an initiative that not only focuses on biodiversity, but does so in
a way that overcomes traditional disciplinary boundaries and could generate results that are particularly
‘fit for use’ by society at a critical time. The term ‘biodiversity’ is most often equated with species
richness, the number and diversity of species of plants, animals and microbes found alive or as fossils.
By terming its initiative ‘Dimensions of Biodiversity’, NSF has signaled its recognition that 21st
Century
biodiversity scientists must conduct research that integrates across the many dimensions of biodiversity,
including but not limited to:
• Genetic variation and its distribution in time and space
• Variation of phenotypic traits that together constitute biomechanics, physiology, and ecological
role
• Taxonomic variation within and among species
• Diversity of ecological communities within and among landscapes
• Variation within and among ecosystems and their functions
• Diversity of social systems and their interactions with biodiversity
• Historical variation of the different dimensions of biodiversity
31
The overall research goal of a ten-year initiative, then, would be a clearer understanding of the
multidimensional workings of biodiversity, especially those that are critical to a sustainable human
society on Earth. The complexity inherent to each dimension will be multiplied enormously as research
becomes multidimensional so a significant upgrade in research capabilities will be essential.
Participants identified the following key elements needed as part of this upgrade:
1. Make biodiversity data accessible and computable. Some forms of biodiversity data are digital
from birth (e.g., nucleotide sequences, remote sensing images) but most come in analog form:
o Taxonomic names
o Phylogenetic relationships
o Protein structures
o Specimen data and metadata from biological repositories (collections, cultures)
Converting data to digital form, making them web-accessible, and indexing them in ways that make
them navigable and interoperable among dimensions of biodiversity will be an enormous challenge. For
example, lists of taxonomic names would become web-based taxonomic name services that would
resolve ambiguities about the name and would connect users to literature resources on that species.
Phylogenetic trees would become navigable frameworks for organizing biodiversity data from different
dimensions.
2. Integrate modeling and computational science into biodiversity research. The higher
dimensionality of biodiversity data will require new ways of representing and connecting knowledge.
Computer and semantic modeling of this knowledge will enable researchers to explore concepts,
formulate unifying theories, and test predictive models of how biodiversity behaves across dimensions
3. Make biodiversity data understandable. Policy-makers and the public need simple, easy-to
understand indicators of the status and health of local and global biodiversity. Creating concise,
understandable, reliable and meaningful indicators from complex data and trends will be an important
step in connecting biodiversity research to the general public and public policy. To create and maintain
these indicators, data on the many dimensions of biodiversity will be needed. In addition, broad
consensus will be required regarding how they are formulated and communicated.
4. A Global Virtual Laboratory. These upgraded research capabilities, taken together, would create
a global, virtual laboratory for multi-dimensional research on biodiversity. This laboratory would be
more than a collection of online tools and databases. It would provide the biodiversity research
community with generalized analytical capabilities and the complex workflows needed to handle
heterogeneous data and concepts. Equipped in this way, we can hope to determine:
• How many species are there on Earth, where do they live, and how do they function and
interact?
• How do ecosystems work based on the species they contain and how they interact with each
other and the environment?
32
• What are the triggers and predictive indicators to ecosystem collapse?
• How will global biodiversity on different levels respond to:
o climate change?
o changing land use?
o urbanization?
o population growth?
B. Community Actions Needed
Leaders in biodiversity research all agree that “business as usual is not an option” if the ambitious goals
described above are to be obtained. The next-generation tools, processed and policies envisioned here
will have an impact only if practitioners also change both their work products and their mode of
working.
The different dimensions of biodiversity have been pursued, for the most part, by different research
communities working independently of each other. Many projects have developed into globally
integrated large-scale initiatives that share major research infrastructure. The Human Genome Project
is the best known example but there are many others and they are all to be commended for scaling up,
accelerating, and standardizing their activities in significant ways. The rapidly growing field of
Biodiversity Informatics is integrating diverse components of previously ‘stove-piped’ research into
globally comprehensive knowledge resources. This e-Biosphere initiative is building operational
connections among projects such as:
1. The Census of Marine Life is integrating biodiversity inventories across the ocean’s realms from
shallow water and coral reefs to the deep sea and the poles;
2. The Consortium for the Barcode of Life is promoting the use of short standardized gene
sequences as cost-effective tools for species identification. The DNA barcode database has
already grown to 800,000 records representing almost 100,000 species and the International
Barcode of Life Project aims to barcode 5 million specimens from 500,000 species in five years.
