KDI: Knowledge Networking of Biodiversity Information

这一知识和分布式情报倡议将使生物多样性信息的知识联网成为可能。 我们由系统学家，生态学家，地球系统科学家，自然资源管理人员和计算机科学家组成的跨部门，多学科，知识联盟。 我们的研究和基础设施重点是生物多样性的量化，分析和预测。有几个推力区域（a-g）：（a）通过实施国际信息检索协议和元数据概况，包括与美国综合分类信息系统（ITIS）的开发合作，实现对生物收集和分类数据库的高性能网络访问，以及（B）将这些博物馆数据库与地形和气候信息等其他地球系统科学数据相结合，用于物种分布和相关生物多样性现象的预测建模和可视化。 我们将启动两个试验台研究项目，以评估：（c）生物多样性的生态系统功能;（d）全球两栖动物种群减少的模式和过程。我们还将（e）培训下一代生物多样性信息学科学家，（f）在互联网上向学生和公众提供我们将制作的数据库访问和物种分布分析工具。 最后，作为上述研究的一部分，我们将（g）研究网络上研究人员、组织和社区之间的协作和协同行为的过程。在这个项目中，我们将部署一个研究计算架构，用于访问、整合和分析与全球生物博物馆和植物标本馆中存档的30亿动植物标本相关的权威生物和分类数据。这个巨大的信息库是在300年的地球生物探索过程中获得的，记录了地球上已知的生命，大约170万个物种-它们的历史，全球组成，身份，空间分布和生态。 如果我们要应对21世纪的重大挑战之一：了解地球生物多样性与全球环境系统的功能关系，那么访问和使用这些数据是至关重要的。随着自然系统向人类管理系统的转变加速了生物多样性的衰退，对这一知识的迫切需求也在增加。 生物多样性信息的知识联网将使世界生物收藏的知识内容成为科学和社会的通用信息，以更好地了解生物多样性及其在全球环境系统中的作用，并为全球环境管理和政策提供信息。

This Knowledge and Distributed Intelligence initiative will enable knowledge networking of biological diversity information. We comprise a cross-sector, multidisciplinary, intellectual consortium of systematists, ecologists, earth systems scientists, natural resource managers and computer scientists. Our research and infrastructure foci are on the quantification, analysis and prediction of biodiversity. There are several thrust areas (a-g): (a) high-performance network access to biological collection and classification databases through the implementation of international information retrieval protocols and metadata profiles, including a development collaboration with the U.S. Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS), and (b) the integration of those museum databases with other earth systems sciences data such as terrain and climate information, for the predictive modeling and visualization of species distributions and related biodiversity phenomena. We will initiate two test bed research projects to assess: (c) the ecosystem function of biodiversity; and (d) the pattern and processes governing the decline in amphibian populations worldwide. We will also (e) train the next generation of biodiversity informatics scientists, and (f) deliver the database access and species distribution analysis tools we will produce to students and the public on the Internet. Finally, as part of the above research, we will (g) study the process of collaboration and synergistic behavior among investigators, organizations and communities across the net.In this project we will deploy a research computing architecture for accessing, integrating and analyzing authoritative biotic and taxonomic data associated with the 3 billion specimens of animals and plants archived worldwide in biological museums and herbaria. This enormous information store, acquired during 300 years of biological exploration of the earth, documents the known life of the planet, about 1.7 million species--their history, global composition, identity, spatial distribution and ecology. Access to and use of this data are fundamental if we are to meet one of the grand challenges for the 21st century: understanding the functional relationships of earth's biological diversity to global environmental systems. The urgent need for this knowledge increases as the conversion of natural to human-managed systems accelerates the decline of biological diversity. Knowledge networking of biodiversity information will bring the intellectual content of the world's biological collections into currency for science and society for achieving a better understanding of biological diversity and its role in global environmental systems, and for informing global environmental management and policy.