Networking the microbial diversity information

The Internet, the electronic global network of computers, has expanded significantly over the last few years, connecting segments from academia, industry and the private sector, The use of the Internet by researchers has diversified substantially from the primordial exchange of electronic messages to the current use of highly developed graphic interfaces capable of accessing images, sounds and retrieving information from databases in different computers around the world, The reduced costs for data storage and ease of connection to the net have nourished a steady exponential growth in the number of sites, Microbiologists now benefit from a wealth of databases and Web sites with microbiological information, ranging from culture collection data, information on microbial diversity, taxonomic and phylogenetic data, biotechnological applications and taxonomic expertise. Efforts are required to stimulate the integration of complex molecular and image databases with more traditional information resources, such as bibliographic, strain data, compendia of species descriptions and metabolic products databases. Coordinating and linking mechanisms are needed in order to promote the development of protocols, guidelines and minimal standards to ensure data quality, Future challenges to the scientific use of Internet resources include the setting up of clearing-house mechanisms and virtual libraries for the organization of the microbiological resources on the network.174179549850

Lacunas: a web interface to identify plant knowledge gaps to support informed decision-making

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)Scientists from megadiverse countries, such as Brazil, face huge challenges in gathering and analyzing information about species richness and abundance. In Brazil, speciesLink is an e-infrastructure that offers free and open access to data from more than 300 biological and data collections. SpeciesLink's thematic network, INCT-Virtual Herbarium of Plants and Fungi and the List of Species of the Brazilian Flora, are used as primary data sources to develop Lacunas, an information system with a public web interface that generates detailed reports of the status of plant species occurrence data. Lacunas also integrates information about endemism, conservation status, and collecting efforts over time. Here we describe the motivation and the functionality of this system, showing how it can be useful in detecting under-sampled plant species and geographic areas. We show examples of how knowledge can be extracted from biodiversity primary data using Lacunas. For instance, Lacunas report revealed that 111 angiosperm species (10.3 %), currently considered Data Deficient (DD) in the Official List of Threatened Brazilian Flora, have their distribution well characterized. In addition, the situation of Attalea funifera, a native palm classified as DD, was analyzed in detail, together with other use cases. Information presented in Lacunas reports can thus be used by scientists and policy-makers to help evaluate the status of species occurrence data and prioritize digitization and collecting efforts, as well as some features concerning its conservation status. As Lacunas offers a public online interface, it may also become a valuable tool for helping decision-making processes to become more dynamic and transparent.231109131Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)CNPq [381021/2012-2]CNPq [Proc. 573883/2008-4