Scholarly Web Resources
- Biodiversity Heritage LibraryBiodiversity Heritage Library is a consortium of natural history and botanical libraries that cooperate to digitize and make accessible the legacy literature of biodiversity held in their collections and to make that literature available for open access and responsible use as a part of a global “biodiversity commons.” BHL also serves as the foundational literature component of the Encyclopedia of Life (EOL).
- Center for Invasive Species & Ecosystem HealthThe mission of the Center for Invasive Species & Ecosystem Health is to serve a lead role in development, consolidation and dissemination of information and programs focused on invasive species, forest health, natural resource and agricultural management through technology development, program implementation, training, applied research and public awareness at the state, regional, national and international levels.
- Charles Darwin’s LibraryCharles Darwin’s Library is a digital edition and virtual reconstruction of the surviving books owned by Charles Darwin. This BHL special collection draws on original copies and surrogates from other libraries. It also provides full transcriptions of his annotations and marks. In this first release (2011) we provide 330 of the 1480 titles in his library, concentrating on the most heavily annotated books.
- Convention on BiodiversitySigned by 150 government leaders at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, the Convention on Biological Diversity is dedicated to promoting sustainable development. Conceived as a practical tool for translating the principles of Agenda 21 into reality, the Convention recognizes that biological diversity is about more than plants, animals and micro organisms and their ecosystems – it is about people and our need for food security, medicines, fresh air and water, shelter, and a clean and healthy environment in which to live.
- Explore BiodiverstiyExplore Biodiversity is a 501-C3 non-profit company started in 2003 by a small group of graduate science students. Everyone who works with Explore Biodiversity is both a trained scientist and an educator. As educators in science we saw the need for good, fun videos that can be utilized directly in the classroom by teachers. The only videos we found were both expensive and too long to show effectively in the classroom. We believe that useful videos should be short, engaging, and fun.
- Global Invasive Species DatabaseThe Global Invasive Species Database focuses on invasive alien species that threaten native biodiversity and covers all taxonomic groups from micro-organisms to animals and plants in all ecosystems. Species information is either supplied by or reviewed by expert contributors from around the world.
- Invasive Plants of the Eastern United States: Identification and ControlThis publication will aid landowners, foresters, resource managers, and the general public in becoming familiar with invasive plants in their area to help protect our environment from the economic and ecological impacts of these biological pollutants.
- National Invasive Species Information Center (NISIC)Gateway to invasive species information covering Federal, State, local, and international sources.
- Natural Heritage - BioMap (Massachusetts Dept. of Fish and Game)The BioMap2 Town Reports were developed to provide local biodiversity information to assist in specific conservation efforts at the town or regional level. These Town Reports include descriptions of the important species, natural communities, and coarse filter elements of BioMap2 that can be found within a specific town and its surrounding area. Development of the BioMap2 Town Reports was funded through capital bond funds.
Recommended Articles
FREE!!!
- CONSERVATION BIOLOGY FOR ALLIn honor of International Year for Biodiversity, Oxford University Press makes conservation biology textbook by some of the world's most prominent ecologists and conservation biologists available as free download
New Books
Quantifying Functional Biodiversity by Call Number: ebookISBN: 9789400726475Publication Date: 2011-10-31This book synthesizes current methods used to quantify functional diversity, providing step-by-step examples for defining functional groups and estimating functional indices. The authors show how to compare communities, and how to analyze changes of diversity along environmental gradients, using real-life examples throughout. One section of the book demonstrates the selection of traits, and the standardization and characterization of ecosystem data. Another section presents methods used to quantify functional diversity, shows how to relate functional diversity with environmental variables and how to connect these to ecosystem services. The concluding section introduces FDiversity, a free program developed by the authors. The reader is guided through every step from software installation and basic functions, to sample and database design, to graphical projection methods, employing case study data to illustrate key concepts.
Sustaining Life by Call Number: QH541.15.B56 S96 2008ISBN: 9780195175097Publication Date: 2008-06-02The Earth's biodiversity-the rich variety of life on our planet-is disappearing at an alarming rate. And while many books have focused on the expected ecological consequences, or on the aesthetic, ethical, sociological, or economic dimensions of this loss,Sustaining Lifeis the first book to examine the full range of potential threats that diminishing biodiversity poses to human health. Edited and written by Harvard Medical School physicians Eric Chivian and Aaron Bernstein, along with more than 100 leading scientists who contributed to writing and reviewing the book,Sustaining Lifepresents a comprehensive--and sobering--view of how human medicines, biomedical research, the emergence and spread of infectious diseases, and the production of food, both on land and in the oceans, depend on biodiversity. The book's ten chapters cover everything from what biodiversity is and how human activity threatens it to how we as individuals can help conserve the world's richly varied biota. Seven groups of organisms, some of the most endangered on Earth, provide detailed case studies to illustrate the contributions they have already made to human medicine, and those they are expected to make if we do not drive them to extinction. Drawing on the latest research, but written in language a general reader can easily follow,Sustaining Lifeargues that we can no longer see ourselves as separate from the natural world, nor assume that we will not be harmed by its alteration. Our health, as the authors so vividly show, depends on the health of other species and on the vitality of natural ecosystems. With a foreword by E.O. Wilson and a prologue by Kofi Annan, and more than 200 poignant color illustrations,Sustaining Lifecontributes essential perspective to the debate over how humans affect biodiversity and a compelling demonstration of the human health costs. It is the winner of the Gerald L. Young Book Award in Human Ecology Best Sci-Tech Books of 2008 for Biology by Gregg Sapp ofLibrary Journal