3. The Catalog of Life and the Global Names Architecture are constructing a name-based
framework of taxonomic diversity around which knowledge of species can be constructed;
4. The Assembling the Tree of Life Project is constructing the phylogenetic framework through
which the evolution of characters, character states, and major lineages can be studied;
5. The Encyclopedia of Life and Biodiversity Heritage Library are creating web pages for every
known species with linkages to the entire corpus of biological literature not constrained by
copyrights;
6. The National Ecological Observation Network (NEON) in the US and LifeWatch in Europe are
developing as integrated monitoring systems in nature that rely on automated sensors,
analytical instrumentation, geographic information systems, and long-term data archiving to
study complex ecosystem and community processes;
33
7. The Plant Genome Research Program began with intense genomic and developmental study
Arabidopsis and then expanded rapidly to include many species critical to the human food
supply.
These projects share the characteristics that will be critical for multi-dimensional research in
biodiversity:
• Large scale and long duration;
• Genuine collaboration and routine mobility among participating countries;
• Reliance on shared information platforms;
• Commitment to early and open sharing of data while providing attribution to contributors.
The projects described above demonstrate the rapid changes underway in biodiversity reach and they
set the stage for a period of truly new and innovative multi-dimensional research. Additional changes
will be required of the research community in order to reach the goals described above:
1. Study the nature and relationships among data types in different dimensions of biodiversity.
Ontologies will be needed for knowledge on different dimensions before we can design
interoperable systems of data management, analysis, modeling or visualization.
2. Adopt, implement, and rely on data standards. Ontologies will clarify the use of data on
different dimensions and allow us to create data standards that will render them interoperable.
Research communities will need discipline in using standards to maintain the integrity of
relationships among different data types.
3. Controlled perturbation experiments will be needed as an adjunct to field-based monitoring and
observational studies. Seeing how systems respond to perturbations will be crucial tests of our
understanding of how multi-dimensional processes actually work.
4. New systems will be needed to attribute credit for contributions to complex data systems and
assessing the values of the contributions of an individual. As multi-dimensional research
becomes more complex and team-based, there is a danger of undermining incentives for
individuals to contribute their data without attribution. The community will need a new system
for valuating data contributions in ways similar to the current system of article-based citation
and Impact Factors.
5. Establish and maintain closer and more sustained linkages with students, young researchers,
policymakers and the general public. Outreach to non-researchers must grow to be a stable,
well-supported part of the professional workforce in biodiversity research. Linkage to
policymakers will be especially critical as new science-based goals for conservation of
biodiversity and ecosystem services are developed under the Convention on Biological Diversity.
Ecological niche modeling and the use of geographic information systems are a leading example
of tools that are connecting research to policy and the community needs to expand cross-sector
connections such as these.
34
6. End the “Biorepository Irony”. The greatest concentrations of living biodiversity are in places
other than the greatest repositories of biological specimens, creating the ‘biorepository irony’.
Great museums in industrialized countries are filled with specimens from developing countries,
in which there are far fewer and smaller biorepositories, or none at all. For notable exceptions,
see Mexico’s National Commission for the knowledge and use of biodiversity (CONABIO) and the
Biota Program of the Sao Paulo Science Foundation (FAPESP), from Brazil (Joly et al. 2010), The
next generation of multi-dimensional biodiversity research will need to end this irony and build
on the models created by Mexico and Brazil. A much broader network is needed to create open
web access to images and data from ex situ collections and to accelerate the growth of new
repositories in countries with high biodiversity. These new repositories will include frozen
tissues and DNA and will become part of a seamless global data network.
C. Government Actions Needed
There are many examples of the innovative, forward-looking, flexible government actions that will be
needed to achieve the goals described above. These all involve partnerships that cross traditional
boundaries.
1. Interagency partnerships.
Biodiversity research is a topic shared across many US government agencies and the goals
described above will serve their missions in diverse ways. There is therefore mutual benefit to
be realized from interagency collaboration in a Dimensions of Biodiversity initiative. For
example, there are already Interagency Working Groups on Scientific Collections and Digital
Data and their initial reports have recommended developments of standards and common
policies across agencies. Interagency research programs are not common but there are a few
highly successful examples such as the Plant Genome Research Project (including the National
Science Foundation (NSF), US Department of Agriculture (USDA), National Institutes of Health
(NIH), Department of Energy (DOE). Future collaborative funding programs could provide
support for:
• Biomaterials banking
• Public understanding of biodiversity
• Simplifying permitting and access to study material for non-commercial research
• Education of the next generation of biodiversity researchers
There no doubt is both need and opportunities for inter-ministerial partnerships in most
countries.
