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BIODIVERSITY by Marian Farrior and Anita Daley |
1. Rice University's Virtual Library of Ecology, Biodiversity and the Environment provides a comprehensive list of biodiversity issues broken down into user friendly categories. At this site, you can easily search endangered mustelids to international treaties to coastal sage scrub habitats. If you want data on a specific subject, just go to the search page and enter a key word or title to download information from the library's extensive and resourceful database.
2. Also, try The Biodiversity Forum Web Resources. From this convenient cyber launch pad, you can instantly link to more specific biodiversity topics categorized via topical site, international organizations or US organizations.
3. The Need to Know- Ecology and Environment Page is designed for those interested in ecology. Here you'll find descriptions of software applications for analyzing ecological data, links to governmental agencies involved in ecosystem research and management, and links to various environmental organizations dealing with ecosystems. Great for both scientists and novices.
4. The World Resources Institute's Website contains good, straightforward information on biodiversity policy and specific facts and figures. It also provides links to museums, botanical gardens, gene banks, zoological parks, and other networks. If you can't get outdoors to enjoy the real thing, you can always peruse nature from a machine.
5. Wondering what Biodiversity is and what laws and policies are directed to implement the conservation of it? The Biodiversity Action Network (BioNet) answers these types of questions. For a quirky scientific visual feast, check out the Tree of Life--a taxonomic key to life forms on earth.
Marian Farrior is the Project Assistant for The Biodiversity Project in Madison, Wisconsin. Anita Daley is the Program Assistant for the Consultative Group on Biological Diversity in San Francisco.