Biodiversity in a rapidly changing world
Tracy Barbaro
EOL at NCSE
In a world layered with issues as complex as globalization, poverty, and political and economic crisis, there is a demand to develop science-based solutions through collaboration among scientists, policy makers, businesses, and the international public. Where on earth can people from the far ends of these different communities come together to collectively strategize about how to conserve our planet’s biodiversity?
The National Center for Science and the Environment (NCSE)’s Biodiversity in a Rapidly Changing World Conference in Washington, D.C. (December 8-10, 2008) is an excellent place to start. Joining the dialogue on biodiversity is The Encyclopedia of Life. The EOL symposium, entitled “Exploring Earth’s Species, Writing the Encyclopedia of Life” is focused on the future of descriptive taxonomy, improving universal access to primary literature about biodiversity, engaging the scientific community in the writing of the Encyclopedia of Life, and exploring how EOL is helping to facilitate collaborative, on-line learning communities. On a species level, the Encyclopedia of Life provides an immense opportunity to transform the documentation of taxonomic information into a relevant, useable, 21st century scientific web portal.
Potential for using EOL as a as a resource for science-based decision making: The Red Lionfish
The red lionfish came to my attention when I visited the BBC’s Oceans website. Under the “Interesting For” section, there was a link at the bottom of the page to EOL’s red lionfish species page. Under the sub-heading, ” About the Red Lionfish”, there was a link to the Encyclopedia of Life and a brief description which read: ” The Encyclopedia of Life gives an overview of the lionfish.”
I began to wonder how EOL, in the future, might be able to provide information for science-based decision making. Red lionfish are native to coral reef ecosystems in the Indo-Pacific. Yet, due to the release of the fish from aquariums near the coast of Florida (initially caused by Hurricane Andrew in 1992 and subsequent human releases of the fish from aquariums) a large population has found itself in the waters near the Bahamas. These venomous hunters are hunting and eating the native juvenile fish species, such as damselfish and parrotfish, which inhabit the coral reefs of the Caribbean. Damselfish and parrotfish are herbivores and without their consumption of seaweeds, there is the danger that seaweeds could take over the coral reefs.
In this hypothetical scenario, EOL and its data partners would be able to provide up to date information about the red lionfish, or pterois volitans, in a species page. Policy makers, marine economic stakeholders, and others could then examine the information about the red lionfish to make informed decisions about marine policy in the affected area. At present state, the EOL red lionfish pages provides stunning images, a nice overview, and good information about behavior and trophic strategy. The occurrence map does not yet provide the up-to-date geographic information that is necessary for marine policy makers and the habitat description is limited. This brings to point, one of the things I love most about the Encyclopedia of Life- EOL is not a finished project, it is a work in progress. Calling all marine biologists! If you have more information about the distribution of the red lionfish in the Caribbean Sea and its effect on the native fish species and coral reef ecosystems that you would like to see on the EOL red lionfish species page, please contact us!
It is exciting to think about the future and the potential of EOL as a resource. We are working hard every day to balance this enormous task of creating a page for all 1.8 million known species. This task includes reaching out to data partners,the scientific community ( including citizen scientists and amateur naturalists), educators and students, for their feedback and comments about how to best create the EOL. While there is currently a place holder for every species, there are countless pages that are not complete. The two dozen or so exemplar pages are a good indicator of what we’d like every page to look like. Updates and interactivity are coming. Please be patient with us and continue to email us your comments and feedback. We truly appreciate it.
For more information about the red lionfish and its threat to Caribbean coral reef ecosystems click here.
Encyclopedia of Life at the 2008 NCSE Conference
Keynote Address: Biodiversity in a Rapidly Changing World
Cristian Samper, Director, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, EOL Steering Committee
NCSE Lifetime Achievement Awards
E.O.Wilson, Harvard University, EOL Honorary Chair, EOL Distinguished Advisory Board
Peter Raven, Director of Missouri Botanical Gardens, EOL Steering Committee
Symposium: Exploring the Earth’s Species, Writing the Encyclopedia of Life
Quentin Wheeler, International Institute for Species Exploration, Arizona State University
Jim Edwards, Executive Director, Encyclopedia of Life, Smithsonian Institution
Tom Garnett, Encyclopedia of Life, Biodiversity Heritage Library
Marie Studer, Encyclopedia of Life, Education and Outreach
December 13th, 2008 at 5:22 am → Hate to be churlish, but I take issue with the claim that "The case of the red lionfish exemplfies how ... Read it ↓
Hate to be churlish, but I take issue with the claim that “The case of the red lionfish exemplfies how EOL can provide information for science-based decision making.” Rather, I suggest it demonstrates just how limited EOL is. If I view the page for the red lionfish http://www.eol.org/taxa/17061533 I get an out of date map from GBIF that shows a very limited distribution, and doesn’t show the introductions in Florida and the Bahamas (I have to wade through text to find reference to the Florida introduction, and the page doesn’t mention the Bahamas). You state that “In this senerio[sic], EOL and its data partners provide up to date information about the lionfish, or pterois volitans, in a species page.” Well, the GBIF map is old (a more recent map is available from http://data.gbif.org/species/13546738 ), the bibliography omits key references such as “Biological invasion of the Indo-Pacific lionfish Pterois volitans along the Atlantic coast of North America” http://www.int-res.com/articles/meps2002/235/m235p289.pdf. Most of this information I got from Wikipedia, GBIF, and Google Scholar via iSpecies http://ispecies.org/?q=Pterois+volitans.
In other words, EOL in it’s present state is serving limited, out of date information. How can this help “science-based decision making”? Surely the will come a point when people will tire of breathless statements about how EOL will be useful, and they will start to ask “where’s the beef?”
December 14th, 2008 at 9:26 pm → Dear Mr.Page, Thank you for your comments on the recent EOL blog post. When I was writing the post, I was ... Read it ↓
Dear Mr.Page,
Thank you for your comments on the recent EOL blog post. When I was writing the post, I was envisioning how in the future, EOL might be able to provide up-to-date information for science-based decision making. I did not intend to imply that the red lionfish species page, in its current state, would be a useful tool for policy makers. Somehow my thoughts about the future were not communicated well in my writing.
I appreciate you taking the time to comment. I went back and updated the blog post to reflect my thoughts on the future of EOL,if you would care to take a look at it. You mentioned that you felt that the BHL bibliography was lacking. You suggested adding ” references such as “Biological invasion of the Indo-Pacific lionfish Pterois volitans along the Atlantic coast of North America”. If you would like, I can put you in contact with the Director of the Biodiversity Heritage Library, which is also EOL’s Scanning and Digitization group.
We are working very hard and it is helpful to be reminded that our visions of the future of EOL are not what the public sees on EOL today.Updates are coming though, so please stay tuned! It is also nice to know that people are reading the blog and care enough to give feedback.
Best regards,
Tracy Barbaro
EOL Education and Outreach Project Coordinator
tbarbaro@eol.org