The Biodiversity Informatics Facility at the American Museum of Natural History's Center for Biodiversity and Conservation strives to utilize information technologies in biodiversity research and applications while developing and promoting the effective use of these technologies for biodiversity conservation around the world. We are a leader in developing and freely distributing resources in the form of software, methods, and training material and promoting their effective use in the conservation community through training and web-based technologies.

Biodiversity informatics is the application of information technologies to organize and analyze biological data from research collections, experiments, remote sensing, modeling, and databases. The importance of using information technology to support biodiversity conservation is unquestioned. Through the efforts of the Biodiversity Informatics Facility, professional and amateur conservation practitioners have increased access to the data, software, and methods required to benefit from these important resources. Historically our focus has been on geospatial technologies but we are now broadening our scope to include non-geospatial applications as well.

Uses of Information Technologies

Training in the Application of Geospatial Technologies

The Biodiversity Informatics Facility is dedicated to providing training, training resources, and assistance to conservation biologists and students who may benefit from geospatial technology. Training courses in remote sensing techniques are being conducted at the Southwestern Research Station in Arizona, Vietnam, and other sites. In order to make our resources available to as wide an audience as possible, the Biodiversity Informatics Facility continues to develop its website (http://biodiversityinformatics.amnh.org), highlighting resources for those who may be interested in this field but are not sure where to begin. Two new sections have been added to the lab's web site. The first provides training resources for species distribution modeling and the other focus on resources to support the use of geospatial tools for freshwater conservation.

Open Source Software Development and Promotion

The CBC Biodiversity Informatics Facility is actively developing and promoting the use of open source software for conservation applications. The most recent development project, eVis (The Event Visualization Tool), extended the capability of an open source GIS package called Quantum GIS by providing the capability of viewing geocoded photograph on a map background. All of our software tools are freely available through our web site. Promotion of open source software is accomplished through a section of the CBC Biodiversity Informatics Facility web site, presentations at conferences, and by offering training courses the use open source software.

Promote the use of Open Licensing of Documents and Data

The CBC RS/GIS Facility fully supports the ideals of the Conservation Commons. All of the documents prepared by the Biodiversity Informatics Facility that are available on this web site have a Creative Commons license. By promoting the open sharing of knowledge the CBC is setting an example that can be followed by the conservation community.

Species Distribution Modeling

The CBC has become a leader in species distribution modeling research, education, and outreach. This research is focusing on modeling herpetofauna distributions in Madagascar and the effect changes in climate will have on species distributions. Education and outreach activities include a web site with a wealth of information for conservation practitioners to learn about species distribution modeling, a week-long training course titled "Species distribution modeling methods for conservation biologist" at the Southwestern Research Station (SWRS), and an informal discussion group of species distribution modelers in the greater NYC area that meets several times a year.

Vietnam and the Lao People's Democratic Republic

With funding from The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the CBC is working in partnership with the World Wildlife Fund Indochina and the Institute of Ecology and Biological Resources in Vietnam and the Wildlife Conservation Society in Laos to conserve the unique biodiversity of the Central Truong Son region by ensuring the availability of quality science for conservation decisions. In support of this goal, the CBC Biodiversity Informatics Facility produced a map detailing the changes that have occurred to the landscape for three provinces In Vietnam over the last five decades. The objective of this historical landscape analysis is to monitor and quantify changes from one landcover type (forest, agriculture, urban, etc.) to another over time. The CBC Biodiversity Informatics Facility is extending this analysis to include the Nam Kading National Biodiversity Conservation Area in Laos. Yearly workshops are also being conduced to provide training to conservation practitioners in each country to establish the capacity to monitor protected areas in Vietnam and Laos, including the use of the eVis software application.

Pacific Region

CBC Biodiversity Informatics Facility staff produced an initial land cover map of Kolombangara, an island in the New Georgia Island group of the Solomon Islands, for use by local resource managers to monitor logging activities. CBC Biodiversity Informatics Facility staff also participated in the September 2006 visit to Palmyra Atoll, when they characterized geomorphological structure and algal distribution along the south reef flats of the atoll in an attempt to relate sea turtle sightings with potential food resources.