IBOY: Ongoing Projects

What biodiversity exists and where is it?

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Follow the icon for a detailed description of each project.

Project Title	Principal Investigator and  Institutional Affiliation
Allium: A nexus of global biodiversity observation databases	M. Collins, World Conservation Monitoring Centre
Anchialine Faunas	T. Iliffe, Texas A & M, G. Boxshall, Natural History Museum, UK (email, website)
Assembling the Tree of Life	M. Donoghue, Department of Organismal and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University
Deep Ocean: Latitudinal gradients of biodiversity in the deep sea of the Atlantic Ocean	J. Wagele, Ruhr-Universitat Bochum, Lehrstuhl fur Spezielle Zoologie  (email)
Insect@thon 2001-2002: Contributions to Biodiversity Information Networks	Joris Komen, National Museum of Namibia (email, website)
Man and the Biosphere: Flora and Fauna of the Biosphere Reserve Integrated Monitoring Program	Roger Soles, US State Department (website)
Ocean Biogeographic Information System	F. Grassle, Institute of Marine and Coastal Science, Rutgers University (email) (OBIS website)
Prokaryote survey of major habitats on Earth	J. Fuhrman, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Southern California (email)
Species 2000: Indexing the world's known species	F. Bisby, Centre for Plant Diversity and Systematics, University of Reading (Species 2000 email)
Soil macrofauna: an endangered resource in a changing world	P. Lavelle, Laboratoire d/Ecologie des Sols Tropicaux, Univ. Paris VI/IRD (email)
Stickleback parasite biodiversity	D. Marcogliese, St. Lawrence Centre, Environment Canada, Quebec, Canada. (email)
Tropical forest canopies: arboreal microarthropod diversity and distribution	N. Winchester, Biology Department, University of Victoria (email)

Project Descriptions:

Allium

To prepare a web-based entry point to global biodiversity observation databases on the Internet. An enormous amount of data on biodiversity compoenents and at all spatial scales is already avaialable. howeer, they lack integration and order and can only be located using generalized search engines. We propose to create a conceptual model and associated Web implementation that will first provide access to the Web which will be organized by three thematic axes: biodiversity components...spatial scales...[and] types of data available.

 

--Mark Collins
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Anchialine faunas (official website)

Anchialine habitats are flooded inland marine caves and groundwaters that
lack any direct surface connection
with the open sea. They are inhabited by remarkable animals, long term
survivors of ancient lineages, which
are threatened by changes in their fragile habitat. In recent years
approximately 200 new species, 50 new
genera, at least 10 new families, two new orders and even a new class of
crustaceans have been described
from anchialine caves. ...This project has the following objectives:

• To locate, explore, and document previously unexplored anchialine cave
  systems
• To collect and describe new species of animals from the caves
• To answer topical ecological and evolutionary questions such as:
  • When did these animals colonize caves?
  • How did they achieve such a widespread distribution when they can only survive in seemingly isolated caves?
  • Considering that there are no plants in these lightless caves, what do
    anchialine cave animals eat?
  • Why are many anchialine cave animals closely related to deep sea species?
• To establish an Internet accessible web site (cavebiology.com) containing
  environmental, ecological, and faunistic information on anchialine habitats worldwide
• To undertake and publicize a threat assessment for major anchialine sites

To promote the inclusion of anchialine habitats in coastal management plans
An expedition to anchialine caves on the Loyalty Islands, scheduled to take
place in 2000, will be filmed for TV. Additional expeditions to study anchialine caves in the Bahamas, Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico, Dominican Republic, Balearic Islands and other locations are also planned.

--Tom Iliffe
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Assembling the Tree of Life

The basic aims of the ATOL project are to assemble current knowledge of phylogenetic relationships, make this readily accessible to the biodiversity community, and display it for the public in the form of a supertree of all life...As part of ATOL we also envision the assembly of a database of published phylogenetic datasets, including especially phylogenetic trees...

 

We anticipate a variety of symposia and workshops in connection with ATOL, some of which would result in publications...We are exploring the possibility of a major international capstone symposium near the end of 2001 to highlight progress and plan for the future...

 

We plan the assembly of an enormous phylogenetic tree for display at suitable venues..[and] posters for classroom use and availability through the Web.

--Michael Donoghue and Joel Cracraft

 

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Deep ocean

For a more reliable estimation of species numbers in the deep-sea fundamental information is still missing. It is generally not known for most taxonomic groups:

• how large the area colonized by species is
• how large and patchy areas of high or low diversity are
• what trends of regional differentiation exist

The project DIVA was desgned for the cooperation of specialists from a larger number of biodiversity institutions who agree to study the fauna of a selected region with the same methods.

It is intended to work along a latitutdinal Atlantic transect from the Arctic to the Antarctic Ocean in comparable abyssal depths....[Results will include] many publications on the taxonomy, biogeography, phylogeny, and ecology of benthic invertebrates, written by specialists for each larger taxon.

