The current release allows you to explore globally the geographic distributions for any terrestrial vertebrate species (as well as North American freshwater fish). Specifically you are able to:
- Display expert range maps, point occurrence records, records from study areas such as reserves and larger regions. These are shown as layers on maps, and a layer control widget allows you to adjust ordering, visibility, etc .
- Retrieve a list of species for the vicinity of any location worldwide using the species list tool. Simply set search radius and group of interest, and right click (control-click on Macs) your mouse button on a point of the map.
Map of Life will allow users to see several levels of detail for a given species–from the broad type of environment it lives in, to the finest–specific locations where the species’ presence has been documented. Users may now click on a point on the map and generate a list of vertebrate species in the surrounding area. The project gleans data from a variety of sources, including field guides, museum collections and wildlife checklists that involved scientists, conservation organizations and “citizen scientists. The current demo release allows users explore globally distributions for any vertebrate species and for North American freshwater fish. Much more to come!
A press release from a research team from the University of Colorado and Yale University quoted CU-Boulder Associate Professor Robert Guralnick of the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department, and research team member:.
We are taking 200 years of different types of knowledge coming from different sources, all documenting the locations of species around the world and compiling them in a way that will greatly enhance our knowledge of biodiversity. Such information could be used by any organization that needs to make informed decisions regarding land management, health, conservation and climate change.
Walter Jetz, Associate Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Yale, and the project lead, shared:
It is the where and the when of a species. It puts at your fingertips the geographic diversity of life. Ultimately, the hope is for this literally to include hundreds of thousands of animal and plant species and show how much or indeed how little we know of their whereabouts.
The project will rely on citizen participation, and an upcoming mapping tool will offer the opportunity for amateurs to supply new or missing information regarding the distribution and abundance of a species. According to Guralnick,
A small but powerful next step is to provide a means for anyone, anywhere on the globe to use their mobile devices to instantly pull up animal and plant distributions and even get a realistic assessment on the odds of encountering a particular species of wildlife.
Thanks to Joyce Valenza for sharing this great resource.
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