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Select one of the following news items:
- Newly Compiled Online
Bee Checklist Allows Biologists To Link
Important Information About All Bee Species - Catalogue of Life Reaches One Million Species
- ITIS has been included in Thomson ISI's "Current Web Contents"
- ITIS Signs
Agreement with Species 2000 and the Global Biodiversity
Information Facility to Build Catalog of Life - Read About Other ITIS News Items
June 11, 2008 – Newly Compiled Online Bee Checklist Allows Biologists To Link Important Information About All Bee Species
In
time for National Pollinator Week, June 22 through June 28, biologists
have completed an online effort to compile a world checklist of bees.
They have identified nearly 19,500 bee species worldwide, about 2,000
more than previously estimated. There is a current crisis known as
“colony collapse disorder,” an unexplained
phenomenon that is wiping out colonies of honey bees throughout the
United States. This has highlighted the need for more information about
bee species and their interactions with the plants they pollinate.
“At a time when biological diversity is suspected to be
declining at an alarming rate, it is important to have a solid baseline
from which to measure future trends,” said Michael Ruggiero,
senior scientist for the Integrated Taxonomic Information System at the
National Museum of Natural History, who led the recently completed
project. “This is very exciting because bees are critical for
pollinating flowering plants, including most non-cereal food
crops.”
“Honey bees are the most economically important pollinators
and are currently in the news because of colony collapse
disorder,” said John S. Ascher, a collaborator on the project
from the American Museum of Natural History in New York.
“Only about 500 bee species produce honey. Most species,
however, do not produce honey or live in hives, yet they are crucial
pollinators of crops and native plants.”
Taxonomy is the science of species classification. The bee checklist
includes currently accepted scientific names, synonyms and common
names; a current, complete and authoritative taxonomic checklist is key
to linking all information about species. The scientific name acts as
the common denominator to connect like information. Taxonomic
information
is not fixed and throughout time biologists reclassify species as a
result of new discoveries or new research. “
The bee checklist
acts as a taxonomic ‘Rosetta Stone’ that will
enhance communication, information exchange and data repatriation about
bees. The completed checklist is a first step in modeling and
forecasting future population trends,” said Ruggiero.
Compiling the checklist has taken more than five years and the efforts
of leading bee taxonomists on six continents. The checklist,
coordinated by the staff of the Integrated Taxonomic Information
System, a public–private partnership hosted at the National
Museum of Natural History, is available at www.itis.gov. Major
supporters of the project were the Global Biodiversity Information
Facility, based in Copenhagen, Denmark, which is dedicated to making
global biodiversity data accessible anywhere in the world, and the
U.S.-based National Biological Information Infrastructure, a broad,
collaborative program to provide increased access to data and
information on the nation’s biological resources.
Important scientific contributors to the World Bee Checklist project
include John S. Ascher, American Museum of Natural History, United
States; Connal Eardley, Plant Protection Research Institute, South
Africa; Terry Griswold, U.S. Department of Agriculture; Gabriel Melo,
Federal University of Parana, Brazil; David Nicolson, U.S. Geological
Survey; David Remsen, Global Biodiversity Information Facility,
Denmark; Andrew Polaszek, Natural History Museum, United Kingdom; Osamu
Tadauchi, University of Kyushu, Japan; Ken Walker, Museum Victoria,
Australia; Natapot Warrit, Smithsonian Institution, United States; and
Paul Williams, Natural History Museum, United Kingdom.
April 2, 2007 – Catalogue of Life Reaches One Million Species
The
Species 2000
& ITIS Catalogue of Life has reached one million
species - a major milestone in its quest to complete the first
up-to-date comprehensive catalogue of all living organisms. The
Catalogue of Life, available on CD and on the Internet
(www.catalogueoflife.org),
is the result of a worldwide collaboration
involving so far about 50 contributing databases and the work of 3,000
biologists. The project plans to cover all estimated 1.75 million known
species by 2011.
The project is led by Dr. Thomas Orrell, of the Integrated Taxonomic
Information System (ITIS) based at the Smithsonian Institution,
National
Museum of Natural History, Washington DC, and by the University of
Reading's Professor Frank Bisby of the Species 2000 organization, based
at the University's Centre for Plant Diversity and Systematics.
Dr. Orrell said: "The catalogue will cover all known living organisms,
such as plants, animals and fungi, and micro-organisms such as
bacteria,
chromista, protozoa, archaea and viruses."
Professor Bisby said: "This electronic checklist is the modern
successor
to the work started by Linnaeus whose 300th birthday is celebrated this
year. It now delivers one million of the world's described species,
from
whales to bacteria, mosses to moths, seaweeds to viruses."
A joint biological and informatics team integrates information from
individual databases in the taxonomic classification. Information on
exactly which species should be recognized is validated by experts
before being integrated, a vital difference compared to some other
catalogues available on the Internet.
The project is on course to deliver the fundamental organism catalogue
needed both by the present generation of international biodiversity
programs and the next generation now in planning, such as the Global
Species Information System proposed by the G8 Environment Ministers in
Potsdam two weeks ago.
It is a keystone component in building the world's biodiversity
knowledge systems of the future. It also facilitates analytical systems
working on species, such as modeling and predicting climate change
outcomes on a global scale.
July 28, 2004 – ITIS has been included in Thomson ISI's "Current Web Contents"
ITIS has been included in Thomson ISI's "Current Web Contents", a value added section of its Current Contents Connect® product. The selection was based on meeting the rigorous standards of their editorial staff for: Authority, Accuracy, Currency, Navigation and Design, Applicability and Content, Scope, Audience Level, and Quality of Writing. Thomson ISI is now the owner of BIOSIS.
ITIS Signs Agreement with
Species 2000 and the Global Biodiversity
Information Facility to Build Catalog of Life
On December 19, 2003 — in Washington, DC; Reading, United Kingdom; and Copenhagen, Denmark — the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS), Species 2000, and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), respectively, signed a Memorandum of Cooperation to build the Catalog of Life. The Memorandum provides a basis for mutual support, access, and use of the Catalog of Life, a collaborative effort to provide a coherent and authoritative view on the taxonomy of the 1.75 million known species of living organisms on Earth. The unified catalog is fundamental to such important tasks as developing worldwide conservation strategies and understanding invasive species. With its planned coverage of plants, animals, fungi, and microorganisms, the program hopes to achieve one of the more elusive goals of modern biology, a total listing of all described species. ITIS and Species 2000 will develop, review, improve, and maintain the Catalog of Life and provide it through electronic networks and on CD-ROM. GBIF will use the Catalog of Life as an index to make the world's biodiversity data freely and universally available via the Internet and other international electronic networks. GBIF encourages, coordinates, and supports the development of worldwide capacity to access the vast amount of biodiversity data held in natural history museum collections, libraries, and biodiversity databases. ITIS is a partnership of several federal agencies (including the USGS), the Smithsonian Institution, NatureServe, Mexico, and Canada and is a vital component of the National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII).
This agreement follows an earlier Memorandum of Understanding, signed by ITIS and Species 2000 representatives on October 6, 2003, for a cooperative operational framework to develop, scientifically review the content of, continuously improve, and maintain the Species 2000 and Integrated Taxonomic Information System Catalog of Life. The Catalog of Life is accessible at http://www.catalogueoflife.org/annual-checklist.