 

--J.W. Wagele

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DNA banks

The threat of extinctioon for many species, both known and as yet undiscovered, grows ever greater as whole ecosystems vanish, human populations prolifersate, and human-mediated intereference increases...Captive breeding provides an insurance policy and for some species may be the only hope of survival. It requires input from population genetics to preserve high levels of genetic diversity...[But] if nothing more is done, our grandchildren will be left with little elese than brief descriptions in scientific papers.

 

This project will co-ordinate a world-wide attempt be made to store, for every endangered animal species, samples of DNA, DNA libraries, or frozen cells or tissues that could readily yield DNA....

 

This project will set up a web site to register DNA banks, listing who is responsible for them and which species they include.

 

--Anne McLaren

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Insect@thon (official website)

An international school contest that translates critical biodiversity data into accessible computerized forms and provides school children with internet resources and visits to natural history museums. Paper-based museum biodiversity records will be computerized in school competitions. Winning schools will receive support for internet and winning individuals will receive prizes including trips to natural history museums abroad and participation in biodiversity collecting expeditions.

 

--Joris Komen

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Man and the Biosphere: Flora and Fauna (official website)

The objective is to compile and maintain a comprehensive database of plant and animal specis occurring in an internationally co-ordinated network of sites representative of the world's major ecosystems.... In 1999, under UNESCO-MAB's coordination, MABFlora and MABFauna, software programs that hold the results of species inventories and display the results, as well as the sources of information, over the internet, will be improved and enhanced. Emphasis will be placed on including information on the methodology for the inventory, the date and authorship of the survey, backup references etc. Work will be concentrated in biosphere reserves, for which UNESCO has an international mandate, but other sites/protected areas wishing to participate will be welcome.

 

--Roger Soles

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OBIS (official website)

 

Using a common set of protocols, taxonomic experts will contribute georeferenced data on species distributions to an electronic atlas of ocean biogeographical information. An Internet web page describing protocols was completed September 1, 1998. The remainder of 1999 and 2000 will be a period of identification of databases and conversion to common formats. 2001 is the target date for placing as many existing georeferenced data sets from systematists into a common format for use in OBIS. A number of educational activities will be developed to use the electronic atlas in 2001.

 

The goal of OBIS is an ongoing, distributed, electronic atlas of the oceans.

 

--Fred Grassle

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Prokaryote survey

The goal is to focus on the discovery of new kingdom-level groups of prokaryotes by molecular biological techniques that do not require cultivation of the organisms...[Researchers will focus on] prokaryotes in many different habitats, especially ones not previously examined by cultivation-independent methods. Includes soils and sediments, waters (fresh and marine), wetlands, associations with animals and plants, etc.

 

--Jed Fuhrman

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Species 2000 (website)

 

A comprehensive index of all known plants, animals, fungi and microorganisms will be achieved by accessing a distributed array of taxonomic indexes, one for each group of organisms. Species 2000 is in contact with around 70 organizations creating databases (some already completed) which will account for around 40% of known species. Major resources will be needed to establish databases for the remaining groups. Species 2000 will access these databases in real time, using a Common Access System. This will deliver a standard set of data from the relevant database, for each species, in response to a user entering the scientific or common name of a species as a query term.

 

There are 3 linked projects Species 2000 will provide as part of IBOY:

• Species 2000 catalogue of life: demonstration on the web
• CD-ROM
• Demonstration Project: species Inventory and Digital Library for San Paulo State, Brazil

--F.A. Bisby
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Soil macrofauna

The next great challenge for agriculture development is to save the biodiversity and develop use of biological resources that have been totally neglected during the decades of the green agricultural revolution. Soil invertebrates are indeed irreplaceable actors of soil formation and conservation in natural ecosystems and the general unsustainability of agricultural systems worldwide is attributable, at least partly, to their local disappearance....

 

This proposal, promoted by DIVERSITAS, will collect all the existing data on macro-invertebrate communities collected in over 100 sites with the TSBF standard method, stimulate further data collections, organize them in the MACROFAUNA database and process these data to produce comprehensive indices of soil quality and improved knowledge of this resource worldwide. A site will be created on the WWW with a clear description of methods, illustrations, identification keys and databases.

 

--Patrick Lavelle

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Stickleback parasites (website)

This project will examine the regional distribution of parasites on stickleback fish. Sticklebacks are among the most widely distributed fishes in the northern hemisphere. They are found in both hemispheres, in the Arctic, and in boreal-temperate regions. ...Sticklebacks are an ideal model system with which to examine the distribution of parasites on regional scales...Parasites...comprise ideal organisms to use as indicators of biodiversity and ecosystem structure...

 

It is intended to build an international database on the distribution and abundance of stickleback parasites.

 

--David Marcogliese

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Tropical microarthropod distribution (website)

Diversity and faunal associations of forest canopy arthropods in the tropical forests of West Africa is virtually unknown and information concerning the ecology and description of these communities is lacking...Results from our previous canopy studies support the theory that a unique ancient forest insect community exists, with several new species that are specific to microhabitats within these forest ecosystems...

 

We propose to document the community composition of the canopy microarthropod fauna in this tropical forest, correlate this with tree species, distribution within the canopy and associations with epiphytes.

 

--Neville Winchester

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