1. Encyclopedia of Life
Biodiversity Synthesis Center –
Accelerating the pace of scientific discovery
Torsten Dikow
Biodiversity Synthesis Center
Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, IL, USA
2. Overview
◊ Encyclopedia of Life – EOL
◊ Biodiversity Heritage Library – BHL
◊ Biodiversity Synthesis Center – BioSynC
◊ LifeDesk
◊ Sharing images with EOL
◊ EOL Fellows Program
Hoplistomerus nobilis, Asilidae
3. “The Encyclopedia of Life is an ecosystem of websites that makes all key
information about all life on Earth accessible to anyone, anywhere in the
world” (www.eol.org)
www.eol.org blog.eol.org
4. Encyclopedia of Life
◊ 1.8 Million species pages
◊ A web-site for every species that roams or roamed the earth
◊ Freely available – Customizable by user – Common portal
✝ Schildia martini, Dominican amber Schildia fragilis, extant
2 mm 2 mm
5. Encyclopedia of Life
◊ Five components
• Secretariat Washington, DC, USA
• Biodiversity Informatics Group Woods Hole, MA , USA
• Scanning & Digitization Group Washington, DC, USA
• Species Site Group Washington, DC, USA
• Education & Outreach Group Boston, MA, USA
• Biodiversity Synthesis Group Chicago, IL, USA
◊ Cornerstone institutions
• Smithsonian Institution Washington, DC, USA
• Field Museum of Natural History Chicago, IL, USA
• Harvard University Boston, MA, USA
• Marine Biological Laboratory Woods Hole, MA , USA
• Missouri Botanical Garden St. Louis, MO, USA
• Biodiversity Heritage Library Washington, DC, USA
• Atlas of Living Australia Canberra, ACT, Australia
6. Encyclopedia of Life
◊ General need for accurate species information
◊ Information displayed comes from
• aggregation (mash-up) of data from online sources
• sharing data with existing online databases
• workbench LifeDesk to upload information
◊ Not another Wikipedia
◊ Private foundations have funded initial development
7. Encyclopedia of Life
◊ Useful for scientists and general public
• Scientific community
– assembles & authenticates scientific information
• General public
– submits photos, data, other information
– scientists review information
– best media etc. brought into authenticated page
8. Encyclopedia of Life
Teacher develops lesson plans on conservation.
Port inspector uses EOL and molecular barcoding to
monitor ballast water.
Climate researchers link changes in butterfly
populations to climate change.
Taxonomist in a developing country accesses
literature to describe new species.
Eco-tourist downloads electronic
field guide to prepare for trip to
Himalayas.
10. BHL – An International Consortium
• Royal Botanic Garden, Kew, London, UK
• Natural History Museum, London, UK
• American Museum of Natural History, New York, NY
• New York Botanical Garden, New York, NY, USA
• Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, IL, USA
• Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, USA
• Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, MO, USA
• Harvard University – Botany & Ernst Mayr Libraries, Boston, MA, USA
James Dwight Dana
• Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA, USA Zoophytes. Atlas, 1849
11. BHL – Scanning of entire taxonomic literature
◊ Core literature pre-1923 (out of copyright in the USA)
• 400,000 titles = 80 million pages
◊ All pre-1923 literature
• 600–750,000 = 120–150 million pp.
◊ All taxonomic literature
• 1.4–1.6 million = 280–320 million pp.
◊ High-resolution
◊ OCR text PDF – copy/paste descriptions etc.
Searchable online and linked through EOL
14. BHL – Scanning the literature of your interest
◊ Community-vetted bibliography
◊ Scanning priority
• Diplopoda
◊ Scan institutional journals
• ZSM journals
◊ Copyright
• institutions might be willing to waive
• Natal Museum, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa
Corydalis cava, Fumariaceae
15. Biodiversity Synthesis Center – BioSynC
◊ One of five components of the EOL
◊ Based at the Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, IL
◊ BioSynC is one way for scientists to directly take advantage of and
support the EOL
synthesis.eol.org
16. BioSynC – Goals
◊ Accelerate the pace of scientific discovery in taxonomy, biodiversity, &
evolution.