2. Inter-sectoral partnerships.
35
Government agencies share an interest in biodiversity and biodiversity research with non-profit
organizations and the private sector. NSF has developed a partnership with the Gates
Foundation for a research program relevant to food security (the BREAD Program) and this
approach could be expanded to NGO research programs and industrial research.
3. International partnerships.
Global research projects require cooperation among participants and coordination of funding,
often from different national funding sources. Most funding bodies have restrictions on
international use of funds. The difficulty of arranging financial support for a large project
increases non-linearly with the number of funding sources and the duration of the project.
Short-term international funding of bilateral planning workshops is easier to obtain than longer-
term support for a multilateral project. Inter-institutional funding can be difficult to arrange but
it is generally easier than obtaining support from inter-governmental agreements such as the
Global Environmental Facility (GEF).
National government agencies that support biodiversity research and depend on its research
projects are critical partners. Having flexible, forward-looking policies and practices toward
interlocking support of multinational projects will make it possible to attain the goals described
above. Organizations like DIVERSITAS, IIASA, and OECD’s Global Science Forum can act as
neutral sites and incubators that facilitate the planning of international projects, development
of partnerships, and identification of potential funding sources. They also act as a reservoir of
experience in launching complex international projects and models for doing so.
4. Modes of implementation.
A sustained multi-dimensional initiative on biodiversity research would be a wholly new
component in the research landscape. Participants in the workshop urge government agencies
to create inter-sectoral funding programs and a more flexible approach to international co-
funding. Doing so will not only generate much greater impact than the traditional mode of
funding; it will leverage investments by all partners. Many US government mission agencies
(e.g., in Department of Interior (DOI), National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA) and USDA,) depend on basic biodiversity research. Workshop participants agreed that
co-funding by these agencies and NSF would be mutually beneficial.
36
In addition to large research projects, international coordination networks (similar to NSF’s
Research Coordination Networks (RCNs)) will get the initiative off to a faster and more
successful start. After a period of planning, the international community will need higher levels
of support for centers of research and education devoted to multi-dimensional biodiversity
research. The NSF-funded National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), a federally-
funded R&D Center, is a model to consider. NCAR has been pivotal in generating and
synthesizing observational research, theoretical modeling, plus partnerships between domain
specialists and computer/information scientists, as well as supporting international
collaboration.
37
SECTION III. References
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and Life Studies, National Research Council. 2003. NEON: Addressing the Nation's Environmental
Challenges. The National Academies Press.
Committee on Earth Science and Applications from Space, Space Studies Board, Division on Engineering
and Physical Sciences, National Research Council. 2007. Earth Science and Applications from
Space: National Imperatives for the Next Decade and Beyond. The National Academies Press.
Committee on the Formation of the National Biological Survey and Commission on the Formation of the
National Biological Survey, National Research Council. A Biological Survey for the Nation. 1993.
National Academy Press.
Fleishman, E. et al 2011. Top 40 priorities for science to inform conservation and management policy in
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Global Biodiversity Assessment. 1995. United Nations Environment Programme and Cambridge
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Global Biodiversity Information Facility. 2006. GBIF Plans 2007 - 2011.
www2.gbif.org/strategic_plans.pdf
Global Biodiversity Information Facility. 2010. GBIF Work Programme 2011.
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Joly, CA, RR Rodrigues, JP Metzger, CFB Haddad, LM Verdade, MC Oliveira & VS Bolzani. 2010.
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Killleffer, T. 2009. Results of Pre-Workshop Questionnaire for Enabling Biodiversity Research:
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National Science and Technology Council, Committee on Science, Interagency Working Group on
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National Science Board (NSB). 1989. Loss of Biological Diversity: A Global Crisis Requiring International
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Polar Programs. 2011. Dimensions of Biodiversity. PROGRAM SOLICITATION 11-518.
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OECD. 2001. Biological Resource Centres: underpinning the future of life sciences and biotechnology.
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Raven, P. H., and E. O. Wilson. 1992. A fifty-year plan for biodiversity surveys. Science 258: 1099-1100.
