The roles and contributions of Biodiversity Observation Networks (BONs) in better tracking progress to 2020 biodiversity targets: a European case study

The Aichi Biodiversity Targets of the United Nations’ Strategic Plan for Biodiversity set ambitious goals for protecting biodiversity from further decline. Increased efforts are urgently needed to achieve these targets by 2020. The availability of comprehensive, sound and up-to-date biodiversity data is a key requirement to implement policies, strategies and actions to address biodiversity loss, monitor progress towards biodiversity targets, as well as to assess the current status and future trends of biodiversity. Key gaps, however, remain in our knowledge of biodiversity and associated ecosystem services. These are mostly a result of barriers preventing existing data from being discoverable, accessible and digestible. In this paper, we describe what regional Biodiversity Observation Networks (BONs) can do to address these barriers using the European Biodiversity Observation Network (EU BON) as an example. We conclude that there is an urgent need for a paradigm shift in how biodiversity data are collected, stored, shared and streamlined in order to tackle the many sustainable development challenges ahead. We need a shift towards an integrative biodiversity information framework, starting from collection to the final interpretation and packaging of data. This is a major objective of the EU BON project, towards which progress is being made

Fauna Europaea - all European animal species on the web

Fauna Europaea is Europe's main zoological taxonomic index, making the scientific names and distributions of all living, currently known, multicellular, European land and freshwater animals species integrally available in one authoritative database. Fauna Europaea covers about 260,000 taxon names, including 145,000 accepted (sub)species, assembled by a large network of (>400) leading specialists, using advanced electronic tools for data collations with data quality assured through sophisticated validation routines. Fauna Europaea started in 2000 as an EC funded FP5 project and provides a unique taxonomic reference for many user-groups such as scientists, governments, industries, nature conservation communities and educational programs. Fauna Europaea was formally accepted as an INSPIRE standard for Europe, as part of the European Taxonomic Backbone established in PESI. Fauna Europaea provides a public web portal at faunaeur.org with links to other key biodiversity services, is installed as a taxonomic backbone in wide range of biodiversity services and actively contributes to biodiversity informatics innovations in various initiatives and EC programs

Avaliação da qualidade da água e autodepuração do ribeirão do meio, Leme (SP) Evaluation of the water quality and auto-purification from the meio stream, Leme (SP)

Este trabalho utilizou relações hidroquímicas para avaliar possíveis entradas antropogênicas nas águas superficiais do Ribeirão do Meio (SP). Realizaram-se três coletas de água durante os meses de fevereiro, abril e julho de 2005 em cinco pontos de coleta analisando: vazão, temperatura, turbidez, pH, condutividade, oxigênio dissolvido, sólidos totais dissolvidos, sólidos totais em suspensão, Ca2+, Mg2+, Na+, K+, HCO3-, Cl-, SO4(2-), PO4(3-) e NO3-. As características da água próximo à nascente até a cidade de Leme permitem concluir que há pouca interferência na sua qualidade, porém, a falta de tratamento para o esgoto doméstico da cidade de Leme piora a sua qualidade. Para se modelar à autodepuração utilizou-se o modelo QUAL 2K, que identificou as zonas de autodepuração e indicou a necessidade de tratamento de esgotos em nível secundário, com eficiência de 76%.<br>This investigation utilized hydrochemical relations to evaluate possible anthropogenic inputs at Meio Stream, São Paulo State. Realized three sampling of water during the months of February, April and July/2005, in five sampling points analyzing: discharge, temperature, turbidity, pH, electrical conductivity (EC), dissolved oxygen (DO), TDS (total dissolved solids), TSS (total suspended solids), Ca2+, Mg2+, Na+, K+, HCO3-, Cl-, SO4(2-), PO4(3-) and NO3-. The characteristics of water close to spring until Leme city allow concluding that there is a small interference in its quality, however the absence of treatment of domestic wastewater at Leme city reduced its quality. It was applied the QUAL 2K modeling to evaluate the Meio Stream auto-purification identified the auto-purification zones and indicated the necessity of secondary wastewater treatment, with 76% of efficiency