|
This year for the first time, BioBlitz data will be shared -- while it is being collected and after -- via the international GBIF network through the GBIF Data Portal, www.gbif.net.
Once a year since 2001, GEO Magazine (of Germany) has sponsored a 24-hour counting of the plants and animals of a selected area in Europe. GEO Tag der Artenvielfalt (GEO magazine's biodiversity-count day) for 2005 was 10-11 June.
An event such as this, in which many citizens participate, is often called a "BioBlitz".
For 24 hours in June, many "friends of nature" went out to discover, identify, observe and document as many animals and plants as possible. The data collected started to be uploaded to the Internet and made available worldwide through GBIF even as the bioblitz was taking place.
Data collection bega in late evening in Berlin (DST +0200 UTC) on the 10th, and in early afternoon in New York (DST -0400 UTC).
To show how many species have been found at each site, the the GBIF website has two "odometers" on the home page that will report the numbers of species found as the data are uploaded. To see lists of the names of the species, visitors to the website can click on the labels on the "odometers". This will take the visitor to the GBIF data portal, where the lists of species can be seen.
Previous Tage der Artenvielfalt have taken place in Germany, Austria, Italy and Switzerland. This year, the selected European site is Berlin's Tiergarten, and -- also for the first time -- a concurrent GEO-sponsored BioBlitz occurred in the United States, along 23 miles of the Bronx River in New York.
The organisation of the GEO Tag der Artenvielfalt was coordinated in Berlin by the GEO team and DUH - Deutsche Umwelthilfe. The Berlin Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum and science4you are participating in several ways, including providing the computer server for the data to be shared via GBIF.
In New York, the coordinating organisation was the Bronx River Alliance, and the New York Botanical Garden will serve the data to GBIF.
In July, a final total list of the species documented will be prepared and presented in the GEO-brochure and made public through the GBIF network.
|
