2. Biodiversity Science
The foundation for all biological disciplines
Mission…
• Inventory the Earth’s species
• Understand their relationships
• Create predictive information
systems from these data
Data set…
• 1.8M described species (10M names)
• 300M pages (over last 250 years)
• 1.5-3B specimens
Staff…
• 4-6,000 scientists
• 30-40,000 amateurs
• Many more citizen scientists?
3. Biodiversity Science
The foundation for all biological disciplines
250 yr progress report…
• Up to 87% of life on Earth is
still undescribed
• 6% of biodiversity scientists cover
80% of the worlds biodiversity
• At present rates most species will be
extinct long before we describe them