Stokes, D.E. 1997. Pasteur's Quadrant: Basic Science and Technological Innovation. Brookings Institution
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39
Appendices
A. Participants at workshop
B. Mission statements of biodiversity support organizations
C. Organizational respondents to questionnaire
Appendix A. Workshop Participants (affiliations as of December 2009)
Sandy Andelman
Vice President & Executive Director
Tropical Ecology Assessment & Monitoring Network
(TEAM)
Elizabeth Arnaud
Biodiversity Informatics Coordinator
Consultative Group on International Agricultural
Research (CGIAR)
Frank Bisby
Co-Chair
Catalogue of Life
David Blockstein
Senior Scientist
National Council for Science and the Environment
William Y. Brown
President
Natural Science Collections Alliance (NSCA)
Sara Chun
AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellow
National Science Foundation
Don Church
Senior Vice President, Science and Knowledge
Conservation International
Margaret Goud Collins
Program Officer
US National Academy of Sciences – US National
Committee for DIVERSITAS
John Dickie
Head of Information Section
Millennium Seedbank (Kew)
Dan Distel
Executive Director
Ocean Genome Legacy
Mark Doyle
AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellow
National Science Foundation
James L. Edwards
Executive Director
Encyclopedia of Life
Penny Firth
Acting Director, Division of Environmental Biology
National Science Foundation
Heidi Fuchs
Program Coordinator
National Council for Science and the Environment
40
Thomas Garnett
Director
Biodiversity Heritage Library
George Gilchrist
Program Director, Division of Environmental Biology
National Science Foundation
Shelly Grow
Conservation Biologist
Association of Zoos and Aquariums
James Hanken
Director, Museom of Comparative Zoology,
Harvard University
Chair, Steering Committee
Encyclopedia of Life
Michael Hoffman
Manager, IUCN/SSC - CI/CABS Biodiversity
Assessment Unit
International Union for the Conservation of Nature
(IUCN)
Adrianna Ianora
Naples Zoological Station
Marine Biodiversity and Ecosystem Function
(MARBEF)
Richard Inouye
Program Director, Division of Environmental Biology
National Science Foundation
Mark Jacobs
Project Consultant
LifeWatch
Yde de Jong
Coordinator
Pan-European Species-directory Infrastructure (PESI)
Matt Kane
Program Director, Division of Environmental Biology
National Science Foundation
Steve Kelling
Co-Chair of Biodiversity: Observation and Specimen
Records
International Council of Science (ICSU) Committee on
Data for Science and Technology (CODATA)
Terri Killeffer
Biodiversity Informatics Specialist
Information International Associates, Inc.
Nicholas King
Executive Secretary/Director
Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)
Mary Klein
President & CEO
NatureServe
Meredith Lane
National Biological Information Infrastructure
U.S. Geological Survey
Elizabeth Losos
President and CEO
Organization for Tropical Studies (OTS)
Mary Maxon
Initiative Lead for Marine Microbiology Initiative
Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
on detail to Office of Science and Technology Policy
Peter McGrath
Programme Assistant
Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS)
41
Norman Morrison
Board Member
Genomic Standards Consortium
Eric Nagy
Associate Director, Mountain Lake Biological Station
Organization of Biological Field Stations (OBFS)
Sara Oldfield
Secretary General
Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI)
Avihai Ostchega
Senior Program Assistant
National Academy of Sciences
Luvie Paglinawan
Research Assistant
FishBase
Margaret A. Palmer
Chair, Freshwater BIODIVERSITY Cross-cutting
Network
DIVERSITAS
David Patterson
Senior Taxonomist
Global Names Architecture
William Piel
Curator
TreeBASE
Christopher Prince
Meetings Manager
National Council for Science and the Environment
Thomas Parker Redick
President-Elect
Council on Agricultural Science and Technology
Jim Regetz
Scientific Programmer/Analyst, National Center for
Ecological Analysis and Synthesis
Ecoinformatics.org
Ann Reid
Senior Program Officer
US National Academy of Sciences – Board on Life
Sciences
Greg Riccardi
Director
Morph Bank
Joann Roskoski
Acting Assistant Director for Biology
National Science Foundation
Oliver Ryder
Director of Genetics, San Diego Zoo's Institute for
Conservation Research
Frozen Zoo
Rafael O. de Sa
Program Director, Division of Environmental Biology
National Science Foundation
Inigo San Gil
Metadata Program Coordinator
Long Term Ecological Research Network (LTER)
David Schindel
Executive Secretary
Consortium for the Barcode of Life (CBOL)
Scott Snyder
Program Director, Systematic Biology and
Biodiversity Inventories
Division of Environmental Biology
National Science Foundation
42
Jorge Soberon
Chair of Grants Committee
JRS Biodiversity Foundation
Eva Spehn
Executive Director
Global Mountain Biodiversity Assessment (GMBA)
Karen Stocks
Assistant Research Scientist, San Diego
Supercomputer Center
Community Cyberinfrastructure for Advanced Marine
Microbial Ecology Research and Analysis (CAMERA)
Deborah Strauss Lynch
Diversity 2.0
Simon Tillier
Director
European Distributed Institute of Taxonomy (EDIT)
John W. (Wes) Tunnell, Jr.
