Forum on Biodiversity, held at the National Academy of Sciences in October 28-30, 1997, in Washington D.C.

随着人类对地球生物资源的利用和管理，对地球生物资源的认识，对陆地和海洋生物资源的种类和它们构成的群落的认识也在增长。随着利用和开发，人们越来越认识到自然生物系统和个别生物物种的可持续性，有时是脆弱性。不知情或误导的使用导致自然生态过程的中断和破坏，对植物、动物和微生物种群的规模和健康产生直接或间接的后果。与此同时，地球上的探索发现了新的生物和群落，它们往往存在于迄今无法想象的极端环境中。这种对新物种和新群落的新认识带来的惊奇感，与有效管理全球生物资源的紧迫感发生了冲突。其中许多问题已被纳入“生物多样性”一词，其核心是研究地球上的生物体，它们在自然或人类管理的社区中的相互作用，以及它们面对全球环境进程和人类利用的可持续性。11年来，国家生物多样性论坛引起了科学界和公众对这些问题的广泛关注，美国国家科学院正在主办第二次论坛，以评估地球生物遗产持续研究的进展并确定挑战。顶尖的科学家和资源管理者将在科学院和诸如史密森学会、国会图书馆和美国科学促进会等支持组织的支持下召开会议。会议和讲习班以及这些讨论产生的印刷出版物将通过网络传播和通过互联网络继续讨论加以扩大。

9729452 Williams Knowledge of earth's biological resources, the species and the communities they constitute on land and in the sea, has grown with human use and management of those resources. With use and development has come a growing appreciation of the sustainability, and at times vulnerability, of natural biological systems and of individual species of organisms. Uninformed or misguided uses have resulted in disruption and destruction of natural ecological processes, with direct or indirect consequences on the size and health of populations of plants, animals, and microbes. At the same time, exploration on earth has revealed novel organisms and communities, often existing at environmental extremes heretofore unimagined. The sense of wonder that accompanies this new knowledge of novel species and communities clashes with the sense of urgency about effective stewardship of biological resources around the globe. Many of these issues have come to be subsumed under the term "biodiversity" which at its core is concerned with the study of earth's living organisms, their interactions in natural or human-managed communities, and their sustainability in the face of global environmental processes and human uses. Following 11 years upon a national Forum on Biodiversity that brought widespread scientific and public attention to these issues, the National Academy of Sciences is hosting a second forum to assess progress and define challenges in the continuing study of earth's biological heritage. Leading scientists and resource managers will convene under the aegis of the Academy and of supporting organizations such as the Smithsonian Institution, Library of Congress, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The meetings and workshops, and the print publications resulting from these discussions, will be extended through Web-based dissemination and continuing discussion via the Internet.