Reading Practice 36

[1] The Map of Life, a web-based endeavor showing the distribution of all living plants and animals on the planet, was developed by a research team involving both Yale University and the University of Colorado Boulder. They have developed the first public demonstration version of the Map of Life that allows anyone with an internet connection to map the known global distribution of almost 25,000 species of terrestrial vertebrate animals. The continually expanding database already contains hundreds of millions of records about the abundance and distribution of the diverse flora and fauna of Earth.

 

[2] The initial version of the map tool that was released was intended to introduce it to the public. Users are able to see several levels of detail for a specific species such as the type of environment it lives in, and also where its presence has been documented. There is also a feature that allows users to click a point on the map and generate a list of vertebrate species in the surrounding area.

 

[3] The purpose of the project is to highlight the known abundance and distribution of species to identify and fill knowledge gaps. It will also allow for tracking changes in the species over time. Researchers expect the map tool will be useful for professional scientists, wildlife and land managers, conservation organizations, and the general public.

 

[4] The information for the database is collected from a wide variety of sources including field guides, museum collections, wildlife checklists from scientists, conservation organizations, and citizen scientists. This project relies heavily on the participation of other scientists and informed amateurs to be successful. As the project progresses, the ability for users to supply new or missing information about the distribution and abundance of specific species will become available. However, there have been some disputes about how to verify the information and maintain an accurate and reliable database.

 

[5] “A small but powerful next step is to provide a means for anyone, anywhere on the globe to use their mobile devices to instantly pull up animal and plant distributions and even get a realistic assessment of the odds of encountering a particular species of wildlife,” said Robert Guralnick, CU-Boulder Associate Professor of the ecology and evolutionary biology department, which shows a far-reaching intent to really integrate the knowledge into the communities around the world. This project is following in the footsteps of other knowledge repositories, such as the GenBank Project, and aims to be an important resource to researchers and the general public.