Reading's 'dictionary' of 1.4m global species migrates to Holland
Thursday, 31 October 2013
'The Catalogue of Life's success is due to the hard work and expertise of colleagues at Reading, and our partners around the world.'
The University is delighted that its work in creating a unique list of all life on Earth is set to be continued by a leading research centre in Holland.
The Catalogue of Life (CoL), which the late Professor Frank Bisby began in 1997, holds essential information on the names, relationships and distributions of over 70% of known species. With degradation and loss of global biodiversity a key issue of our time, the CoL is a crucial resource for biodiversity and conservation groups in their efforts to protect life on Earth.
The project developed from one person on a computer - Professor Bisby - to a dedicated laboratory filled with active staff developing both the content and the infrastructure for the Catalogue. Frank worked tirelessly to promote the CoL and its importance internationally.
CoL is a remarkable global project. It's founded on over 140 global species databases and the knowledge of over 3,000 taxonomic specialists. Expert teams peer review the databases and integrate them into a single coherent catalogue, establishing a single hierarchical classification of species.
Dr Alastair Culham, from the School of Biological Sciences, said: "We are enormously proud to have begun this wonderful ‘dictionary' of global species which is now used around the world as a vital biodiversity research resource. To understand the rate of which species are dying out, we need to know how many there are and where they live to begin with. That information didn't exist in one place before the Catalogue of Life. Its success is due to the hard work and expertise of colleagues at Reading, and our partners around the world."
From 1 November, the management and day-to-day running of the CoL will be undertaken by Naturalis in Leiden, Holland.
"Reading built up the Catalogue from scratch," continued Dr Culham. "...but it has now moved from a piece of research science to become a major infrastructure that needs to be housed in a core-funded research institution. The Catalogue will be in safe hands at Leiden for the next five years when there will be an opportunity for another leading institution to host it. We will continue to take a strong interest in its work by providing our global species databases and by continuing our outreach activities to promote Catalogue of Life. New species continue to be discovered at the rate of several thousand a year, and genomics techniques are now challenging our ideas of how many undiscovered species remain so Naturalis faces some exciting challenges!"