President, Southern Association of Marine
Laboratories
National Association of Marine Labs (NAML)
Woody Turner
Co-Lead, NASA
Group on Earth Observations Biodiversity Observation
Network (GEO BON)
Edward Vanden Berghe
Executive Director, Ocean Biogeographic Information
System
Census of Marine Life (CoML)
Luciano Martins Verdade
Member of the Steering Committee
State of Sao Paulo Research Foundation Virtual
Institute of Biodiversity (BIOTA-FAPESP)
Michael Wach
Managing Director, Science and Regulatory Affairs
Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO)
Brian Wee
Chief of External Affairs
National Ecological Observatory Network, Inc.
43
Appendix B. Mission Statements of Biodiversity Support Organizations
Name of Organization: Mission:
A Pan-European Species
directories Infrastructure (PESI)
PESI provides standardised and authoritative taxonomic information by integrating and securing
Europe’s taxonomically authoritative species name registers and nomenclators (name databases) and
associated expertise networks that underpin the management of biodiversity in Europe.
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation To support research in science, technology, and the health of American industries
Association of Zoos and
Aquariums (AZA)
AZA is dedicated to providing its members the services, high standards, and best practices that
maximize their effectiveness in animal care, wildlife science, and public education.
BioBankSA, NZG, NRF We will focus on acquiring, value enhancing, banking, using and distributing good quality biomaterials
that are safe from contamination and disease transmission. This will be conducted on behalf of the
owners and custodians of animals from which the biomaterials are collected. We will in addition also
create the largest single-port entry network database of biomaterials through partnerships with
relevant organisations. Samples of banked biomaterials will be supplied, with written consent from the
owners or custodians and in accordance with national, regional and global policy and legislation, to
national, regional and global organizations for ethical research, biotechnology development,
biodiversity conservation and in such a way as to capture the maximum benefit to society
Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) The Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) is an international library collaboration of natural history
museum, botanical garden, and biological research libraries working together to digitize the published
literature of biodiversity held in their respective collections and to make that literature available for
open access and responsible use as a part of a global “biodiversity commons.” The BHL consortium is
working with the global taxonomic community, rights holders and other interested parties to ensure
that this biodiversity heritage available to all.
BIOTA/FAPESP Program: The
Virtual Institute of Biodiversity
Created in 1999 the Virtual Institute of Biodiversity (http://www.biota.org.br), known as BIOTA/FAPESP
Program, has the mission of inventory and characterize the biodiversity of the State of São Paulo,
defining mechanisms for its conservation, restoration and sustainable use. The BIOTA program is run by
FAPESP (www.fapesp.br/english), a public foundation funded by taxpayers in the State of São Paulo and
charged with enabling scientific research in all areas of knowledge.
44
Board on Research Data and
Information, National Research
Council
The Board's mission is to improve the management, policy, and use of digital data and information for
science and the broader society.
Botanic Gardens Conservation
International (BGCI)
To mobilize botanic gardens and engage partners in securing plant diversity for the well-being of people
and the planet.
Cyberinfrastructure for Advanced
Marine Microbial Ecology
Research and Analysis (CAMERA)
The vision and overarching goal of CAMERA is the creation of a community resource to facilitate
revolutionary knowledge advances in marine microbial ecology, the microbial ecology of other natural
environments, and evolutionary biology. To achieve this goal, CAMERA has developed a new resource
to collect, maintain and disseminate raw environmental sequence data, associated metadata,
annotations and other pre-computed analyses, and associated tools that enable researchers to unravel
the discreet biology of organisms and environments.
Center for International Earth
Science Information Network
(CIESIN), The Earth Institute,
Columbia University
CIESIN's mission is to provide access to and enhance the use of information worldwide, advancing
understanding of human interactions in the environment and serving the needs of science and public
and private decision making.