◊ Support the growth of the EOL by facilitating cross-disciplinary
involvement of the scientific community.
◊ Provide a central meeting location for biologists to explore new ideas
& develop tools for synthetic analysis of biodiversity.
Cactaceae
17. BioSynC – Synthesis Meetings
◊ Topics proposed by international community
◊ Bring together groups for specific goals
◊ Budgets of up to US$ 50,000
◊ Content for research and EOL
◊ Tool development for research and EOL
◊ New questions or Ideas
Corydalis cava, Fumariaceae
18. BioSynC – Tree of Life Visualisation
www.adobe.com/xd/eol
19. BioSynC – Megadiverse & Understudied Taxa
◊ Bryozoa
Dec 2007
◊ Decapoda
Jun 2008
◊ Diptera
Oct 2008
◊ Heteroptera
Feb 2009
◊ Diplopoda
Mar 2009
20. BioSynC – Conservation Biology
◊ Hotspot mapping
◊ Regional & habitat searches within EOL
◊ Educational efforts in biodiversity
◊ Biodiversity conservation & preservation
Biodiversity hotspots
sensu Conservation International
21. BioSynC – Statistics
◊ Proposals
received = 27, approved = 18
◊ Submissions
• 46 individuals from 30 institutions in 11 countries
Australia, Austria, Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Italy, Singapore, Taiwan, United
Kingdom, and United States
◊ Participants
• 177 from 89 institutions in 31 countries
Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burundi, Canada, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Czech
Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, India, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Nigeria,
Norway, Poland, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Taiwan, Tanzania, United Kingdom, and
United States
• 99 faculty, professors, or curators
• 31 students (high school, undergraduate, and graduate)
• 47 other (e.g., programmers, educators, or collection managers)
22. BioSynC – Previous synthesis meetings
TreeViz Dec 2007 San Francisco, CA, USA
BryoZone Dec 2007 Chicago, IL, USA
MegaTrees April 2008 Chicago, IL, USA
IEDG May 2008 Berkeley, CA, USA
Decapoda June 2008 Keelung, Taiwan
I Dig Tanzania June 2008 Chicago, IL, USA
LifeDesk September 2008 Chicago, IL, USA
Diptera October 2008 Chicago, IL, USA
TDWG October 2008 Fremantle, WA, Australia
Heteroptera February 2009 Riverside, CA, USA
Diplopoda March 2009 Munich, Germany
Planned synthesis meetings
• Early land plants – liverworts • Peracarida
• Scleractinia corals • Fossil fishes
• Fossil Marine Tetrapoda • Fish MegaTree
• Biogeography tools
27. Share photos with EOL through flickr.com
◊ Rules
• image set to public
• image is licensed with public domain or CC-BY, CC-BY-NC, CC-BY-SA,
CC-BY-NC-SA http://creativecommons.org/about/license/
• image is tagged using machine tags
– binomial scientific name taxonomy:binomial=“Grazia tincta“
– genus name taxonomy:genus=Grazia
– family name taxonomy:family=Pentatomidae
◊ Additional data
• common name
• geographic information
– “geo:lat=”; “geo:lon=”
– “geo:alt=”
www.flickr.com/groups/encyclopedia_of_life/
Grazia tincta, Pentatomidae
28. Encyclopedia of Life – Fellows Program
◊ Cofunding of EOL contributor through Species Sites Group
• salary of up to US$ 20,000 annually
• institutions or grants provide matching funds
• directly contributing to EOL content (250 species pages)
◊ Competetive applications from around the world
◊ Great outreach component for grants !
◊ Starting September 2009
Damalis speciosa, Asilidae
29. Encyclopedia of Life – Funding
◊ John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
◊ Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
◊ J.B. and M.K. Pritzker Family Foundation
◊ Harris Family Foundation
◊ MaryEllen and Richard Keyser
◊ Lewis Manilow
◊ Antonio Gracias
