Life Sketches: Evidence-based analysis of trophic interactions across the tree of life from the biodiversity literature

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The aim of this project is to provide biodiversity researchers with a facility analogous to word sketches, but based upon taxonomic and trophic relationships between species. Using evidence- based lexicographic techniques and exploiting the implicit taxonomic structure of the biodiversity data, the project will create 'life sketches', offering researchers a statistical snapshot of how, how often, when and where a particular species occurs in the literature, and what kinds of trophic interactions with other species it engages in. With such a tool, researchers will be able to address key questions in biodiversity sciences, such as the evolution of trophic interactions across the tree of life with focus on different geographic and time scales, with a much enhanced statistical power that may challenge long held but not robustly tested hypotheses describing key processes of the co- diversification of unrelated organisms through time and in place.