Climate is changing and species distributions accordingly. At the same time metabolism of many organisms and ecosystem processes and products are changing. For lay people and citizen scientists it is natural to concentrate those changes that can be observed directly. For sure there are many kinds of changes that only professionals in modern systematics and biogeography can understand and appreciate (e.g. Williams, D. & Ebach, M. (2008) Foundations of systematics and biogeography. New York: Springer). Concerning plants, an excellent book, that is easy to read and to understand is Stuessy, T. 2009. Plant taxonomy. The systematic evaluation of comparative data. Second edition. New York: Columbia University Press. There is whole chapter 24 about ecological data in taxonomy, part of which is clearly biogeographical text. Both books give plenty to think also to researcher on biodiversity (informatics) education like me.

Ecology and ecosystems are clear concepts for professional biologists. Environmental sustainability is a strange expression. Ecosystems are continually changing. Many of them are anthropogenic, created originally by human cultural influence, e.g. moors in Great Britain or prairies of North America etc. If left untouched by humans many of these areas could start growing forest again. Climate change may have an impact on this process, in different ways in different localities. All these kinds of changes in ecosystems, and species, could be monitored by taking digital photos and videos and sending them to special servers in which researchers could analyze the data.

Nowadays many mobile phones (cell phones) and even digital cameras have GPS capability. It is very probable that this kind of capability will become more and more common in mobile phones and cameras. It means that ordinary people could help science sending digital photos of wanted organisms with accurate geographical positions to specific servers.

This kind of activity is part of patented method of object identification by Eija and Jouko Lehmuskallio. It will be implemented in free NatureGate® online services. Please check from time to time when this feature will be implemented: http://www.naturegate.net

If we could create a network of these kinds of NatureGate® online services around the World, researchers and ordinary people could follow more easily how organisms and their populations are moving on surface of the Earth.

_________________
Dr. Mauri Ahlberg FLS
Professor of Biology and Sustainability Education
University of Helsinki, FINLAND

Dear Prof. Mauri,

I visited NatureGate - excellent design and structure of the website, nice pictures of life forms, and the landscapes feature is really cool! Will it also try to auto-identify landscape types ? Really nice service and I believe it will become both popular and valuable resource for both nature hobbyists and professionals in the nearest future.

However you wrote And I see one point, value of which may be doubtful, namely "network of online services". In fact once you have the service up and running it is readily accessible from all over the world and thus has a potential to become a concentrator for global network of people from all over the world and the more people uses the same centralised database the more valuable information it collects. But if it is deliberately split into "a network of natureGate services", then information and the global network of biodiversity hobbyists and professionals it could attract becomes fragmented and scattered over multiple copies of the same database each with own smaller sets of partially overlapping data. The same can be said about species recognition material available for the image processing algorithms if they are based on some sort of machine learning, then hit/miss ratio with reduced training datasets will be degraded. I would say, avoid fragmentation in favor of quality of the service.

Nevertheless a desktop software able to use centralized database to train its internal object identification engine and identify pictures locally, on end-users machines, might be something worth thinking about. Something a little resembling Google Earth. It would save bandwith (fewer image uploads to server), server load (at least part of images are identified using end-user computing resources) and traffic. Besides for the end user it might work faster (e.g. will be more responsive to user actions) and wouldn't require continuous internet connection which may be problematic during remote field works and expeditions. End user might have an option either to update the central server or create own localized database for personal use. And finally it could be sold to individuals at much lower price, not just large institutes that own servers and can afford it.

All the best!
Viktoras Didziulis

Dear Viktoras Didziulis,

I also feel the need of desktop software to have full use of the on-line database while you pointed out the issue in your post "... a desktop software able to use centralized database to train its internal object identification engine and identify pictures locally, on end-users machines, might be something worth thinking about".

For example, a researcher involved in identification of parasitoids, may input and harvest bulk of datasets from an on-line database with available 'images of species'. But if we would like to satisfy the need of the farmers (for example, rice grower), need to identify those parasitoids from the image datasets to control pest and diseases of rice. In that case, a hand help laptop computer installed with desktop database software and help of an extension agency personnel will be able to serve the purpose easily. Farmers will be able to identify the pest insects which are harmful or beneficial for his/her rice production viewing the images of insects. The desktop database software along with trained agriculture extension worker will be able to facilitate in viewing the images of the parasitoids. Shouldn’t we wider our end-users (target audiences) of the databases using the full power of our technology?

