Crossing Boundaries

Discussing ways to learn and teach biosciences with technology. The blog of www.actionbioscience.org.

Population map of world

Human Footprint reveals the lifetime consumption of an average American including the resources needed to produce, package and transport everything consumed.

The Center for Biodiversity and Conservation's mission is to mitigate critical threats to global biological and cultural diversity by: * advancing scientific research in diverse ecosystems; * strengthening the application of science to conservation practice and public policy; * developing professional, institutional, and community capacity; and * furthering the Museum's efforts to heighten public understanding and stewardship of biodiversity.

The NBII Northeast Information Node (NIN) Web site gives users-educators, resource managers, researchers, and the general public-easy access to the data resources and analysis tools they need to better understand, utilize, and protect the environmental resources of this region.

The Species 2000 & ITIS Catalogue of Life is planned to become a comprehensive catalogue of all known species of organisms on Earth. Rapid progress has been made recently and this, the ninth edition of the Annual Checklist, contains 1,160,711 species. Please note that this is probably just more than half of the world's known species. This means that for many groups it continues to be deficient, and users will notice that many species are still missing from the Catalogue. The present Catalogue is compiled with sectors provided by 66 taxonomic databases from around the world. Many of these contain taxonomic data and opinions from extensive networks of specialists, so that the complete work contains contributions from more than 3,000 specialists from throughout the taxonomic profession. Species 2000 and ITIS teams peer review databases, select appropriate sectors and integrate the sectors into a single coherent catalogue with a single hierarchical classification. It is planned to introduce alternative taxonomic treatments and alternative classifications, but an important feature is that for those users who wish to use it, a single preferred catalogue, based on peer reviews, will continue to be provided.