Committee on Data for Science
and Technology (CODATA)
The mission of CODATA is to strengthen international science for the benefit of society by promoting
improved scientific and technical data management and use
Consortium for the Barcode of Life
(CBOL)
Promote DNA barcoding as a global standard for identifying species by: (1) Catalyzing projects that
populate the public database of barcode records in BOLD, GenBank, EMBL and DDBJ; (2) Developing
and implementing community standards for data and laboratory protocols; (3) promoting global
participation; (4) promoting linkages and partnerships with other biodiversity informatics initiatives;
and (5) promoting interest and investment by potential users of barcode data and barcoding services.
45
Consultative Group on
International Agriculture Research
(CGIAR)
To achieve sustainable food security and reduce poverty in developing countries through scientific
research and research-related activities in the fields of agriculture, forestry, fisheries, policy, and
environment. The priorities of CGIAR research are: Reducing hunger and malnutrition by producing
more and better food through genetic improvement; Sustaining agriculture biodiversity both in situ and
ex situ; Promoting opportunities for economic development and through agricultural diversification and
high-value commodities and products; Ensuring sustainable management and conservation of water,
land and forests; Improving policies and facilitating institutional innovation A critical task for 11 of the
CGIAR Centers is to maintain international gene banks, which preserve and make readily available the
plant genetic resources that form the basis of food security worldwide.
Council for Agricultural Science &
Technology (CAST)
The primary work of CAST is the publication of task force reports, commentary papers, special
publications, and issue papers written by scientists from many disciplines. The CAST Board is
responsible for the policies and procedures followed in developing, processing, and disseminating the
documents produced. These publications and their distribution are fundamental activities that
accomplish our mission to assemble, interpret, and communicate credible science-based information
regionally, nationally, and internationally to legislators, regulators, policymakers, the media, the private
sector, and the public. The wide distribution of CAST publications to nonscientists enhances the
education and understanding of the general public. The objective of the Corporation shall be to
advance in the public interest the understanding and use of the science and technology of the
production, processing, and utilization of food and fiber. The objective shall be accomplished by (a)
serving as a resource group from which the public and government may seek information, (b)
independently identifying subjects on which scientists and technologists can provide useful information,
(c) drawing on the expertise of qualified scientists and technologists in relevant disciplines to assemble
and interpret the factual information available on the subjects identified, and (d) disseminating the
information in usable and effective form to the public, the news media, and the government, as
appropriate CAST addresses issues of animal sciences, food sciences and agricultural technology, plant
and soil sciences, and plant protection sciences with inputs from economists, social scientists,
toxicologists or plant pathologists and entomologists, weed scientists, nematologists, and legal experts
46
European Distributed Institute of
Taxonomy (EDIT)
[1] To reduce fragmentation and to transform taxonomy into an integrated science [2] To strengthen
the scientific, technological and information capacities needed for Europe to understand how
biodiversity is modified through Global change [3] To progress toward a transnational entity by
encouraging durable integration of the most important European taxonomic institutions[4] To promote
the undertaking of collaborative research developing, improving and utilising the bio-informatics
technologies needed [5] To create a forum for stakeholders and end-users for taxonomy in biodiversity
and ecosystem research [6] To promote the spreading of excellence to fulfill the needs of biodiversity
and ecosystem research for taxonomy based information.
Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) Produce a website for every species of living organism, which will serve as a portal for all information
regarding that species that is available in digital form. EOL is a data aggregator that develops
informatics tools that enable data capture, organization and display. It promotes synthetic use of these
data in basic and applied research, and in educational activities.
FishBase Provide authoritative, standardized key information for all fish species on Earth, with free online access
in many languages.
Genomic Standards Consortium
(GSC)
Community-driven standards have the best chance of success if developed within the auspices of
international working groups. Participants in the GSC include biologists, computer scientists, those
building genomic databases and conducting large-scale comparative genomic analyses, and those with
experience of building community-based standards.
Global Biodiversity Information
Facility (GBIF)
The mission of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) is to facilitate free and open access to
biodiversity data worldwide via the Internet to underpin sustainable development. Priorities, with an
emphasis on promoting participation and working through partners, include mobilising biodiversity
data, developing protocols and standards to ensure scientific integrity and interoperability, building an
informatics architecture to allow the interlinking of diverse data types from disparate sources,
promoting capacity building and catalysing development of analytical tools for improved decision-
making
47
Global Mountain Biodiversity
Assessment (GMBA) of
DIVERSITAS
The Global Mountain Biodiversity Assessment (GMBA) network of DIVERSITAS actively explores and
explains the great and unique biological richness of the mountains of the world. GMBA seeks to provide
input to policy makers and stakeholders for the protection and sustainable use of biodiversity in
mountain regions in a science-based adaptive management framework. Inventory and assessment of
biodiversity have become essential for policy-making and management strategies as well as for
developing and testing scientific hypotheses to progress science. There is an increasing need for
availability, accessibility and improvement of high quality online mountain biodiversity databases, an
initiative led by the Global Mountain Biodiversity Assessment of DIVERSITAS in cooperation with the
Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). GMBA will soon offer the first thematic mountain portal
on GBIF geo-referenced biodiversity data, for integrated analysis and spatial visualization of biodiversity
information in relation to mountain life zones, climate, and other important parameters. This is to be
used for synthesis, for facilitating sustainability decisions and for forming advanced hypothesis on
Mountain biodiversity.