Usually, the programmers who are working with PhP and MySQL for database design and development, write code in PhP for data query (retrieve) and stores data in tables using MySQL. To ensure faster display images of species, I store only the file name of the respective images in the SQL table. The database returns value (image) calling by the file name as per query. So, for converting an on-line database into off-line and desktop based software (which can run standalone) is not complicated. In that case, we should transfer our programming files written PhP and the tables in a third party software like Microweb (http://www.indigostar.com/microweb.htm) and with a fly you can make CD ROM version of your on-line database. This way, I think, the database will not only benefit the researchers or policy makers but also the field level extension agencies and farmers who are directly involved in biodiversity conservation and management.

Best regards,

MS Hossain
Database Developer
Biodiversity Research Group of Bangladesh (BRGB)
Bangladesh

Dear Mauri,
Climate change is perhaps the greatest threat facing the human species today. Nuclear arms proliferation is a child's play when compared (imagined). Environmental activities resulting from human desires threaten the sustainability of global life support systems. Unfortunately, time is not our friend going by the various gloomy forecasts. There are scientific evidence which suggest that current levels of trace metals have become stressful to a large number of sensitive flora and fauna. A 1982 FAO estimate showed that 7.5 million hectares of closed forest are cleared each year and another 3.8 million hectares of open forest. The report further said that deforestation has already caused grave environmental damage affecting climate patterns, the gaseous content of the atmosphere and species loss. The consequence of species loss is hard to estimate, but certainly, it severely limits our options for the future management and conservation of our planet. Today, we know about the environmental stress faced by the polar bear, dolphins, arboreal species, etc, making them good indicator specifies of the problems to come. Bioinformatics must prioritize this, though aesthetic valuation is not unimportant. A couple of issues have been raised in this regard, often tangential to each other and may need to be integrated into this laudable idea of yours.
Both awareness and fear of environmental collapse will force upon man a new sense of environmental responsibility towards future generations.
I therefore suggest a modification of your topic as follows: Indicator species of climate change (to substitute Climate change and changes of species distributions etc). Time is not on our side.

Adeniyi Jayeola
Botany Department
University of Ibadan, Nigeria.

Dear Adeniyi and Viktoras and all other participants interested in Climate change & Biodiversity Informatics,

I agree on Adeniyi’s claims (Sat Apr 25, 2009 9:22 am), but I would also remind of optimistic future possibilities. If we have a pessimistic conception, that is no point trying to do anything, because we are doomed anyway. Then we loose our chances to change to course of history: (a) from decline of biodiversity to conserve biodiversity and ecosystems, (b) at the same time to halt climate change as much as humanly possible.

Martin Luther King did not start his speech: “I have a nightmare!” It does not motivate. But he started: “I have a dream!” There is realistic, trustworthy scientific and technological knowledge base for a reasonable pedagogy of hope. Just to cite a couple of examples:
(1) http://www.pnas.org/content/103/46/17574.full
(2) http://dels.nas.edu/dels/rpt_briefs/cli ... _final.pdf and
http://www.americasclimatechoices.org/p ... ence.shtml
(3) http://www.eea.europa.eu/themes/climate ... ate-change

Lifelong learning for Sustainability ought to be promoted using Internet and other modern ICT. This is what we are trying to do with our NatureGate Online Services approach. The learning as its best is inquiry-based and it includes collaborative knowledge building. Everybody ought to make investigations of local conditions, keeping in mind also the global connections. Inquiry-based collaborative knowledge building at is best is cumulative like science itself, and this idea could be implemented on the becoming network of NatureGate Online Services.

Viktoras on his message (Sat Mar 28, 2009 9:46 pm) expressed a doubt towards idea of many interconnected regional NatureGate servers:
“And I see one point, value of which may be doubtful,
namely "network of online services".
In fact once you have the service up and
running it is readily accessible from
all over the world and thus has a potential
to become a concentrator for global network of people
from all over the world and the more people
uses the same centralised database
the more valuable information it collects.”

I see your point, and I agree that there has to be an integrating main server. But for the regional NatureGate servers there are many good reasons:
(1) Biosphere is locally diversified and diversifying. Number of species is even locally from thousands to hundreds of thousands. In order to get servers for each region funded and founded, we need local taxonomists, local photographers and local businesses to become collaborating partners of regional NatureGate business organizations for public benefit.
(2) Our agenda is to create regional servers like Google has done: It uses regional interconnected servers. It is the only way to create fast and reliable Internet service.

Vikroras also suggest use of “a desktop software able to use centralized database to train its internal object identification engine and identify pictures locally, on end-users machines, might be something worth thinking about. “

I agree that I may be practical, but we have prioritized usual Internet solution, Google as the best model. The service is free, fast and reliable. The content is not trustworthy always, but service is reliable.

I understood Viktoras’ point better, after reading how he describes his expertise: http://network.nature.com/people/U2AD9F49F/profile

Kind regards,

Mauri

_________________
Dr. Mauri Ahlberg FLS
Professor of Biology and Sustainability Education
University of Helsinki, FINLAND