Observing biodiversity

by Silvia Musso

Thanks to United Nations that declared 2010 the Intenational Year of Biodiversity, this topici s having more and more echo.
Everywhere in the world, different institutions and associations are dedicating to biodiversity events, festivals, conferences. In this rich scenery some projects are particularly interesting because they will last and won’t end with the end of 2010, when the focus on biodiversity pass the baton to other important issues.

We are talking about the creation of on line portals that focus on biodiversity, a way not only to understand how the natural richness is fundamental for our planet, but also to see and observe animal and vegetal species. The GMBA Mountain Portal, has been recently inaugurated. It is a web site that, throughout an interactive map, shows and explain the varieties of animals and plants living on the different mountain regions. The GMBA Mountain Portal allows you to explore GBIFs biodiversity archive data for mountain regions. You can select search areas from region to globe, or mountain life zones by range of elevation or thermal belts. Mountain areas are defined by ruggedness of terrain, using WORLDCLIM digital elevation data. An introductive demo video shows the archive’s functioning. As you can imagine to watch the portal it is necessary a minimal knowledge of alpine environments’ typical fauna and flora. Species are in fact researchable with the scientific Latin name or throughout a specific taxonomy.

Another project that follows this direction, but that is more intercative and more comunicative because able to involve a wider and more heterogeneous public, for age and training, is the iSpot. iSpot has been developed by the Open University as part of OPAL (Open Air Laboratories), a project running throughout England to encourage a new generation of nature-lovers by getting people to explore, study, enjoy and protect their local environment, supported by the Big Lottery Fund.
It is just one year old (it was launched for the first time on June 2009, so: happy birthday!) but its results are really good as stressed by statistics: more than 50,000 unique visitors to the site, 3,000 registered users, 7,000 observations posted on the site, 8,500 identifications given feedback from users of the site has been very positive, and it is clear that iSpot is achieving its aim of helping people to learn about wildlife identification and develop their own skills, also thanks to the expertise and generosity of people who collaborate with the iSpot responding to the observations that are being made.
An example is given by the strange discovery of a 6-years-old girl, Katie Dobbins. October, 9th, Katie finds a strange moth, inside her house in Upper Bucklebury, Berkshire. Immediately Katie’s father posted a photo on the iSpot website. In this way some experts were able to identify the animal. It is the Pryeria sinica, a moth native to parts of Russia, China, Korea, Japan and Taiwan. In 2001 it was found in gardens in two areas of the eastern USA, where it has maintained a population. It is assumed that it has arrived in Europe as an importation with plants.
Katie’s was fundamental to study if understand if this insect can be dangerous for the new ecosystem where it lives or if it was just an isolated case.
Jonathan Silvertown, professor of Ecology at Open University and creator of the iSpot claims: «This illustrates very well how iSpot enables everyone, even young children, to become involved in natural history and to contribute to scientific knowledge of biodiversity».