Global Names Architecture To provide a names based semantic architecture to underpin biodiversity information management
services
International Union for
Conservation of Nature (IUCN)
IUCN's mission is to influence, encourage and assist societies throughout the world to conserve the
integrity and diversity of nature and to ensure that any use of natural resources is equitable and
ecologically sustainable.
John D. and Catherine T.
MacArthur Foundation
The MacArthur Foundation supports creative people and effective institutions committed to building a
more just, verdant, and peaceful world. MacArthur’s conservation grantmaking protects the
biodiversity of the planet, while balancing the needs of communities that depend upon natural
resources for their survival. With the increasing threat of climate change, the Foundation also supports
efforts to adapt conservation strategies to a rapidly changing environment, particularly in eight
hotspots around the world.
JRS Biodiversity Foundation Mission: the Foundation defined a mission within the field of biodiversity: to enhance knowledge and
promote the understanding of biological diversity for the benefit and sustainability of life on earth.
LifeWatch infrastructure for
biodiversity research
To prepare for the construction of a pan-European research infrastructure serving the science
community in conducting first class Biodiversity research in order to provide for answers to political
problems and questions concerning Biodiversity in its broadest sense.
48
Marine Biodiversity and
Ecosystem Functioning (MarBEF)
MarBEF, a network of excellence funded by the European Union and consisting of 94 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.
Morphbank Image Repository Morphbank provides an image and metadata repository for biodiversity researchers. The goals of the
repository include creating a system for sharing images and metadata among researchers and with
other users, and allowing users to carefully annotate their images and to link those annotations to
controlled vocabularies and ontologies. The system includes an extensive Web site and search and data
exchange services.
National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA)
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is the civilian space agency of the USA. Its
Earth Science Division uses satellite, airborne, and in situ platforms to study the Earth system and its
components, how they are changing over time, and the drivers of these changes. Recently, NASA
established a Biodiversity program that funds research using data products from its observation
platforms and associated models to understand the patterns and processes of terrestrial and aquatic
biodiversity. NASA is also one of three organizations co-leading the development of the Group on Earth
Observations Biodiversity Observation Network (GEO BON).
National Association of Marine
Laboratories (NAML)
NAML is a nonprofit organization of over 120 members employing more than 10,000 scientists,
engineers, and professionals and representing marine and Great lakes labs stretching from Guam to
Bermuda and Alaska to Puerto Rico. Member institutions of NAML work together to improve quality
and effectiveness of ocean, coastal, and Great Lakes research in the natural and social sciences,
education, and outreach. Member organizations are considered as unique "windows on the sea".
NAML is composed of three regional associations: 1) Northeastern Association of Marine & Great Lakes
Laboratories (NEAMGLL); 2) Southern Association of Marine Laboratories (SAML); and, 3) Western
Association of Marine Laboratories (WAML).
NAML’s mission is to:
1) Promote and support basic and applied research of the highest quality from the unique
perspective of coastal laboratories;
2) Assist local, regional, and state entities with information related to the use and conservation of
marine and coastal resources using ecosystem-based management approaches;
3) Recognize, encourage, and support the unique role that coastal laboratories play in conduction
education, outreach, and public service; and,
4) Facilitate the exchange of information and relevant expertise between NAML member
institutions, government agencies, and the private sector.
49
A large core of the nation’s marine biodiversity expertise resides in NAML labs around the coasts of the
United States.
National Center for Ecological
Analysis & Synthesis
* Advance the state of ecological knowledge through the search for general patterns and principles in
existing data; * Organize and synthesize ecological information in a manner useful to researchers,
resource managers, and policy makers addressing important environmental issues; * Influence the way
ecological research is conducted and promote a culture of synthesis, collaboration, and data sharing
Natural Science Collections
Alliance (NSCA)
The Natural Science Collections Alliance is a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit 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. Our members are part of an international community of
museums, botanical gardens, herbariums, universities and other institutions that house natural science
collections and utilize them in research, exhibitions, academic and informal science education, and
outreach activities. Membership in the NSC Alliance links you to a network of institutions, scientists and
other professionals in North America through which you can share news, information and common
concerns - and help shape the future of our community.
NatureServe Provide the scientific basis for effective conservation action.
Ocean Biogeographic Information
System
The Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS; http://www.iobis.org), and its global network of
Regional and Thematic OBIS Nodes, integrates data from many sources, over a wide range of marine
themes, from the poles to the equator, and from microbes to whales. All OBIS data is made available
free and open, and contributes to management of the marine environment, and to the creation of
scientific knowledge.
50
Ocean Genome Legacy, Inc. The Ocean Genome Legacy is a non-profit marine research institution and biological specimen
repository dedicated to exploring and preserving the wealth of information contained in the genes
(DNA) of marine organisms, with special emphasis on endangered, rare, unusual and ecologically critical
species and ecosystems. Its mission is to acquire, authenticate, study, preserve, develop, and distribute
genetic materials, biological specimens, information, technology, and standards needed to advance
basic and applied research in marine conservation, medicine and biotechnology. OGL's aim is to
promote marine species and ecosystem conservation by providing research materials, technology,
policy, educational materials and educational opportunities to academic, governmental, and non-
governmental research organizations and to private industry.
Organization of Tropical Studies To provide leadership in education, research, and the responsible use of natural resources in the tropics
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (Incl.
Millennium Seed Bank Project)
Kew’s mission is: to inspire and deliver science-based plant conservation worldwide, enhancing the
quality of life.
TreeBASE: A Database of
Phylogenetic Knowledge
TreeBASE has the mission to capture, preserve, and share phylogenetic trees and morphological and
molecular phylogenetic datasets published in peer-reviewed scientific publications. Data are distributed
freely to the scientific community using digital serializations to promote meta-analyses, synthetic
analyses, and the reuse of phylogenetic data. Nearly all data objects in TreeBASE can be referenced
with URIs and a web service API that allows annotation and integration with third-party data services in
order to promote the use of phylogenetic knowledge in biodiversity informatics.
The Academy of Sciences for the
Developing World (TWAS)
* Recognize, support and promote excellence in scientific research in the developing world; * Respond
to the needs of young scientists in S&T-lagging developing countries; * Promote South-South and
South-North cooperation in science, technology and innovation; * Encourage scientific research and
sharing of experiences in solving major problems facing developing countries.
Zoological Society of San Diego San Diego Zoo’s Institute for Conservation Research Mission: We generate, share, and apply scientific
knowledge vital to the conservation of animals, plants, and habitats. We help shape the vision of the
San Diego Zoo and lead in fulfilling its conservation mission.
51
Appendix C. Respondents to Questionnaire
• A Pan-European Species Directories Infrastructure (PESI)
• Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
• Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA)
• BioBankSA, NZG, NRF
• Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL)
• BIOTA/FAPESP Program: The Virtual Institute of Biodiversity
• Board on Research Data and Information, National Research Council
• Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI)
• Community Cyberinfrastructure for Advanced Marine Microbial Ecology Research and Analysis (CAMERA)
• Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), The Earth Institute, Columbia University
• Committee on Data for Science and Technology (CODATA)
• Consortium for the Barcode of Life (CBOL)
• Consultative Group on International Agriculture Research (CGIAR)
• Council for Agricultural Science & Technology
• Encyclopedia of Life (EOL)
• European Distributed Institute of Taxonomy (EDIT)
52
• FishBase
• Genomic Standards Consortium (GSC)
• Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)
• Global Mountain Biodiversity Assessment (GMBA) of DIVERSITAS
• Global Names Architecture
• International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)
• John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
• JRS Biodiversity Foundation
• LifeWatch Infrastructure for Biodiversity Research
• Marine Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning (MarBEF)
• Morphbank Image Repository
• National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
• National Association of Marine Laboratories (NAML)
• National Center for Ecological Analysis & Synthesis
• Natural Science Collections Alliance (NSCA)
• NatureServe
• Ocean Biogeographic Information System
• Ocean Genome Legacy, Inc.
53
• Organization for Tropical Studies
• Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (Incl. Millennium Seed Bank Project)
• The Academy of Sciences for the Developing World (TWAS)
• TreeBASE: A Database of Phylogenetic Knowledge
• Zoological Society of San Diego
